Convinced She’s Write

Rugby / Scrum agile rant

I keep hearing that Scrum’s name comes from rugby, that a rugby scrum is a great model for a self-organizing, adaptive software project following the Scrum methodology.  (Note: I’m in a scrummaster training course today and tomorrow, am a practicing scrummaster, and also played and coached rugby for many years.  So, I’m qualified to rant on this particular topic.)  But the scrum is the least self-organizing and adaptive kind of play in rugby.  Here’s what a scrum is: it’s akin to a kickoff to restart play after something’s screwed up the normal flow of the game.  It’s a set piece, with each player knowing their position and standing in the same place each scrum, trying to do exactly the same thing each time.  When I coached, it was important to me to teach proper repeatable scrum technique because if anyone doesn’t do their part or somehow changes the formation, someone can get seriously hurt: necks get broken in poorly formed scrums.  So, that’s what we say our software processes aspire to: a play you use after someone’s f’ed up the normal flow of the game, where each person does exactly the same thing every time, in which a failure to conform can break someone’s neck.

Now, there is a rugby play which is completely self-organizing and adaptive.  It forms to continue play when the ball’s about to change possession.  Say I have the ball, and I’m about to get tackled.  I want to get the ball out to my teammates so I turn around to give them a chance to get it (rather than have the other team strip it away from me).  I fight like mad to stay on my feet and let my team get to me, at which point they’ll start piling on in a proscribed sort of fashion, but driven by whoever’s nearby and can get to me fastest.  The number of folks involved and amount of pushing depends on how much force the other side musters, and whether my team can get the ball away more quickly than the other team.
Now the problem is the name of that play: it’s called a maul, which understandably might be a bad nom de plume to attach to your software project.  In nearly as bad a naming situation, it’s companion play is called the ruck.   That’s when I don’t manage to stay on my feet, but end up tackled and trying to protect the ball on the ground with my body.  There my team doesn’t just shove me around, they actually step over (though hopefully not on) me to push back the other team and retain possession of the ball.  However, I’d still rather compare my software process to a maul than to something which my team would do when someone on either side screwed up and stopped things from progressing.
I’ll end my rant now, with the additional noted rugby qualification that, in true rugby style, all rant listed above was influenced through the imbibement of beer.

2 comments December 20th, 2006