Software Sweatshop

I just saw a great video on the Scrum methodology delivered by Ken Schwaber at Google back in 2006.

Scrum is like having a gun to your head; if you can't produce results, be transparent, look for the simplest solution, adhere to strict deadlines, be held accountable, work incrementally and iteratively, respond to dynamic change, and deliver quality, you, your project, your company, and your career are dead. It's not all gloom and doom though, you'll be surprised at what you can come up with if you actually do follow this methodology.

It's perfectly suited for offshore software development. In fact, I can see why distributed software development teams that don't follow Scrum or Agile usually fail.

But as you'll see, Scrum isn't for everyone. It means looking at the facts, good or bad, and making very tough decisions. True adoption of Scrum is a real test of an organization's culture. With Scrum, you can't stick your head in the sand. A very valuable lesson for anyone that's been part of a failed offshore development effort.