Let’s Start At The Beginning

Summary

The beginning of your Scrum journey needs some carful consideration. Do you start small scale or go all in? Weigh up the pros and cons of each and choose the best fit for your company.

Let’s Start At The Beginning

When you adopt Scrum, how you start will have an impact on whether you succeed or not. It’s important to recognise the wisdom in starting small and taking steps forward slowly, but this won’t be right for everyone .Choosing whether to start small or go all in needs some careful consideration. Weigh up your position right now, costs you can afford to bear, the attitude of your teams to this change, and how much time you have.

Why start small?

There are many reasons why beginning your Scrum journey on a small scale is better than rolling it out in a big scale across your company. If you select one to three small teams, of maybe five to ten people, and you focus on these key people adopting Scrum first you can work intensely, learning as you move forward, and get these small teams to a place of success before you roll it out over bigger teams. This allows your small teams to become confident and to be enthusiastic about the benefits of Scrum. You can slowly go forward with lessons already learned from these small teams and when you transition to bigger teams you already know how best to make this work. Starting small is also much less expensive. It allows you to trial how this is going to work on a larger scale without wasting any money. Small scale starting with Scrum also minimises the stress workers may feel when transitioning. By keeping it small you create coaches and mentors from those first teams, who can then help others to make the transition also.

Can it be better to go big?

Some companies do prefer the all-in approach and this can work depending on your situation. If your company is facing a lot of resistance to transitioning to Scrum, a large scale start could be the answer. Doing this will send a message to your teams that this is happening and there’s no turning back. It doesn’t allow for anyone to shirk from the commitment and it means you are all in it together. It could also give you a smoother time when teams need to work with other teams. If you have a situation where some teams are using Scrum and some are not, you could face problems when teams then need to work together. If you go all in and everyone starts at the same time, you have consistency between your teams. This may also be the best approach if you need to implement Scrum quickly. If you do choose this approach, make sure you have Scrum Masters onboard to help each team transition.

Starting small when adopting Scrum is recognised as being the lower risk approach and it does work for many companies, However, every company is different and you need to weigh up the pros and cons before you decide which way to begin. Take some time to consider this before you start and choose the path that suits you best.