Summary

Scrum facilitates continual improvement by making the effectiveness of current practices transparent, enabling organizations to identify and address gaps for better agility and value delivery.

Abstract

The Scrum framework is designed to promote continual improvement within organizations. It achieves this by clearly revealing the efficacy of existing management practices, work environments, and techniques. This transparency allows for the identification of inefficiencies and areas for enhancement. Continuous improvement in Scrum is aligned with the principles of Lean methodology, focusing on incremental or breakthrough improvements to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility of value-generating activities. The concept of relative efficacy is central to this process, where Scrum helps to compare the benefits and drawbacks of different interventions to determine the most effective approach. By fostering a culture of visibility and participation, Scrum encourages everyone within the organization to contribute to the continuous improvement process, which is not limited to specific committees or boards. The ultimate goal is to instill a mindset of daily improvement and passion for achieving excellence.

Opinions

The author suggests that Scrum's ability to make the relative efficacy of practices visible is crucial for continuous improvement.
The term "relative efficacy" is explained as the comparison of an intervention's ability to do more good than harm against alternative interventions under ideal circumstances.
Kaizen, a well-known approach to continuous improvement, is mentioned as a related concept, though it is noted to be a topic for another discussion.
The author emphasizes that improvements in Scrum are not confined to formal processes or committees; instead, Scrum fosters an environment where anyone can participate in the improvement process.
The article implies that a passion for improvement and the right mindset are essential for making daily enhancements within an organization.
The famous quote by Peter Drucker, "What gets measured gets improved," is used to underscore the importance of measurement in the improvement process.
The article is part of a series called "Decoding Scrum Guide 2020," indicating an educational intent to clarify and expand upon Scrum principles and practices.

How does Scrum help to achieve continual improvement?

Scrum makes visible the relative efficacy of current management, environment, and work techniques, so that improvements can be made. (Ref. Scrum Guide 2020. Page 3)

I hope you are aware of the term continual improvement. if not here is the short description of it.

A continual improvement process, is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes.

A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI) seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once. Delivery (customer valued) processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. — (From Wikipedia)

So.

Continuous improvement seeks to improve every process in your organization by enhancing the activities that generate the most value for customers while removing as many waste activities as possible. This is in the context of the Lean methodology.

Have you heard about Kaizen?

If yes, you know what I am talking about, if not, Kaizen is one of the most famous approaches for continuous improvement. It’s a topic for some other day.

Now back to the question How does Scrum helping to achieve continual improvement?

Scrum guide says, Scrum makes visible the relative efficacy of current management, environment, and work techniques, so that improvements can be made. (Ref. Scrum Guide 2020. Page 3)

So, you may ask what is relative efficacy?

before that let’s understand the definition of efficacy?

You should know this very well by now, during Covid this is the term widely used by everyone. “The efficacy of the vaccine?”

The ability, especially of a medicine or a method of achieving something, to produce the intended result -Cambridge dictionary

Capacity for producing a desired result or effect — Dictionary.com

So, what is relative efficacy?

Relative efficacy may be defined as the extent to which an intervention does more good than harm, compared with one or more alternative interventions under ideal circumstances. -EFPIA

that’s, lot of jargons, in simple terms.

Scrum framework will help to remove barriers and make the existing organization structure more Agile by providing more visibility to everyone. by doing that scrum is helping everyone to see the gaps in the system and make amendments/improvements to fix those gaps. So, this is not limited to any continuous improvement board or steering committee or anything else, now anyone can participate in the continuous improvement process.

Improvements can be made every day, only we have to find the passion and mindset to achieve it.

I’ll leave you with this famous quote.

“What gets measured gets improved.” — Peter Drucker

So, What did you improve today?

This is a part of Decoding Scrum Guide 2020 series.

Article 1 — What is Scrum?

Article 2 — How does Scrum help to achieve continual improvement?

Article 3 — How to make Scrum Successful?

Article 4 — Why everyone despise scrum theory?

Article 5 — Daily Stand-ups are waste of time.

Article 6 — Let’s get rid of Scrum Master.

Article 7 — Who are Product Owners and what do they do?

Article 8 — Who are Developers? What are their Accountabilities?

Article 9 — The notorious Scrum Team.

Article 10 — Why do we need Sprint Planning?

25+ Questions about Scrum

Article 11 — Is your Scrum Team failing in its commitment.

20 Questions about Product Owner/Product

Article 12 — The Sprint Retrospective: Do you really Care?