Scrum Alliance - Progress on Transforming the World of Work

I’m a Scrum coach.  I like to think that I help people, teams, and organizations change the way they connect with their work, think about their work, and function.  I have chosen to do this under the auspices of the Scrum Alliance as a Certified Enterprise Coach.  One of the things that drove me to do this was the mission of the Scrum Alliance - Transforming the World of Work.  I am passionate about this mission and have dedicated my career to this endeavour.  I believe that many people toil in disengagement and dissatisfaction within their work environment.  I believe this harms both the individuals and the organizations for whom they work.  I believe there is a better way.  I believe we are uncovering better ways of working.  I believe Scrum is a framework that fosters that discovery. 

I assume that in order to really transform the world of work on a significant scale, we will need a critical mass of people with enough understanding and experience demonstrating and living the values of Scrum  The relatively low number of Certified Scrum Professionals and Certified Team Coaches could indicate that we are failing to reach this critical mass.  Anecdotally we see and hear that there are not nearly enough people in the world who understand and execute the values and principles within the Scrum framework.  So our anecdotal evidence appears to match the data.

I suspect that not enough people are interested in CSP certification and beyond because they don’t see a compelling reason for it.  If there was value, people would seek it out.  So how could it be more valuable? 

One approach might be to think about certifying organizations in Scrum.  That organizational certification might include some critical mass of CSP’s and/or CTC’s.  Customers of those organizations would have some assurances that their vendors were actually proficient in the use of Scrum.  The organizations themselves would then need to have CSPs and beyond as part of their organization which would lead to individuals seeking out CSP certification.  This would provide some impetus for individuals to continue their learning and it could provide some organizations with a competitive advantage.

I believe we are missing something in not helping address the needs of these organizations’ customers.  Isn’t this all supposed to be about delighting the customer?   I believe we should direct our Scrum awareness marketing activities in a much broader context.  We need the customers of the organizations that use Scrum to see the value of Scrum and WANT their products developed using Scrum because they value their involvement and the inherent innovation.  It is through the awareness of the customers that we’ll see acceleration in the adoption of Scrum.