The Power of Imperfect
Why I Love Scrum
When I first heard this quote from Voltaire, it was during the application process of my current job. Well, maybe it wasn't the first time I heard it, but it was the first time I really thought about it.
"Don't let perfect become the enemy of the good" - Voltaire
I don't recall what the question was, but it was some form of what do you think about this statement. I remember googling it, thinking about it for a while, and coming up with some answer that I'm sure was about not being a perfectionist. I had saved that kind of statement for the Monica Geller's of the world, the type A's, the neurotic control freaks. What I didn't realize, is that this statement is more applicable to the general population than I ever realized.
Several months ago, my team leader decided he wanted to try and shift to working with Scrum. I only knew the basics of Scrum from knowing others who had done it, and so when I knew this was possibly the direction our team was moving I dove into research mode. I poured over articles, talked to people that had done it before, listened to podcasts, watched videos, and took a free Scrum Fundamentals Certification Course. We quickly learned enough to implement Scrum in our weekly routine, and continued to learn a lot as we stumbled through the first few months. As our team grew, and I took on the Scrum Master role, we tried to find the best balance for our team at our company. I could see the difference it made in the work we were doing, but it wasn't until this week that I really understood why I loved it so much.
I was tasked with a few User Stories, statements that encompass an objective and tasks to be done, and on a scale from known to unknown they were definitely on the unknown side. We were venturing into territory that was new and so the acceptance criteria was a little vague. It was up to me to figure out what the first iteration of this product would look like.
If I had not been doing Scrum, it would have been all too easy for me to put it off with pretty valid explanations: we don't have enough VOC, I'm not a SME, we should wait until more people can be involved, etc. All those statements were true, and they are what cause most people to keep kicking the bucket down the line. We do a self-assessment and feel ill-equipped, possibly rightly so, and the fear of failure keeps us from moving forward. This is not the typical image of a perfectionist, but a regular every day employee with logical arguments. We hesitate to take that first step for many reasons. But scrum and agile methodology understands this secret:
When it comes to first steps, something is very often better than nothing.
When you commit to a deliverable, to something that needs to be done by the end of a two-week sprint, you can't let perfect slow you down. This forced deadline to produce a minimum viable product means that you always have something to show and get feedback on. Instead of waiting several months until you think it's perfect, scrum creates an opportunity to mold something every step of the way. This process of creating different versions makes it a lot easier to adapt and modify, especially in VUCA industries where expectations and VOC are constantly changing.
Scrum, just like anything else, has its pros and cons. It is not the perfect secret sauce that will make everything better, but rather one of many methods that might work for your team.
Scrum Glossary:
Scrum: An agile project management methodology.
Iteration: A version of something, usually referred to in Scrum as increments.
VOC: Voice of the customer.
Sprint: Duration of time, typically 1 to 6 weeks, when the Scrum team must deliver an iteration of a product.
SME: Subject matter expert.
User Story: A simple, easy statement that defines the who, what, and why of a job to be done.
Acceptance Criteria: Provides clarity on expectations and removes ambiguity from a user story.
VUCA: Volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous.
