A couple of years ago Christiaan Verwijs and Johannes Schartau coined the term ‘Zombie-Scrum’. What's it all about? Well, at first sight Zombie Scrum seems to be normal Scrum. But it lacks a beating heart. The Scrum teams do all the Scrum events but a potential releasable increment is rarely the result of a Sprint. Zombie Scrum teams have a very unambitious definition of what ‘done’ means, and no drive to extend it. They see themselves as a cog in the wheel, unable and unwilling to change anything and have a real impact: I’m only here to code! Zombie Scrum teams show no response to a failed or successful Sprint and also don’t have any intention to improve their situation. Actually nobody cares about this team. The stakeholders have forgotten the existence of this team long time ago. Zombie Scrum is Scrum, but without the beating heart of working software and its on the rise. This workshop will help you understand how to recognise the symptoms and cuases of Zombie Scrum and what you can do to get started to combat and treat Zombie-Scrum. Knowing what causes Zombie Scrum might help prevent a further outbreak and prevent the apocalypse

1. HOW TO SURVIVE THE ZOMBIE SCRUM
APOCALYPSE
LAST CONFERENCE 2019
MIA HORRIGAN - LEAD PARTNER AGILE PROGRAM DELIVERY
ZEN EX MACHINA
@MIAHORRI
ZENEXMACHINA.COM/BLOG

2. Chhhhhaaaaannnnngeeee …

3. At first sight
Zombie Scrum
seems to be
normal Scrum
But it lacks a
beating heart.
The Scrum teams
do all the Scrum
events but a
potential
releasable
increment is rarely
the result of a
Sprint
WHAT IS ZOMBIE SCRUM?

4. THE RISE OF ZOMBIE SCRUM
Impending apocalypse or misunderstood hipster movement?

5. 2003

6. 2007

7. 2011

8. 2015

9. 2019

10. KNOWING WHAT THE EARLY SIGNS AND
SYMPTOMS of ZOMBIE SCRUM MIGHT HELP
PREVENT A FUTHER OUTBREAK

11. Symptom #1
No beating heart (of working product)

12. HOW TO RECOGNISE THE SIGNS……
It appears to be Scrum on the surface. Except there’s no
beating heart
Demo is not
clickable and just
ppt screen shots
Going thru the scrum
motions
Hardly any
working software
(or none at all)
There is lack of discussion
in the sprint review and
just a tick a box
Completed functionality is a
“nice to have” and can be
completed in the next Sprint
Tech focus and traditional
functional silos intact
(testing done by QA, deploy
done by operations)
Very unambitious
definition of what
‘done’ means

13. Symptom #2
No (desire for) contact with the
outside world

14. HOW TO RECOGNISE THE SIGNS……
Different from movie zombies who seek out humans, Scrum
zombies prefer to hide away and keep to familiar surroundings
Old fashioned silo
thinking
Neither care what’s
upstream nor what’s
downstream in the value
chain
Product failed to
meet customer
expectations
“QA should have caught
that before deployment!”
“I’m only here to
code!”
Just a cog in the wheel, unable
and unwilling to change
anything to have a real impact
Avoid taking
responsibility

15. Symptom #3
No emotional response to success or
failure

16. HOW TO RECOGNISE THE SIGNS……
Like a lifeless body, Zombie Scrum teams show no response to
a failed or successful Sprint
No direction, No
alignment
Items from backlog get
carried over into next
sprint without question
Low team morale
Items in backlog not tied to any
sprint goal so completed
“whenever” team feels like it
Empty stares of numb
resignation
“There’s always a next sprint as
iterations are artificial anyway!”
Aimless trudge through a
barren wasteland of
development

17. Symptom #4
No drive to improve

18. HOW TO RECOGNISE THE SIGNS……
Don’t have any intention to improve their situation.
Actually nobody cares about this team. The stakeholders have
forgotten the existence of this team long time ago.
No joy and no drive
for improvement
Lifeless procession going
through the motions of
scrum
Yes there are sprints
but results are limited
Scrum Master not
present or focused on
helping team grow
Teams highly unstable
Team members get loaned out
to other teams in need of their
specialist skills
Product owner hardly
ever present during sprint
review or planning
Boring retros and
lots of complaining
(moaning)

19. Tell a story of a time when
you witnessed Zombie Scrum
symptoms! What happened?

20. CAUSES OF ZOMBIE SCRUM

21. Org
FORMAL STRUCTURE
CEO
Plan Build Test & Run
Program
Management
Business
Unit 1
Business
Unit 2
Test
Team
Deploy
Team
Dev
Team 2
Dev
Team 1
Be agile!
CIO
Agile in name only
– all other formal
structures remain
in place
“its just something
the dev teams do”
“Water Scrum Fall”
“Wagile”

22. INFORMAL STRUCTURE
Cross functional,
multidisciplinary
and self
organising
Have all the skills
to deliver a “done”
increment into
production each
iteration
Development
Test
UI/UX
Marketing
PO
Customers

23. ORGANISATIONAL AGILITY
Evolve into a
flexible network
structure
Remove
cumbersome org
structures and
move to a
customer
orientated team
based approach
that creates value
end to end
TRADITIONAL ORGANISATIONS
EXECUTIVE
MANAGEMENT
CAPABILITIES/
FUNCTIONAL GROUPS
AGILE ORGANISATIONS
DELIVERY
END-TO-END
SERVANT
LEADERSHIP
COLLABORATION
COORDINATION

24. “
A framework within which people can
address complex adaptive problems,
while productively and creatively
delivering products of highest possible
value
- The Scrum Guide
SCRUM (n) :
“

25. AGILE VALUE STREAM VISUALISATION
AGILETRADITIONAL
Market
Company
Customer
Scrum team
Scrum team
Scrum team
Market
Company
Customer
Dev
Dev
Test QA CABSales PM Lead
Div
Mgr
Dev
CEO
RTE

26. corr(lengthfeedbackloop,zombiefication)=0.8

27. 1. Where does your organisation stand in embracing Zombie Scrum?
2. Pair up. Discuss the results of the self-assessment. Do you have similar low or
high scores?
ACTIVITY: ASSESSING ZOMBIEFICATION
Close the curtains turn off the
lights
Component teams
Scrum events optional
Sprint goal – deliver PBIs
Optimise utilisation
Command and control
management
Transparency and visibility
End to end integration
Feature teams
Scrum roles, artefacts and
events form basis of practice
Sprint Goal – outcome based
Servant Leadership
2 31 54 6
2 31 54 6
2 31 54 6
2 31 54 6
2 31 54 6
2 31 54 6
Optimise value delivered

28. CAUSES OF ZOMBIE SCRUM

29. Adopting superficial
trappings of agile
Renaming meetings
“stand ups’ and
management reviews as
“retrospectives”
Team have no true
autonomy, it’s an illusion
Agile as hype - a method
or set of tools
Imitate technical
practices without
changing the main things
– mindset, leadership
style and culture
CAUSE #1: A BIT TOO HOME GROWN OR “CARGO CULT SCRUM”

30. No real understanding of
value and transparency
why its important
No sprint goals tie into a
goal orientated roadmap
Without goals there is no
urgency, no purpose, no
motivation
A smartly prioritised
backlog could lead to a
huge payoff and reduce
cost of delay
CAUSE #2: NO URGENCY

31. Systemic mismatch with
agile values
Project mindset – only final
version delivers value
Scrum is a process that
must be followed
Working software is a “nice
to have”
Individuals responsible and
rewarded for effort
No customer focus – they
don’t know what they want
anyway
CAUSE #3: COMPETING VALUES

32. Only adopt part of the
framework as doing Scrum
was too difficult
Extending the sprint a
couple of days to get the
work done
Cancelling sprint review
because there’s nothing to
demonstrate
Cancelling sprint retros
because we don’t need it
“We use post it notes and
do stand ups” therefore we
are agile
CAUSE #4: SCRUM CHERRY PICKING

33. Difficulty with contracts is
that it’s all about trust
Customer wants guarantees
around budget, time, quality
and scope
Change control process is
lacking
Development team starts
but just builds what was
asked for
Truly value-driven
organisation embrace
value-driven contracts built
on transparency and trust
Collaboration over Contract
Negotiation
CAUSE #5: CONTRACTS IMPLYING “WE DON’T TRUST YOU”

34. Changing people’s
behaviour is not about
changing people, but
changing the context
which they are in: the smell
of the place
Strategy, organisation,
process, infrastructure,
policy etc. can leads to
“smells” viz. constraint,
compliance, control and
contract
“revitalize” people as
opposed to “changing”
people by creating a right
“context” around them
viz. stretch, discipline,
support and trust
CAUSE #6: THE SMELL OF THE PLACE (Professor Sumantra Ghosha)

35. TODAY WE FIGHT BACK……

36. HOW TO TREAT ZOMBIE SCRUM

37. What is your boldest yet actionable
idea for fighting Zombie Scrum as
an individual or as a community?

38. • Talk about the situation
• Identify potential causes and solutions
• Talk about purposes of agile and
underlying values
• Focus on what they can change rather
than what they can’t
Treatment #1
Become a Zombie
Whisperer

39. Agile is a mindset.
Encompasses
values, principles,
and behaviours.
It’s a contemporary
way of working for
everyone –
executives, leaders
and teams.
AGILE MINDSET – DOING AGILE AND BEING AGILE
LEFT RIGHT
LOGIC
STRUCTURE
SOCIAL
EMOTIONAL
ACTIONS
• Demonstrate agility by
enacting it yourself
• Inspect/adapt (empiricism)
• Manage the system of work,
not its people
• Optimise flow of work
• Alignment, cadence and
synchronisation
• Economic and value
prioritisation
FRAMEWORKS
• Lean and Kanban
• Scrum
• XP
• SAFe
• Nexus
• Scrum @ Scale
• LeSS
VALUES
• Individuals and interactions
• Collaboration
• Working solutions
• Responding to change
ETHICS
• Psychological safety
• Self-organisation
• Respect for people
PRINCIPLES
• Prioritise by value
• Systems thinking
• Transparency
• Decentralised decision-making
• Learning environment
• Feedback loops
• Agile as a “way of working”
• Team work
• Simplicity
AGILE
MANIFESTO
AGILE
PRACTICES
Agile Mindset
© Zen Ex Machina (2019)

40. • Long-term detailed plans
• Assign and control the work
• Maximize capacity and effort
• Keep all on schedule
• Driven by meetings and reports
• Intervene to fix all problems
• Provide external motivators ($, job title)
40
A Mindset and Behavioral Shift for Management
• Goals, vision, direction
• Foster the environment
• Help remove impediments
• Attend Sprint Reviews
• Share incremental feedback
• Manage for value
• Autonomy, mastery, purpose
PREDICTIVE MANAGEMENT EMPIRICAL MANAGEMENT
Are you going to be impacted by the change, or are
you going to help lead the change?

41. • Introduce people into the team that
can show and explain how it works
and communicate the right values
• Bring in experienced agile coaches to
help teams and management
• Do a Scrum-safari
Treatment #2
Introduce Healthy
Scrum into the
population

42. Take team and
management on a
Scrum-safari to
other companies
and show how
Scrum works there
Look outside your
own industry
FIND OUT OTHER ZOMBIE SCRUM SURVIVORS

43. LEARN FROM AGILE LEADERS
Agile leaders support and lead Agile Transformation by creating an
environment where:
Teams focus on building
high quality, high value
solutions for customers
People are more
important than ideas
People continuously improve and
develop each other
Failure is a necessary
consequence of doing
something new
People trust each other, even
when things go wrong
People are encouraged to
test hypothesis in order
to learn and improve

44. • Zombie scrum teams are often
trapped and may need a guide
• Raise issues but don’t solve it for them
• Aim to break the monotony and
change the way the team interacts
with the scrum framework…
Treatment #3
Revive the Dead

45. SHAKE THINGS UP
Shorter Sprint length
Focus Planning on
impacts and outcomes
Start Daily Scrum
reviewing Sprint Goal
and achievements
towards reaching it
Use roadmap to provide
context/insights Review.
Invite some real
customers/stakeholders
Use the Retrospective to
dream big

46. CELEBRATE WINS AND REWARD GOOD SCRUM BEVIOUR
We tend to focus on
what’s not working, call
out what is and celebrate
Ensure that what makes
us good is identified and
refined
Team Building, get to
know strengths and
capabilities of your team
Build Culture
A + B = C
Action + Behaviours = Culture

47. • Start small with 1 sprint, create a done
increment and develop mutual trust
• Sell/buy an entire team (long lived
teams)
• Sell/Buy Sprints (known velocity of
team and cost of fixed team)
• Swap in like for like Features
Treatment #4
Dare to Embrace
Agile Contracting
Principles

48. JOIN THE ZOMBIE SCRUM RESISTANCE
• Help us fight Scrum
that looks like
Scrum on the
surface, but lacks a
beating heart
• We offer tools for
first-aid and
treatment, and
investigate causes
• Do a Zombie Scrum
workshop
https://medium.com/zombie-scrum-resistance

49. • You are not alone in your fight against
Zombie Scrum
• Ask for help from experienced people
in the community
• Join forums and go to Meet Ups and
practitioners conferences
Treatment #5
Involve the
Broader Scrum
Community

50. • Zombie scrum is here and were not proud of it
• Thankfully we can do something about it
• Make transparent what is being delivered each Sprint
• Celebrate success and learn what helped create it
• Focus on improving results and outcomes each and every Sprint
• Maximise learning opportunities to become wiser and stronger
• Give it a go rather than fearing failure and doing nothing
• Hope you have been inspired to join the Zombie resistance
CONCLUSIONS

51. FIN
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IN /ZENEXMACHINA
ZENEXMACHINA.COM/BLOG
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