Scrum Core Values

Scrum is based on the core values of;

Commitment

Be willing to commit to a goal. Scrum provides people all the authority they need to meet their commitments

How can we really demonstrate commitment to a goal?. A person committed to a goal focuses all his energy towards the goal. In the process he may say ‘No’ to all distractions on the way. So next time onwards when some one say ‘No’ to something, it need not be due to lack of commitment and it can be due to the commitment to what he/she is currently doing.

Focus

Do your job. Focus all of your efforts and skills on doing the work that you have committed to doing. Dont worry about anything else.

At least in India, I see everyone in the team, getting involved in everything. Project managers talks about organizational growth,strategy and bottom lines. Fresh coders gets into design space, even before writing some robust code. Quality assurance professionals who has never done any coding or project management advises on how to code and manage projects. All these are perfectly all right if one gets into these after completing their work on hand (linked to their core competencies). Mother Theresa’s quote ‘If everyone can sweep their doorstep perfectly, this world would have been a better place”, is very true. Let us all worry about the job on hand first!. Be very selfish about it, because your reputation is at stake!.

Openness

Scrum keeps everything about a project visible to every one.

How can we make this work?. In conventional project management, success is always seen as positive, where as failures are negative. In SCRUM, the onus is on fast failures. We can foster a climate of openness in teams if the leader herself is open to failures. Actually it is simple. If you are a senior team member, whenever you screw up something say it aloud ‘I really screwed it up!’. The team will reciprocate soon. Take away the stigma attached to failures. A failure is not a failure, as long as you learn from it fast!.

Respect

Individuals are shaped by their background and their experiences. It is important to respect the different people who comprise a team.

People walking into a training or for a meeting can happen once in a while and it is not that serious. Unfortunately it demonstrates lot of lack of respect for other’s time (especially those who are on time) and it goes against ‘commitment’. If you are late apologize and do not make it a habit!. Do not ever say that ‘ I had another important meeting, hence could not attend’. In the process, you are belittling others who are there. Respect for others start from self respect!

Courage

Have the courage to commit, to act, to be open, and to expect respect.

To imbibe all other scrum values, one need ‘C O U R A G E’ and the vice-versa. Only a person with commitment, focus, openness and respect will have the ‘C O U R A G E’