It is indeed intense. What SCRUM does is places the responsibility of a deployable build into the hands of the team with little to no support from Managers. Some development teams prefer this model as the PMs are not doing thier job (IMHO) and so want to cut out overhead and meaningless meetings.

However, there is little support for the team when needed.

SCRUM runs against the new model of conversational development. Other agencies like Mother or Substance call this the Long Table process. Everyone is involved in all portions of the development so that appropriate support is available to team members that need it.

“The “long table” is a physical manifestation of networked culture. Information is less driven by hierarchy and process and more driven through connections, collaboration, transparency and as Noah aptly put it in his blog, moments of serrendipity. Long table work environments help achieve this. Regardless of title, everyone sits together, pitches in, hears everything and can be inspired by seemingly unrelated moments or conversations around them.”

Overall, all processes have flaws dependent on the project at hand, but it’s great that there is more than just the PMI/PMP waterfall methodology.

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