We are still learning. Every now and then, somebody publishes a new set of theories or a new set of techniques which attract us. Sometimes these new things become wildly popular. But the problem is that some people take a “silver bullet” attitude – and believe the latest thing to be a prescription for all our challenges and dismiss everything else we’ve ever learned.

So our challenge is to take the best of what’s new, but keep our brains engaged with the big picture.

Highlights of Scrum for Me - Techniques

User Stories

To me, one of the most powerful contributions of Agile and Scrum to our profession is the focus on the User Story (along with the Use Case). The simple statement, “As a ___ I want to ___ so that ___” gives us an intuitive yet fairly precise view of the business capability that is needed and its justification. It’s easy and it’s natural.

Limitations of Scrum

The Scrum Guide makes it very clear that Scrum is a process framework to manage product development, but it is not a process or technique for buildingproducts. The comments below elaborate on some outside-of-Scrum aspects that can be necessary for a successful system delivery and implementation, with some references to where these are addressed in Macroscope.

Reality Checks

Not Everybody Fits the Scrum Profile

The vision of the Scrum Developer is of a flexible, highly collaborative person who is keenly interested in seeing all aspects of the product. He/she is multi-disciplinary and interested in expanding their knowledge of new disciplines.