I'll push back in defense of Scrum, but it probably bears a little explanation because my conceptualization of that framework is very likely a lot different from yours. (As something of a bonus: I'll bring in the military given the whole "wartime" trope.)
In particular, Scrum is only there to establish rituals that enable empiricism in decision making. A sprint is a reporting period to keep the team from spending too much time in the weeds. A standup is there to keep the team working together. The andon cord (which is often missing I find) is there when the facts have changed so utterly profoundly that everyone needs to regroup.
Anyone who's been through RTC ("boot camp"), and even some who haven't but have lived vicariously through others, understand that being constantly yelled at by RDCs ("drill instructors") on how you make your racks and fold your clothes is all about building certain habits and only tenuously related to what you'll be doing after A-school. It all has more to do with building trust that the rest of the folks in your ship will help carry you when the going gets tough. Scrum, at its core, is kinda like that.
I really dislike the term "Scrum Master." They're a team captain. The more military-minded might be keener to use "gunnery sergeant" or "chief petty officer:" they're just the most senior person in the rating group^W^W^W^Won the team. (Though, I'd probably take more inspiration from the Marines than the Navy here: a culture of servant leadership seems to bring out the best in people.)
The most popular implementations of Scrum tend to come with a ridiculous amount of meeting and tool baggage, and it's so unnecessary.
Use Excel. Hold your standups at the close of the day so people can go home. Write your product backlog items in delivery order so that sprint planning is less about sitting in one room playing poker and more about just getting valuable shit done.
That said, what isn't unnecessary, however, is kneecapping command a little: the engineering officer of the watch has comparatively little understanding of the actual operation of the machine. They just know that they want operational excellence. However, that excellence also sometimes comes with the watch supervisor—a subordinate—publicly calling out mistakes that the watch officer makes.
> I really dislike the term "Scrum Master." They're a team captain.
Originally that term was supposed to be a temporary role that someone (rotated each time) would take on during a scrum meeting, and referred to them being charged with keeping the meeting on track.
and... it would keep everyone on their toes a bit more, vs just having a group of folks that nod and say 'yes', 'no' or '3 points' a few times at the same time every day.
It was! I've, however, gotten way more use out of saddling whoever is most senior with the role of making sure the team as a whole is on track. This way, it's a little more familiar with the way Western management hierarchy operates without turning it too much on its head. It's something of a leadership billet without removing the ability to be technical, which is important for a lot of folks.
It tends to work pretty well in an environment that both lacks a bug tracker (so that individual people aren't assigned things) and has a culture of pairing or mobbing.
In particular, Scrum is only there to establish rituals that enable empiricism in decision making. A sprint is a reporting period to keep the team from spending too much time in the weeds. A standup is there to keep the team working together. The andon cord (which is often missing I find) is there when the facts have changed so utterly profoundly that everyone needs to regroup.
Anyone who's been through RTC ("boot camp"), and even some who haven't but have lived vicariously through others, understand that being constantly yelled at by RDCs ("drill instructors") on how you make your racks and fold your clothes is all about building certain habits and only tenuously related to what you'll be doing after A-school. It all has more to do with building trust that the rest of the folks in your ship will help carry you when the going gets tough. Scrum, at its core, is kinda like that.
I really dislike the term "Scrum Master." They're a team captain. The more military-minded might be keener to use "gunnery sergeant" or "chief petty officer:" they're just the most senior person in the rating group^W^W^W^Won the team. (Though, I'd probably take more inspiration from the Marines than the Navy here: a culture of servant leadership seems to bring out the best in people.)
The most popular implementations of Scrum tend to come with a ridiculous amount of meeting and tool baggage, and it's so unnecessary.
Use Excel. Hold your standups at the close of the day so people can go home. Write your product backlog items in delivery order so that sprint planning is less about sitting in one room playing poker and more about just getting valuable shit done.
That said, what isn't unnecessary, however, is kneecapping command a little: the engineering officer of the watch has comparatively little understanding of the actual operation of the machine. They just know that they want operational excellence. However, that excellence also sometimes comes with the watch supervisor—a subordinate—publicly calling out mistakes that the watch officer makes.