What are the disadvantages of Scrum ?
Filed Under Agile, Disadvantages, Pitfalls, Problems, Scrum | Posted on November 19, 2009
The past few posts have being bringing out some of the advantages of what Scrum is, and why it is beneficial. However it cannot be that in all cases Scrum can be used. What are some of the disadvantages of Scrum, and what are the situation / circumstances in which Scrum cannot be used:
- The first one is on the edge of Scrum. When you have a large team, much larger than the size of the traditional Scrum team (7-9 people), you need to break down the large team into smaller Scrum teams. When you break down the team into smaller sizes, then smaller teams tend to lose sight of the overall goal. Even when you have a Scrum of Scrums, it gets more difficult (and you will always find success stories for larger teams, but it increases the chances of failure)
- Scrum requires that the user representative or the Product Owner be involved during the whole cycle. This is not possible in many cases, and user representatives may not be give the amount of time required
- Scrum process, with its concept of Product Backlog, and planning only for one Sprint cycle, makes it difficult to predict for projects with long durations. So, if you are planning a product with a year long cycle, as per the process, you are not supposed to be able to figure out what features will be available beyond the first Sprint cycle
- With the amount of flexibility in the process, there is a concept of feature creep that threatens to disrupt the process
- Requirements are not detailed until the start of the Sprint cycle. However, this means that people who are used to having the entire requirements detailed in the beginning find it difficult. This is hard for people who are used to other development processes
- In other processes such as Waterfall, testing happens after coding has happened to some extent. However, in Scrum, there is a need to have testers being part of the Scrum team throughout the cycle, which increases resources
- The need to define progress made on a daily basis assumes that the developers have a fixed cycle. However, many developers are temperamental, doing less work on some days, and much more work on some days. They find it difficult to adjust to Scrum.
- Daily Scrum meeting works best when all the team members are in the same location. This however is difficult with multiple geographies, people working from home. Just getting a meeting to start has certain logistical issues, and can make the daily Scrum meetings longer
- Scrum requires a certain level of training for all users, not only for just the team managers and project manager. This can increase the overall cost of the project
- Management has to have a change of heart to accept that the teams are empowered, and self-organized. Similarly, in a Daily Scrum meeting, if management attends, they find it hard to accept the constraints on them.
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