Hi,

Is Scrum democratic?

This question keeps coming up.

Time and time again, I find myself in teams where this question becomes the focal point.

The keyword that often comes up is “self-organized team.”

How much autonomy does a self-organized team have?

Undoubtedly: The team organizes its work on its own.

The Product Owner decides which tasks are to be tackled and in which order.

And he is a part of the team.

Also undeniable: The developers plan a sprint and define when a topic is “done.”

But what about beyond the day-to-day tasks?

Who sets the product requirements? Who decides on releases? Who determines the team’s staffing?

This is where I often witness disputes.

Such is the case now.

It concerns a personnel matter. The decision at hand is whether a team member should stay on permanently.

Should this decision be made on a purely democratic basis?

I don’t think so.

Companies have, for centuries, not been run democratically for good reasons. There are hierarchies in every company.

While there are a few exceptions, they are, well, exceptions.

The problem with democracy is that it inevitably leads to (lazy) compromises.

So many diverse interests clash.

Interests are unevenly distributed.

In development, the largest group is, logically, developers.

Developers have different personality traits than the average population. And thus, different from the users of their application.

So, if this group makes democratic decisions, the interests - of course - of this very group will prevail.

However, a company doesn’t work for its employees. The purpose of a company is to serve its customers.

The interests of the customers must be paramount.

Then there’s the uneven distribution of experience.

For good reason, you don’t see a career starter in crucial management positions in any company.

Many decisions need to be based on experience.

You can’t learn in any degree program what it means to lead a company, a department, or a team.

Only through experience can a good outcome be achieved.

Robert C. Martin has shown that half of all developers have less than 5 years of professional experience .

This implies that “inexperienced developers” are overrepresented in Scrum teams.

Hence, it’s more likely that a team can’t accurately gauge the consequences of their decisions.

So, is Scrum democratic?

Yes, and no.

Many decisions on how something is implemented are made within the Scrum team. But not all of them.

If it’s essential for the company’s success to release more frequently, then such a decision must and should come from the top. It becomes a requirement.

A self-organized team doesn’t mean grassroots democracy.

Rule the Backend,

~ Marcus