Strategy Deployment And The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack

The authors of the Scrum Guide Expansion Pack are also seeking feedback and community contributions. I have some thoughts on the Appendix, which I have also posted in the discussion section. These are the three main points that came to mind.

No reference to Rumelt

Firstly, the Emergent Strategy Appendix explicitly credits Roger Martin and Tom Gilb for their work on strategy. In addition, I would add the work of Richard Rumelt. I referenced his Strategy Kernel in my post on Good Agile / Bad Agile. The Diagnosis, Guiding Policies, and Coherent Action are, for me, key elements of having strategy be emergent. In particular, it’s the Diagnosis of the Crux of a challenge that is particularly powerful. Thus, the Emergent Strategy is context-specific and is designed and created over time. The alternative is a Deliberate Strategy that is selected once up front from some generic framework and analysis.

What is the connection to Scrum?

Next, the Appendix topics all seem to be adjacent fields to Scrum. Although not directly part of Scrum, these bodies of knowledge are highly relevant and recommended. However, it is not clear what the nature of the connection is.

My take on why Emergent Strategy is relevant is that Scrum is a team-level framework. The Scrum Guide explains that the “fundamental unit of Scrum is a small team of people, a Scrum Team”. However, just because you have Scrum Teams (or other Agile Teams) doesn’t make you an Agile organisation.

That means that for a Scrum Team to be effective, it should be part of a Strategy Deployment approach, where the Scrum Team is running small experiments and providing fast feedback to a larger strategic initiative. In other words, as I described in a previous post on the dynamics of Strategy Deployment, the Scrum Team is the inner loop of a nested PDSA cycle that allows the strategy to emerge.

Emergent Strategy vs. Strategy Deployment

Finally, while the Appendix does make a distinction between Emergent Strategy and Strategy Deployment, I think the difference between the two could be made clearer.

The Emergent Strategy is the determination of where to focus (and thus where not to focus) time and energy. The Strategy enables choices and decisions on what work needs to be done. For the Strategy to be Emergent, we want this work to be small, incremental and iterative, providing fast feedback on progress, and learning about what is and isn’t effective.

Strategy Deployment is then the operating model for how to go about implementing and evolving the Strategy. Strategy Deployment is what allows the propositions of hypotheses and experiments to emerge from the people who are closest to the challenge we are trying to address. In other words, Strategy Deployment is the process by which a Strategy can be Emergent.

The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack seems like it could be a useful document, providing more detail and richer explanations of Scrum. If it helps more people understand Scrum in the context of Emergent Strategy and Strategy Deployment, then I fully support it!