“A Self-Organising Scrum Team Is Allowed to Abandon Scrum”
By: Willem-Jan Ageling
Tags: Serious Scrum, Areyouserious, Scrum, Agile, Leadership

My colleague based his arguments on the following:

‘Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team.” — Scrum Guide 2017

When reading this, you could argue that a team can choose to abandon Scrum. But there’s more too it.

Self-organisation in the Scrum Guide

The other Scrum Guide snippets discussing self-organisation bring clarity. I will list all four and then indicate the meaning of self-organisation in these cases.

“They [the development team — WJA] are self-organizing. No one (not even the Scrum Master) tells the Development Team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality;” — Scrum Guide 2017

And:

“The Development Team self-organizes to undertake the work in the Sprint Backlog, both during Sprint Planning and as needed throughout the Sprint.” — Scrum Guide 2017 — Sprint Planning, Topic Two: how will the chosen work get done?

And:

By the end of the Sprint Planning, the Development Team should be able to explain to the Product Owner and Scrum Master how it intends to work as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment. — Scrum Guide 2017 — Sprint Planning, Topic Two: how will the chosen work get done?

And:

“Every day, the Development Team should understand how it intends to work together as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment by the end of the Sprint.” — Scrum Guide 2017

In all four examples, ‘self-organisation” is about how a team plans the work and creates an Increment while working with Scrum. Teams are free to find the best way to build the Increment. But this in no way discusses anything related to the Scrum framework itself.

So the Scrum Guide clearly states what self-organisation is about. Every mention addresses how Scrum Teams determine what they can chew and how they build the Increment. A Scrum Team doesn’t determine the framework, process or methodology.

Self-organisation in the Agile Manifesto

The founders of Scrum played an important role in the birth of Agile. On top of that, there’s this statement from Alistair Cockburn:

“About 6 months after the manifesto, I woke up one day and said, you know, if you boiled all of agile down to it’s essentials, you’d get scrum.” — Alistair Cokcburn, one of the writers of the Agile Manifesto

Alistair Cockburn is awesome and I agree with what he stated. Therefore I think it makes sense to look at how Agile Manifesto of Software Development discusses self-organisation:

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. — Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

There’s another principle worth mentioning too:

“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” — Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

I’m inclined to conclude that this is the same thing as what the Scrum Guide brings forward. But where the Scrum Guide brings additional clarity what self-organisation is about, the Agile Manifesto does not. With that “self-organisation” went all over the place, just like some other principles. Some believe that self-organisation also implies that teams can determine their way of working, thus giving them the option to abandon Scrum. With that, we are back at the start of the article.

So, what is it? Can a Scrum Team abandon Scrum?

The Scrum Guide doesn’t say anything about it. All references to self-organisation have nothing to do with choosing a framework, process or methodology. Instead, they discuss that a team can find the best way to build an Increment while working with Scrum.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development isn’t as specific. It leaves room for different interpretations. Many Agilists advocate that a team should have the freedom to abandon Scrum. But there is no consensus on the term self-organisation in the Agile community.

In the end, it depends on how empowered the teams are in the organisation. Does an organisation allow a team to find its best practices to organise product delivery? Then a team can go ahead and experiment to move away from Scrum. As a Scrum enthusiast, I wonder why you would want to though ;-).