The assumptions behind "Just do Scrum by the book for a while"

 

As the primary creator of the Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant workshop I facilitate the Community of Practice of the graduates of the workshop where we provide deeper training and pragmatic advice. One thing I do is ask how I can help them in their work. I have been told that one of the biggest impediments they face is Agile coaches saying the line in the title in response to suggestions for creating a more fit for purse approach than Scrum. There are several unexplored assumptions in that statement:
 
1-starting with Scrum will lead to improvement. Maybe it won’t. There are no universal practices. It’s possible starting with Scrum won’t work well because it may not be fit for the team's needs & using it will create frustration, causing it to be abandoned later

2-that if you start w/Scrum you’ll learn how to improve later. But Scrum doesn’t provide any insights on how to do this. And, since Scrum is based on empiricism, you may not have the theory required to do so

3-Scrum teaches the principles of Agile. It doesn’t. It teaches a variety of Agile values &practices. It may be you'll discover these principles using Scrum, but it's more effective when they are included in your approach

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