March 11th, 2009
Oppression, Revolution and the Future of Scrum — #1
I recently wrote on the Scrum Trainers discussion group that I felt oppressed by the PMI. An odd, and rather outrageous statement perhaps, and I was suitably called on this, challenged if you like. I figured I’d write something here about the nature of oppression to clarify what I meant. This article will extend across two posts in fact, the latter post will be my thoughts on the nature of oppression, but first, let me set the context for this, which I think is interesting enough for a post in its own right.
Disclaimer: the views I express here do not reflect the views of the Scrum Alliance, nor of any other individual member. They are my views. That is all.
The Orlando Scrum Gathering is approaching. Gregory Balestrero, the Chief Executive Officer of the Project Management Institute (PMI) has been invited, with much fanfare, to be one of the keynote speakers at the event. I object to this. Not because I have anything against the man (I’d never heard of him until now) but because I feel uncomfortable with the idea that the Scrum Alliance is turning to the PMI to learn… what? I don’t know. After three years of seeking to understand I haven’t yet found a good reason to listen to the voice of the PMI. This is hard to say as I know it upsets a lot of people.
Inviting someone to do a keynote speech implies they have something important to say, that we need to hear. Gregory Balestrero, the man, may have something important to say, but Gregory Balestrero the CEO of PMI does not. The PMI is an outmoded organization which represents, and promotes, a particular way of working now known to be largely flawed. That the PMI wants to change itself is good news. That the PMI has an important message for Scrum practitioners is unlikely.
If Gregory Balestrero is interested in learning about Scrum, then have him attend the Scrum Gathering, and have him pay his entrance fee along with the rest of us. I welcome him there, as I welcome anyone who wants to learn about Scrum. I have no reason to believe Mr Balestrero is anything other than a lovely man, with a desire to learn new things. No doubt he is a very smart and passionate man to be where he is today. Such drive and passion are always welcome in the Scrum world. I would just rather have him attend the gathering simply as Gregory, not as “the chief ambassador for advancing the profession of project management on behalf of PMI”. And I have no interest in hearing “powerful messages about the importance of project management in achieving success in today’s global business environment.” I am tired of corporate rhetoric, and I don’t buy this.
Scrum, as I understand it, has nothing to do with project management, and personally I eschew the term “Agile Project Manager” and consider it an oxymoron. Ken Schwaber has often made the statement that there is no Project Manager role in Scrum. Indeed there is not, so why partner with the Project Management Institute? It starts to feel like compliance to the existing status quo, and appeasement to what is still a very powerful organization, albeit one whose power is threatened.
I have always seen the move to Agile as a software revolution, throwing off the weight of oppression and releasing into a new way of being. The tragedy of many revolutions is that once successful the leaders tend towards the same behavior that caused the need for the revolution in the first place. The oppressed become the oppressors, i.e. they take on essentially the same behaviors because they don’t know how else to behave.
George Orwell characterized this tendency in the novel Animal Farm, an allegory for the Russian Revolution and subsequent events. By the end of the book, the revolutionary leader, Napoleon (a pig, by some charming coincidence) is walking on two legs, dressing in human clothing and selling his best friends out for horse meat.
Why does the Scrum Alliance want to work with the PMI? Let me be clear: I see absolute value in working with those individual members of the PMI who care about Scrum, but I see no value in working with the organization. It has some influence today, but that influence is waning in the light of Agile. I say leave it be, let it die. Let’s all seek entirely new ways of collaborating and advancing our professional skills. Giant monolithic institutions representing “the interests” of their members may not be the way of the 21st century. Maybe small is better. I sincerely hope that the Scrum Alliance won’t scale to PMI proportions. I’d like to see it splinter instead, into small passionate, self-managing groups each with a slightly different agenda, and different interests.
I feel oppressed not so much by the PMI, but by monoliths in general; they are, by definition incredibly heavy and immovable. And I feel uncomfortable with the burgeoning relationship between the PMI and the Scrum Alliance, thinking I’d rather not dress up as a farmer.
_____________
In part two of this post I’ll explore the nature of oppression and look at how raising awareness of this mostly hidden syndrome may be useful to help us identify problem situations with more clarity, and thus change our behaviors and thinking.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
PMI is most likely here to stay. Give this, should we be ignoring it or seeking to influence it? I can appreciate your distaste for monolithic organizations, but if you’ve got to have one around, would you rather see it adopt some better ideas or march on without your influence? It’s unlikely PMI or the PMBOK will influence Scrum, but maybe we can see some more agile ideas make its way into PMI. This is not just good for software development, but for business as a whole.
Also, while I can appreciate that Scrum isn’t a project management methodology, it is very closely aligned. The fact is, most software development doesn’t occur in a project-less vacuum, so it either needs to fit in to or take on project management in some way. Scrum also offers high-level release and product planning, which produces a project plan of sorts. Saying Scrum has nothing to do with Project Management is extreme.
Some good ideas, though — I imagine this sort of existential questioning will only grow in the future. I look forward to #2.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Hi Alex, yes, perhaps ‘nothing’ is extreme. I considered the word ‘little’ but decided to be more direct. Scrum is concerned with projects, for sure, but it isn’t concerned with management. Projects (and people) don’t need to be managed, they need to be guided and supported, which is a different thing altogether. Using old language, e.g. ‘Agile Project Manager’ is likely to keep us stuck in old thinking.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:21 am
It does smell of Animal Farm to me.
Don’t eat every cake that’s offered to you. You might end up putting on a fair amount of unnecessary weight.
March 14th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Tobias,
Mostly, I’m in agreement. I was a member of the PMI for a few years, I’ve studied the PMBoK, I’ve presented numerous times to PMI groups, and all-in-all, I’m not impressed with the PMI’s message. That said, I have met many fantastic, smart, open-minded people who are members of the PMI and I deliberately try to find those people. They are the ones who are oppressed. Actually, there is a quote I love:
“What ‘oppression’ is more grievous than that a soul, seeking the truth… should know not where to go for it and from whom to seek it?” -Baha’u'llah.
I do believe that Scrum and agile methods are a huge improvement over the methods described by the PMI. Having the chief representative of the PMI speak at the Scrum Gathering does seem odd in this light. I for one plan to attend his talk to see for myself what his message might be. Perhaps he intends to tell us that the next version of the PMBoK will clearly and categorically state that agile methods are the appropriate approach for software development! Probably not, but who knows
March 16th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Rousseau: “Man is born free and everywhere is in chains.”
While not a big fan of Rousseau’s personal life, I do think he hit the nail on the head here. Of course, we must blame ourselves to some degree for not insisting on our own freedom.
I certainly agree that Scrum is a yoga that teaches us how to be free. Freedom with responsibility (as they are always paired). At the same time, freedom is a much bigger thing than Scrum too.
Is Scrum evolutionary or revolutionary? Does Scrum intend the complete overall of all things in government and the corporate world, or does it support their continued existence in essentially their current form? Is Scrum a wild animal or a domesticated animal? These are questions that do not lead to enlightenment. None of us understand freedom and responsibility yet, well enough.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:54 am
And +1 re the PMI.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:04 am
And let’s remember that we once were stupid too. And will be again, no doubt. While we might be a few steps more evolved than PMI (certainly I think we are), the road is thousands of miles long and we all have just begun.
Hard as it feels, I would try to love my enemies. (Maybe you are too, but I don’t feel it much.) Of course, part of love is giving ‘em hell for being stupid.
March 16th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Tobias,
On oppression – We all have choice.
If you are oppressed in your current role, life – choose another one. Simple. If another doesn’t exist, create it.
Freedom is not to be claimed, it is to be taken, you are enslaved/oppressed until someone tells you otherwise. Freedom is your default state.
On the PMI -
I broadly agree with your views on this ‘collaboration’, but hold out hope that there is indeed something the Scrum can learn from the PMI (even if it is as banal as how to be even more widely adopted).
Very few things are an absolute waste of time, from which absolutely noting can be learned.
Think about this though – it may hold some reason for the tie-up:
‘Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.’ – Sun Tzu – the Art of War.
that is all.
Mike
March 16th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
on the previous posting:
you are **NOT** enslaved/oppressed until someone tells you otherwise. Freedom is your default state. You ARE free until you are oppressed.
Mike
March 16th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Ah, my friend Tobias! Where would we be–collectively–without your voice! I often would not take the strong positions you do, but I (almost) always appreciate you ‘calling the question.’
You are indeed a spiritual warrior!
Michael
March 31st, 2009 at 7:31 am
It is interesting to see the signs of scrum being institutionalized. We’ll soon be talking about agile standards.
Actually, the “animal farm” organization usually happens in all anarchistic revolutionary communities that try to live outside the society. That’s what we’re like. Pigs and chickens
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:12 am
Here here! As an agile practitioner, there is no way I want to pay to attend a conference whose Keynote is being delivered by someone who isn’t even part of the agile paradigm.
Agilists do this sort of thing all the time — they want to be rebels and exaggeratedly open to everyone’s ideas. And what could be more rebellious and ironic than giving the PMI the most important speech of the conference?
May 28th, 2009 at 10:27 am
And +1 re the PMI.
June 17th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Tobias,
In three years of examining the PMI you never heard of the concept of “rolling wave planning” ?
I use this concept often to sell PMBOK-focused traditional PMs on the advantages of an agile viewpoint – and Scrum as a reasonable and not-so-scary tool.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
[...] El estado del arte del movimiento ágil (¿Scrum versus el resto?) partir por formar “Maestros” en dos días… mal, mal – Y los flirteos de la Scrum Alliance con el PMI, que en si es el verdadero Microsoft de las metodologias informáticas, mucho mas exitoso [...]