Self organization is chaos
Update: I’ve just noticed that Jeff Sutherland also has an article on self organization, should you wish to explore this topic in more detail.
Road traffic in Vietnam is reputed to be some of the worst in the world. It’s chaotic and confusing. Drivers do not follow basic traffic principles, vehicles do not yield right of way, and there is little adherence to traffic laws. Here’s a glimpse of what it’s like:
Even though it appears to be chaotic, there must be some simple set of rules that everyone is abiding by. How else can pedestrians cross the road in this environment? And pedestrians do cross the road as you can see in the video below. At about 18 seconds a man wearing a bright orange shirt appears in the lower left hand corner and slowly makes his way across the intersection.
Self organizing Scrum teams can also appear chaotic. They may appear lack a coherent strategy and structure. So, how is it that Scrum teams can produce software in this type of environment? For that matter, can Scrum teams produce software in this type of environment?
The answer is; Yes, Scrum teams can absolutely produce high quality software in a seemingly chaotic environment. In an recent email conversation a client (who wished to remain anonymous) he reported that he had: “… new defect data showing before Scrum, they had a 85% pass rate with a large standard deviation. They now have a 95% pass rate with almost no standard deviation.”
The key to this apparent contradiction is the same for crossing the road in Ho Chi Minh city. There is an underlying set of rules that everyone on the team has agreed to. And even though the team appears chaotic from the outside, from the point of view of an individual, the Scrum framework allows him to meet his goals without creating gridlock for other team members.
Finally, what is the underlying rule for crossing the road in Vietnam? Walk slowly and don’t stop.
I like your metaphor of Vietnamese traffic! A interesting twist of “speak softly, but carry a big stick”
I’m not sure you want to compare Scrum to traffic in third world countries. As organization drops, traffic at a given density achieves less and less throughput and is more and more dangerous. Possibly software can get created in the chaotic Scrum organization method, but if this metaphor is to be believed, there will be costs that almost certainly outweigh the benefit.
I’m not trying to compare Scrum to third world traffic. I was trying to show how some simple rules can lead to complex (and chaotic) behavior … much like the simple rules in Scrum can make the /behavior/ of a team look chaotic to an outside observer.
I try hard not to draw analogies between creating software and anything else (art, cooking, music etc) having already tried that and failed.