The full title question should be: Will software projects run in Scrum cost less than those carried out traditionally? There is one correct answer given in all courses, tests, and certifications: NO, but…
Well, there is a “but”: Scrum can be cheaper. The point is, lower costs aren’t a feature of Scrum, but they can be a side effect. This effect can be caused by several factors such as:
- good results with complex or undefined projects,
- bringing the MVP to market faster,
- faster development of team members’ skills,
- … and a good atmosphere in the team.
Since the first three are rather obvious and easier to imagine (read: I’ll come back to them another time), today I will focus on the often overlooked, last, the fourth element.
I hear from time to time „You know what? We have this Scrum, we do everything according to the guidelines, but it seems that something is not working. Will you come for a coffee?”. Coffee usually has to last 2 hours, because that’s what I need to observe relationships and moods in teams. Why am I writing about the atmosphere in the team in the article about profitability? Because the developers’ attitude to the project and each other can be of great importance and affect a specific financial profit. Let me explain.
Do you remember how hard it is to remember what someone tells you to study, and how easy it is to learn what you get excited about? This is the case: commitment. A properly run project causes the penetration of all Scrum values into teams, and the sum of these values causes satisfaction, almost the excitement of team members.
A committed team rushes to work with the enthusiasm of a six-year-old who is getting down to his dream LEGO set. It comes to the Daily with a flushed face. When planning, they have to choose from the range of ideas they propose for application development. The Review is for them like performing on stage in “Got talent”. They come to Retro as for mass and confession, which renews them and binds them.
Sounds weird? It’s not weird: developers are passionate, terribly intelligent, and often extremely creative. Giving them the field to drive these traits, or even better, gently stimulating them to engage in this activity creates an incredible commitment, the side effect of which is efficiency. This spontaneous efficiency is incomparable to that forced micromanagement caused by even the best PM. There are projects where heavy project management would be more profitable (short projects with well-defined scope in a known technology), but in most cases, engagement works better.
In today’s world, companies are competing in finding a decoy and a way to hold people down. The slogan “we have a friendly working environment” mostly means fruits in the kitchen, medical packages, gym cards, Playstation, adjustable desks, and two monitors for each MacBook Pro, etc. As a result, people leave anyway, because (quote) “there is shit in the projects, and my friend said that they are working in Scrum now and he has been going to work with pleasure for the last 6 months”.
So many tactics, announcements, benefits, increasing salaries to get results. And sometimes it is enough to trust employees and let them prove themselves to make the project cheaper.