Scrum Has Hit the Glass Ceiling

I once had a discussion with a fellow Scrum Master. He was in a tough situation.
“I love Scrum. It makes all the sense to me. Here’s a framework to tackle complexity, to reduce risks and deliver value early. It is everything our organisation needs. But it is not what our organisation wants.”
“Oh? Is your entire organisation anti-Scrum?”
“On the contrary! Almost all the Scrum Teams like it. Their managers like it too. Even middle management is enthusiastic. But top management is not.”
“What is their issue with Scrum?”
“They think it is too risky to forego long-term detailed plans. Plus they believe they have the best ideas and the organisation should follow these ideas. The only things we use from Scrum are the opportunities to reprioritise work and the retrospection. And at the Sprint Review, the odd feedback from the sparse stakeholders may have an impact on priority too. But so much opportunity is wasted.”
My first reply was not very helpful:
“This is a common issue. Many organisations fail to use Scrum effectively because top management won’t have it.”
This conversation showcases the difficult situation Scrum is in these days. Many understand it and see the benefits, but they don’t have the opportunity to fully profit from the framework. Scrum has hit the glass ceiling. This glass ceiling doesn’t only apply to women and minorities, but also to modern approaches to create products, like Scrum.
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Image by orangem from Pixabay

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The popularity of Scrum
You may wonder how I can make this case while Scrum is so popular. According to the State of Agile 2020, the vast majority of organisations worldwide use Agile. 75% of these organisations use Scrum.
But the issue is with Agile maturity. Only a small percentage of the organisations reached higher adaptability or even high competency:
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State of Agile 2020
Many organisations don’t fully profit from the potential of Agile and Scrum. Teams use Scrum’s events, artifacts and accountabilities. But they don’t use it to create products with the highest possible value.
Top management limits agility
Scrum requires trust. The trust that not only people at the top of the organisation can find great ways to help the company grow. The trust that Scrum Teams and their stakeholders combined have a higher chance to come with great ideas than top management. The trust that people don’t need a detailed roadmap to find the best ways to deliver value.
Unfortunately, most top managers don’t show this kind of trust in their people. Top management sets the vision, but also the roadmap. Everyone else, from middle management to Scrum Teams, has to follow orders. They can’t deviate from the communicated route to achieve company goals. They are not expected to look for better alternatives. With that, they limit the agility of the organisation.
Top management believes it is too risky to have truly self-managing teams. This is why Scrum hits a glass ceiling.
SAFe broke the glass ceiling. But why?
Not all Agile frameworks have this issue. The Scaled Agile Framework thrives. Why? Well, it mimics the traditional company structure. Strategic themes and Lean portfolios trickle down from the top all the ways to the execution layer. SAFe deals with all concerns of top management.
Then again, SAFe has a different purpose than Scrum. SAFe is in much a delivery framework. Scrum exists to address complex problems while delivering the highest possible value. This is an important difference. SAFe is much more in line with traditional approaches and company structures. It is less threatening for top management. But it also doesn’t bring the best possible agility. It does not bring the highest value products.
Impact of the glass ceiling
The glass ceiling prevents teams and organisations from reaping the full benefits of Scrum. When teams aren’t allowed to freely experiment to reach the goals, they will not be able to uncover the full potential of their products. They will only incorporate feedback that aligns with the roadmap. Other valuable feedback may not impact the product. Instead of instantly changing course based on new insights, the company will only adjust when top management orders them so. They belatedly respond to information that has taken months to reach the top and even longer to convince them.
With this behaviour, top management achieves the opposite of what they aim for. Their wish to avoid risks by sticking to a predetermined roadmap leads to higher risks of building the wrong thing or missing out. Users and customers will not wait for the oil tanker to adjust course. They will leave you for products from other companies that do fulfil their needs. They will run towards companies that do have the agility to act and adjust their course fast.
Call to action
Suboptimal Scrum isn’t helpful. Top management should provide the organisation with a clear vision and targets, but they should leave the HOW to the people that actually build the products. Without this empowerment, teams are merely cranking out unverified features.
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Henrik Kniberg / Spotify — Top Management sets the vision, teams determine how
But top management generally doesn’t believe in Scrum. They don’t trust the people to make strategic product decisions.
However, in the end, they are only a small number of people in the company. When a large part of the organisation understands the merits of Scrum, they can do a lot together.
There’s much you can optimize. Here are two important ways:
Effectively engage your stakeholders. These can be users, customers, but also colleagues with a vested interest in the product.
Measure and learn. Verify your assumptions with numbers.
When you are able to engage your stakeholders effectively and have convincing numbers, bring this to top management. Numbers are speaking louder than opinions. Certainly for top management.
These efforts can convince top management to adjust the roadmap. And who knows, perhaps they will start to realise the potential of self-managing teams and the potential of Scrum. Allowing teams to use Scrum’s full potential.
Scrum is disruptive
Many believe Scrum is impacting teams only. But this is far from the truth. Scrum is a radically different way of creating products. Instead of following a predetermined roadmap, top management brings the vision only:
“Top management kicks off the development process by signalling a broad goal or a general strategic direction” (The New New Product Development Game, by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, 1986).
The important product decisions happen at the level of the Scrum Teams. As long as they move towards the vision, teams are free to determine how to do this. They minimize the risks of doing the wrong thing by taking small steps, inspecting and adapting.
Takeaway
For Scrum to work, teams need to perceive that people trust them to achieve their goal. And top management needs to be engaged. Scrum allows for this. Every Sprint, stakeholders have the opportunity to discuss what to do next. Scrum can only be effective when vital stakeholders are joining the conversation. Only then the teams can optimize the value of the products and the chances to meet the company goals. Only this way Scrum stands out as a superior way of building products compared to the traditional top-down approach.