SCRUM & Project Management

SCRUM is a management framework. True. Its light - very light. It asks that we deliver business value frequently, in sensible chunks. So far so good - because in doing so we are delivering in high priority order, and if we run out of time then hey - we will at least have delivered some value to the business. This is risk mitigation at its simplest. However, SCRUM by itself is insufficient. On a large project we need ways of co-ordinating activities and dependencies between projects. We need someone or ’something’ to drive the projects from a big picture level. Too many times I have heard people say or act in a way that implies management is bad - total freedom to self-organise is good - and ignore the grey lines in between.  If we can capture the spirit of SCRUM - the energy that it gives, within a disciplned framework that takes into account the wider organisation then we have a framework that is useful and usable to the business. Agility and discipline - its as simple as that - and that is where solid programme and project management governance come into play.