Scrum isn’t about making our teams more predictable and it’s not about getting more and more done.
Do I like being part of a team that’s getting through lots and lots of work and being recognised for it? Of course I do.
But have you ever been part of a team that’s worked really hard for months and months building something technically excellent… only for the end result (for whatever reason) never to be used? I have!
Lots of velocity. No value.
It’s natural for management to want our teams to be “more predictable”.
It’s perfectly understandable that stakeholders want more and to want it sooner.
But if we focus on velocity / story points / productivity at the expense of value / building quality in / embracing change / responding to feedback then what exactly are we doing?
That doesn’t sound very Agile at all!
Velocity isn’t ever mentioned in The Scrum Guide, for good reason!
Scrum is a simple framework designed to help organisations achieve their goals and teams to deliver value … not more velocity.
