Agile 2

2Specific Problems

The first thing that the Agile 2 team did was discuss the state of Agile today; in other words, we conducted a kind of retrospective. We are a global team of 15, spanning time zones from California to Vietnam, so we could not assemble in person or even remotely at the same time. We had to find another way. We had one-on-one discussions, which were documented and shared in written form, and then we collaborated to develop a set of “key ideas,” which were ideas expressed by at least two Agile 2 team members. Many of these key ideas were problems with the state of Agile. Others were insights: realizations about why something did not work or what is needed to make things work better.

Let's look at some of the problems that we found with Agile today and at some insights about them.

Leadership Is Complex, Nuanced, Multifaceted, and Necessary

In the Agile community, the term leadership in the context of a team is often thought of in terms of the Scrum Master role, which is defined by the Scrum framework. There is also the Scrum Product Owner, who provides leadership with regard to the product vision and its feature set; and Scrum team members are expected to apply individual leadership when collaborating and organizing their collective work. Let's consider the Scrum Master role, which is the primary leadership role defined by Scrum pertaining to the work process of a development team.

The Scrum Guide's definition of the Scrum Master role has changed greatly over ...