Zombie Scrum is Scrum, but without the beating heart of working software.
The Symptoms
1) No beating heart 💗💀
It does not care about working software, gathering feedback, and generating insights.
2) No contact with the outside world 🌍❌
Zombie Scrum says "I’m only here to code!" unable and unwilling to change anything, and have a real impact.
3) No emotional response to success or failure
Team morale is very low ☹️
4) No drive to improve
The Product Owner is hardly ever-present.
Team is highly unstable.
A lot of complaining and certainly no desire to improve.
The Causes
1) ‘Cargo Cult Scrum’ 🚢
There is a partial adoption of Scrum.
By adopting only a part of Scrum, the actual benefits are lost.
2) No Urgency 🚨
There’s no real understanding of value.
No clear goals.
3) Competing Values
There is a misunderstanding of Scrum.
4) Lack of trust 🤝❌
5) Dysfunctional organizations 🏢🤪
The Treatments
1) Become a Zombie-whisperer 🗣️
Talk to the zombie scrums.
Educate them.
2) Introduce Healthy Scrum into the population 👩⚕️
Communicate the right values
Or hire employees with Scrum experience that can show how things are done.
3) Shake things up 👊
Change the way the team interacts within the Scrum framework: shortened Sprint length, review goals in daily, use roadmap for insights, know that some zombies are not reversible.
4) Involve the broader Scrum Community
#zombie #scrum