The problem with “scrumbut” is that it is either a reasonable position for someone who is at “Ri” or a completely unreasonable position for someone at “Shu”. The problem is that a lot of people want to be masters without first becoming masters.

When Kent Beck says *but*, I listen. When some guy who was living the waterfall dream says *but*, I have a different reaction. When the “but” comes out before the “shu” then the bozo bit is flipped.

So I guess I’m saying the value of the scrumbut has less to do with the “scrum, but” and more to do with the quality of agile experience of the one saying it.

In other words, some people are experts and some are hacks… just like in coding.

Way too many teams are working in matrixed organizations, not on dedicated teams, not co-located, don’t have dedicated product owners… etc. etc.

These teams try to do the three roles, the three rituals, and the three artifacts and call it Scrum when their very structure is not supportive of what they are trying to accomplish.

There is so much grey here… but we need to start educating large organizations what it takes to even BEGIN to try Scrum. Laying Scrum on top of disfunctional organization sure does expose the dysfunction… but you’ve got to be ready to fix it.

Many aren’t.

You and Jurgen are talking about the different sides of the same coin. Like you wrote, it’s a matter of experience.

ScrumButs are dangerous to beginners who don’t understand what they are doing nor what the consequences will be. They should stick with dogma and avoid ScrumButs. But for practitioners who know what they are doing ScrumButs are vital.

What a shame that so many beginners aren’t aware of their own level of understanding.

Shu-Ha-Ri.

Actually, I think we’re in agreement, and we’re just nitpicking on the finer details. :)

Like I said in my post, Scum-by-the-book is great as a starting point. I simply believe that the need for (some) adaptation starts with the very first retrospective.

Though I agree that practices shouldn’t be ditched unless you know what you’re doing, I also think it is vital to know what you’re doing as soon as possible!