When something doesn’t quite pass the smell test in the Scrum…..this is an appropriate non-verbal cue.
Mike Cohn has a great piece about the kinds of scrum smells you can encounter and it is worth a read.
Dealing with distributed teams with a track record of failure, suspect matrix management leadership and situations where people just don’t trust each other is tough mountain to climb in product development.
Traditional approaches to development tend to be able to hide dysfunction that Scrum pushes right into your face and you have to deal with it. So it isn’t just a bad smell, it is a bad scene.
The good thing is that a Daily Scrum Meeting gives you a chance to address problems. Unblocking house size obstacles may take time but moved they must be. Since I consider trust the most important element between people and that trust must be earned slowly over time, positive and honest small steps must evidenced every day.
If individuals are honest about wanting to achieve a goal, no hierarchy or authority structure moves them as well as they can move themselves. Certainly leadership from the Scrum Master is required in Scrum but the leadership is as a servant to the groups goals. The self organizing principals of successful, lean and agile teams lays in commitment not only to goals but to each other.
Committing to work that you choose that serves the greater goal is hardly a quality exclusive to product teams. Negative attitudes are particularly corrosive and ultimatums or grandstanding need to be discouraged as a cost too high to pay.
Until team members pick each other up when they struggle, it will be difficult to achieve Sprint and Release goals.