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Who can cancel Scrum

Last post 07:35 pm April 17, 2023 by Nicholas Gabrichidze
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07:35 pm April 17, 2023

According to the Scrum literature and actual Scrum Guide only the product owner can cancel Sprint, or whole Scrum if project becomes obsolete.

This provision of Scrum is working well in ideal environment, but in real business environment there is one other power who can cancel Scrum at any time.

Its the organization who is ordering the product, and sponsoring the Scrum-they can do it anytime by simply firing everyone or cancelling the project or product, making continuation useless.

In cases when Scrum team is an independent firm, selling the services externally any financial authority, audit, bankruptcy or other occurrence is also canceling the Scrum

This power makes the relationship of allegedly self managing Scrum team and the Organization very different, giving the specific pressure to the team, who might be constantly forced to change own decision, and act against Scrum principes, simply because otherwise whole team will be throw under the bus.

Another question is WHY would organization do it, if running Scrum properly is bringing profits, but everyone who worked in corporate environment knows how far the toxic tendencies of some managers can go, especially if they aren't personally benefiting from certain profit...

By the way this is another reason why Scrum works best in small and medium businesses, but often fails or takes the unnecessary direction in the big corporate entities, not to talk about government institutions.


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