Book Chapter Summary | Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time (New York, 2014) by Jeff Sutherland - Chapter One: The Way the World Works is Broken

Chapter One: The Way the World Works is Broken

Traditional management approaches have repeatedly failed to deliver big technology projects. Scrum is proven to help such projects deliver more stuff with higher quality at lower cost with fewer people and in less time.

Quick Summary

• Planning is useful, but plans fall apart so assume you'll need to be flexible
• You're toast if your organisation doesn't change its traditional "command and control" management
• Fail fast and learn from mistakes - get user feedback early so you can immediately eliminate any wasted effort

Main Points

The world is constantly getting more complicated, and the work we do along with it. Whenever people are involved in a complex, creative effort traditional management methods break apart. Scrum brings teams together to create great things. That involves everyone understanding the end goal, and delivering incrementally towards that goal. Too much of life is wasted on work that you and your boss realise don't create value. It doesn't have to be this way. Scrum is a different way of doing things.

Chapter Overview

In 2010, the FBI had repeatedly failed to modernise its information technology systems. After 9/11, a modernisation plan was cancelled with $170 million already spent. Technology remained a critical success factor for the organisation, so in 2005 a new project was launched. By 2010 it had cost $405 million, was only half way through but already a year overdue. Unless something drastic happened, it would take another six years to complete and cost a further $350 million. This is where Scrum came in. Using only five percent of the budget and in only 20 months using Scrum, the FBI accomplished what couldn't be done with 90% of the budget in 10 years using traditional project management methods.

Other interesting stuff

Scrum is the only way proven to help big technology projects. 'Fewer people and less time can deliver more stuff with higher quality at lower cost'. Traditional 'command and control' management wants control and predictability. This creates vast numbers of documents, charts and graphs. At its root Scrum is based on a simple idea: whenever you start a project, frequently check in with stakeholders to make sure that what you're doing is actually what people want. Leading research and analysis firms, and venture capital firms are convinced. Companies have two choices "change or die".