关于能否命令Scrum团队的对话

 

Dennis van der Stelt在Yahoo的scrumdevelopment组（http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/）发起了题为“Commitment to Definition of Done”的讨论。背景是Dennis van der Stelt发现他身边的团队没有达成对完工定义的承诺，为解决这个问题，讨论区给他出了不少主意。

有人提出“不能强迫（英文原文是MAKE）团队做任何事，把问题暴露到业务，提供未来发展的预测”，引发了不同的看法，见如下的对话。

Dan Rawsthorne：

You can't MAKE the Team do anything. However, you have an obligation to the Business to make this problem visible, along with predictions of what will happen. That's what scrum does: expose problems to the business. You are obligated to do so as the ScrumMaster..

Joe:

People are free. And in Scrum, we respect their freedom.
Also, we find, wherever we need teamwork to get something done, that if the team
is to be truly successful, it must self-organize, for example, as a complex
adaptive system (wikipedia that).
In most 'real life' that I see, you can never make anyone do anything. In fact,
in trying to make them, you usually assure that they will resist doing it.

Little's Second Law: People are remarkably good at doing what they want to do.

BUT: As Dan said, one has the obligation as SM to show reality. And it is
remarkable how powerful the truth is. Good people cannot resist it. And they do
not take it as a violation of their freedom.

So, polish your mirror, learn to be more articulate. Speak the truth. And they
will act.

Zhangk:

Yes, People are free, they have their freedom. and the society still has laws.
SEAL in USA army is a very successful team, It takes the command@control mode. there are defined rules for SEAL member which tell the right practices derived from blood and sweat.
Software develop team isn't same as the army team. 
fully command@control is pole, fully freedom is another pole. 
For different team or organization, A suitable point could be got between the two poles, this's what the managers or coaches or EPG leaders or should do.
So if the right practices are got, these practices can be deployed to the team by the management methods even in a agile environment. 

waiting for failure is not positive, Although the failure can convince the team more easily. if the failure is small and quick, it's OK for waiting. but if the failure is too big ,the positive direction should be taken early even the team maybe not understand. 

Tara Santmire:

If you think SEALs are at the full command and control end of the spectrum, I think that you don’t know much about SEAL teams.  SEALs have best practices and rules much like software development teams have good engineering practices and rules about how work will be done.  Within that framework SEALs have latitude just as developers do to do their work as they see fit and meet the objectives.  IMHO, they are self managing teams in many of the same ways that Scrum teams are.

Zhangk:

Thank Tara. I never think SEALs are at the full command and control mode. I also know and agree that "SEALs have best practices and rules much like software development teams have good engineering practices and rules about how work will be done."

In most instances, if the member of SEAL violates the best practices and rules of SEAL, what will be happened? I think a immediate correction will be taken if the leader finds it.

Adam Sroka:

SEALs also don't work for the Army. As someone who was born in a Navy hospital and spent his entire childhood on military bases (My dad retired as an O-6 in 2003) that one made me cringe a little. 

The way I would put it is this:

SEALs and other special operations forces are strategic resources that, depending on the mission type, may operate for some time beyond the direct control of their superiors. There is actually a strong parallel to Scrum here. The team is given a mission and a set of guidelines for accomplishing that mission. They go off and get it done, and report back at appropriate times. When the team encounters an "impediment" (Such as: a need for additional resources, a need to modify the rules of engagement, time-critical intelligence, etc.) then the team contacts it's leadership for guidance (Though, depending on circumstances, they may have to wait hours or days to get the answers they need. And, they need to be able to continue to perform critical "tasks" in the meantime.)

Dave Rooney:

Navy SEALs, other special forces teams and even standard infantry are trained in the use of Boyd's OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) loop, which is a much more refined version of Inspect and Adapt.  That loop allows individuals, teams and even battle groups to make the decisions required based on the actual information rather than the plans.

There have been observations that the agility of these teams has been hampered recently due to the technology that allows commanders to watch an action unfold, and make decisions and direct troops from places other than the immediate battlefield.  THAT is command & control, and it is considered a bad thing even in the military.

Zhangk:

To say "It takes the command@control mode" maybe too simple, or wrong. but SEAL's team must accept and execute the commanders from the up-grade. and at the immediate battlefield, the captain or team leader must direct the team by the orders. An recent example: Message details decisions made by President Obama in directing the rescue of Captain Phillips from Somali pirates. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/pirates.asp

So on the whole，to say "SEAL takes the command@control mode" is not very wrong.  

what I disagree with is "You can't MAKE the Team do anything".

Even a self-organized scrum team should accept the orders from product owner and the up-grade. The management can make the team do something. and the management can't make the team do everything. 

"polish your mirror, learn to be more articulate. Speak the truth. And they will act." it is somewhat negative and time-consuming.

For SEAL, when facing the kidnappers and hostages, if the leader find a mistake or wrong action from a team member ,he must command the member correct at once.