Scrum and a "road trip"

An analogy -


Ever thought of how Agile scrum could very closely be compared with a "road trip" that almost everyone must've taken sometime in their lifetime?


 In arriving at the destination (Product), there's a lot that goes into the journey - the Scrum Team must have visibility (Vision, Roadmap) to start with, along with an awareness of the road conditions (Project Transparency). 

 That said, the team must have an understanding of traffic/driving rules (Scrum Processes) and the vehicle chosen for the trip, should be in a good working condition (Dev Environment).

 With those as prerequisites to begin -

  • The driver must have the knowledge of the route/directions to get to the destination (Knowledge/Expertise/Competence of developers).
  • In addition, the driver must have enough fuel (Motivation) to get the journey started & keep it going until the team has arrived at the destination (Product).

While the above sounds simple, during the journey, the driver may face unexpected challenges like a flat tyre, extreme wind or heavy rain (Impediments) which will slow him down (affect the Velocity), the driver may need to pause (Retrospect), review the conditions (Inspect) and come up with a plan on what actions to take, to overcome the roadblocks (Adapt) during the journey.

 Last but not the least, as they say - 
More than the destination, "the JOURNEY is the reward"!

Best,
Jasdev Singh (PMI-ACP®, CSM®, CSP-SM™)




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