The Financial Times IT Review has an article called Rapid Results without a Rugby Scrum. Apparently Yahoo! has 15 Scrum teams operating right now, but only in certain situations according to Pete Deemer, vice-president of product development.
“We’re always looking for new ways of doing things,” says Mr Deemer “and we’re trying to figure out where it works best.”
Pete seems willing to give Scrum a try, but Ken Schwaber remarks that his efforts are not targetted to IT executives.
“We aim at CEOs because CIOs [chief information officers] are part of the problem, not the solution,” says Mr Schwaber. “We are trying to directly connect the software developers with the customer, and CIOs are not too thrilled about being cut out of the action.”
Of course, it takes executive sponsorship to try something new and risky.
“We expect only about one-third of companies that try to use it will succeed,” he says. “Those companies that do succeed with it are often those for whom technology is their lifeblood, and if they don’t succeed with it, they risk going out of business.”