Scrum Masters — the world needs you now as much as ever

The useful part

Image We all know too little planning is ineffective — and I think most of us know too much planning is wasteful in conditions of uncertainty, volatility, and disruptive competition. Bigger, longer, more predictive planning — thus more assumptive, guessworking, and speculative — is ineffective in such conditions, but still the first choice of many organisations. Unfortunately, polishing such big plans and refining them again and again doesn't make them more resilient to the unknown and the unknowable.

How it works

• Sadly, what often results is trying to stick to a plan whose assumptions have been invalidated.
• We learned it's best to focus those short horizons on creating useable value, to create value now, not later, and accelerate learning.
• Such horizons can be planned based on what we know, not what we must guess at or try to read in a crystal ball.

Example or evidence

• "We invested too much in this plan to admit its fragility, never mind change it." We learned we need visions, roadmaps, and product goals to stay focussed on something aspirational and not fall into...

Details worth keeping

Whose goal posts and conditions have shifted. Science tells us the best way is in short horizons.