The document discusses road blocks to successfully implementing Scrum and agile methodologies. It identifies the main road blocks as: regional cultural barriers in Brazil like distrusting others' work and resisting challenges to authority; corporate behaviors like traditional command-and-control mindsets and outdated administrators; group reactions when problems are exposed; and how individuals' behaviors can influence the agile dynamics, such as taking criticism personally. The largest road block identified is fear-based corporate cultures, which prioritize short-term goals and discourage failure and learning.

1. SCRUM ROAD BLOCKS
…OR LESSONS LEARNED IMPLEMETING AGILE

2. 2
PURPOUSE
Scrum is simple, doing
Scrum is hard.
Jim York, CST.
SCRUM ROAD BLOCKS aims to show what I’ve
learned implementing Scrum / Agile in different
companies, from 2009 to 2015 in São Paulo, Brazil.
This presentation does not attempt in any way to be
the only truth on subject or the single view on this
topic. As well as, the goal here is not becoming a
wailing wall. It is a simple personal and critical view on
the subject.
IMPORTANT: all the statistics here are based on my
experiences and my population of projects.

3. 3
author
danilomf@gmail.comlinkedin.com/daniloferreira
danilo ferreira
scrum master
15+ years working on internet industry.
Ba. Computer Science , MBA and
Certified Scrum Master. Technical
experience as a developer and Java
Technical Leader. Nowadays focused on
project management applying agile
methodologies

4. 4
agenda
regional
Explores cultural
barriers to adopt
Scrum in Brazil.
corporative
Corporate behavior
patterns that are
against Agile culture.
group
Group reactions when
problems are exposed.
personal
How people’s behavior
influences on Agile
dynamics.
road blocks

5. 5
group personal regional corporative
5%
15%
20%
60%
road block

6. 6
regional
road block

7. 7
In Brazil there is great resistance in trusting
people and their work. Even though they’re
qualified, managers and directors prefer to be
involved in each decision-making process. Not
because they care about details, just because
they think they will be fooled.
Authority is a recurring problem. There are two
types of people: who execute and who think.
Question a boss's decision is seen as an insult. It
is a behavior that should be punished with harsh
responses.
The “brazilian way” is terrible for any serious
methodology. We try at all costs bend the system
to our needs. Normally, we can not see real
benefit of following a process.
autonomy vs distrust
understading vs authority
needs vs rules
regional

8. 8
corporative
road block

9. 9
traditional
(Henri Fayol)
mindset
agile
methodologies
self organized teams
outdated administrators
corporative

10. 10
director ou C“X”O
Heritages from command and control
management approach, which believes in fear
culture. Believes that whoever is hierarchically
below, should be afraid of him as he is afraid of his
boss.
Believes that training costs are associated with
risk of professional churn. Thought: what if we give
them training and then they leave the company?
Believes that conflicts are negative and should be
avoided at all costs. Don’t disagree with peers to
avoid problems.
Engages in technical issues (others' responsibility)
and forgo the strategy (their responsibility). Often
exchange long-term vision for the short term.
Often attending "higher needs“ rather than
focusing on the big picture.
corporative

11. 1111
FEAR
CULTURE
why is it a serious issue?

12. 12
worst and
the most frenquent issue
Fear culture causes people to make
assumptions and take risks to avoid
questions or bother people. People are not
accessible. They want to see results, and
centralize decisions. However, they don’t
want to get involved in the process on a
daily basis.
priorities don’t follows
strategy
Priorities are dictated by boss’ mood or
urgent issues of the day. All strategic
decisions are set aside to extinguish fire.
Fire are usually set by whom should be
responsible to extinguish them.
Fear is rooted in corporate culture. It is
common to carbon copy higher management
team in messages – even though none of
their action is required. Just to make it clear:
“look, mommy is watching you"
fear culture

13. 13
culture eats
strategy for
breakfast

14. 14
Take it personally. Takes
serious efforts on demanding.
Receives critics, pursues the
author. His work is not
questionable.
love to criticize
don’t like to take critics
Judge team members by
obedience rather than results.
obedience and
results
To justify delays and
disorganization of the entire
company. They ask team
members to abdicate their
personal time avoiding project
delay.
questioning
commitment
corporative

15. 1515
Despite national culture origin, this road block also comes up in the
corporative culture. Most managers and directors feel they are
constantly being deceived. Bargain points in estimation and planning
questioning ”Does it fit more stories in this sprint?”.
trust
every man for himself
Departments act as brothers crying for parents’ attention. It is
acceptable to walk on your brother’s head and parents do not seem to
bother about it. No jokes, directors themselves do not agree and can
not scale their problems to higher level. Pretend collaboration issues
do not exist.
corporative

16. 16
leave the company cause they
do not believe in their bosses.
salary
opportunity
job title
Everything else (salary, job title, opportunity, etc.)is just bullshit justifying their decision.
corporative

17. 1717
FAIL
If you’re not failing
You’re not learning
Strong related to ”fear culture"

18. 18
That's why retrospectives are made. Using
Scrum, team exchanges a two-year project
huge failure - that would only be identified at
the end - for small ones that will be identified
and fixed every X weeks.
It is only a problem when you do not learn from
them. Some kind of failures always occurs
before success.
Fail is
a important process
Worrying about failures can cost as much or more
than try and fail.
Most failures, though - after finding - sounds obvious,
but it would only be discovered with much planning
and analysis. Try, test and learn is faster and more
inspiring.
Fear is more expensive
than try and fail
corporative

19. 19
It is important to understand that fail
proves that you are trying. And it is
necessary a corporate culture that supplies
small and constant change rather than look
for perfection. Especially in internet and
mobile industries, where time to market is a
very important factor.
The company should encourage fail
identification in all fields. Deliveries, team
attitudes, individual attitudes, etc. This is
how process works: improving the product
gradually, identifying errors, fixing,
collecting user feedbacks and working on
the next deliveries. With different errors.
real feedback
comes from
real usage
version ONE
is better than
version NONE
corporative

20. 20
organization responsibility communication conflict
Although there are
differences in personal and
professional style, a group
needs to represent a unit for
the company. A divided
group is easily corruptible.
A constant search for
excellence in delivery is
required. Regardless of the
legacy. The project which
the group is working on
shows how valuable the
group is for company at that
time. If the project has bad
deliverables the group is
easily disposable.
Retrospective should be the
main demonstration channel
of faced issues during the
project. Everything that
happened in the sprint and in
the review should be
addressed.
When correctly coordinated,
conflict produces significant
results for the company. The
group gets maturity when
discussing each other
different point of views.
group

21. 21
From a personal point of view, this is the
main road blocker to Scrum or Agile
implementation. They only work with
people who think like them. They get
pretty upset and can’t overcome critics in
their work. So, can hardly absorb different
scenarios and grow professionally.
take it personal
personal

22. 22
Thin self-management means "without
law." This is bad, mainly because they
spread the idea of not becoming part of a
collective effort for the project.
confuses scrum
with mess
personal

23. 23
Because he/she has more technical
knowledge or is in a senior position, that
person is above of the law of the group.
Schedules, commitment and humility are
to others. They’re too important to handle
it.
rock star
every group has one
personal

24. 24
%
%
20
%
15 %
5
Road block
consequences
All this items create a big problem: the partial adoption - scrumBUT.
The partial adoption does not generate results for anyone. Instead, only
wastes time with meetings. The main advantage of Scrum is to highlight
problems. If that is not being used - do not use Scrum.
barriers

25. 25
Many companies
adopt agile
However, for the wrong reasons.
Comparing to PMI or Prince, project
management is simpler adopting
agile methodologies.
But don’t highlight
problems
As owner, CEO or director the
retrospective feedback is
extremely important. This is the
team saying, "I would do more and
spend less if X, Y or Z be different."
Ignoring this input is a energy waste.
adoption

26. 26
agile is not
silver bullet
agile don’t let your mess
organized
doing agile
≠
being agile
practice
≠
mindset
agile
isn’t an overnight
process
conclusions

27. team and individuals managers
27
More and more Management
it is clear that many
staff members have
more knowledge than
their superiors. So
there is no more room
for micro management
should focus its efforts on
helping the team and
rewarding achievements.
They say that
"motivation don’t last. Well,
neither does bath - that's
why we recommend it
every day. "
remarks

28. 28
End?
What is to expect
As agile methodologies gets popular, it is
expected that new styles of management
overlaps the archaic and retrograde style.
The organization maturity, production
processes and self-management should be
more relevant than administrative disputes.
remarks