inspect and adapt

Scrum Inspect and Adapt is a straightforward concept to comprehend, but the hardest to properly implement and master.

Companies have finally confirmed that none of their project managers can fully foresee the big picture of complex systems. They were unable to do reliable end-to-end planning. It was evident for them that they needed to try something different.

Together with lean manufacturing (also known as lean movement), companies needed to develop a process to empower them strategically. They needed a standard operating procedure to help them learn and fix their courses of action while they're running their projects and even operations.

That was the birth of Toyota Improvement Kata, which we today call "Inspect and Adapt" while we talk about scrum software development and delivery framework. According to "Scrum Inspect and Adapt":

• Step 1. Inspect: We do our best to grasp the current status of the project with our current level of knowhow and understanding about it. • Step 2. Adapt: We define a direction and vision about the next steps of our project and then strategize and execute our vision. • Step 3. Learn: We carefully observe, learn, and teach each other while we do so. We continuously log what works and what doesn't work while we do our work. • Step 4. Restart: Start over from Step 1 again.

Note that those four steps described above are analog, but not limited to the following Scrum rituals (Scrum events).

• Step 1. Inspect is analog to Sprint Review

Meetings and Sprint Retrospective Meetings. • Step 2. Adapt is analog to Sprint Planning

Meetings and Backlog Refinement Meetings. • Step 3. Learn is analog to Daily Scrum

Meetings. • Step 4. Restart is analog to the closure of a sprint and the start of a new sprint.