In my last post I discussed some of the issues why Scrum projects were failing. One of the reasons expressed by the interviewees was that organizations are trying, but failing, to extend Scrum across the Enterprise.
Scrum is, like other Agile methodologies, primarily aimed at development teams on a project by project basis and is difficult to extend. This is where Lean principles can help.
A few organizations have noticed the natural paring of using Lean techniques to extend Scrum (or Agile) principles. One such organization is NetObjectives. Their ‘Scrum#’ methodology (their version of Scrum guided by Lean principles) helps to define the gap between bottom up Scrum practices and top down Lean principles to help other organizations successfully implement these practices across the enterprise.
After reading their whitepaper on Scrum# I was intrigued to find out more. I caught up with Alan Shalloway (CEO of NetObjectives and a thought leader in this area) to discuss more about this and discuss several scenarios where Scrum# can be beneficial.
As a side note, their resources site is one of the best I have come across with information regarding Lean and Scrum. Not only do they upload articles and papers frequently, but also include free previews of work in progress books they are planning to publish in the future.
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