“Based on your many years of experience with Agile Scrum, what is your opinion on the negative opinions?”
Whenever I hear someone bashing something I know a lot about, or have a strong opinion about, I try not to take it personally. I (almost always) first try to listen to, or better understand, the negative argument. Almost always it is coming from either a position of ignorance (not stupidity, but from lack of knowledge/understanding/information), or from a position of a single negative experience. If I’m pressed to defend Scrum or Agility, I’ll likely frame my side of the argument to help the person with the negative opinion to understand that their opinion is just that – an opinion – and that it may or may not be well-founded.
Let’s take an look at Brussels Sprouts. I grew up, from childhood into an adult, only hearing terrible things about Brussels Sprouts. I’d never tried them. What I had heard was that they were good for me, but tasted terrible. When I was finally put in a situation where it would have been extremely rude to not eat them, I ate them. And you know what? They weren’t bad. They didn’t even smell bad, which was not what I was told my whole life.
I tried Brussels Sprouts many times, cooked several different ways, before I finally had a batch that were just horrible. They smelled bad, tasted bad, looked bad. Then I started to understand, you can take something that’s good for you, and easy to consume, and turn it evil very easily.
I’ve had Brussels Sprouts many times now, and found that there are many different ways to prepare them. Many of those ways are good. Several are bad. A few are so bad, they will stink up your kitchen for a very long time.
All of those people, the ones who talked poorly about Brussels Sprouts my whole life, had only ever had bad experiences with Brussels Sprouts. Can I assume they only had poorly prepared Brussels Sprouts? That’s a tempting assumption, but it’s not fair. Even if the sprouts were prepared perfectly, not everyone is going to like them. So, some things are not for everyone. I hope everyone has the freedom to say they do not like Brussels Sprouts, no matter how they are prepared.
I see Scrum and Agility like Brussels Sprouts. There are many right ways to use Scrum, and there are many things that people are calling Agile. Not all of those things and ways are what is intended. Some people are calling a modified Waterfall by the name of ‘Scrum’. Some people are calling a command-and-control work environment ‘Agile’. Most (if not all of them) have not truly experienced Scrum or Agility.
There are many wrong ways to do something. If people don’t know how to do them correctly, how can I criticize them for that?
