Teams Should Go So Fast They Almost Spin Out of Control

Scrum teams should move fast, but not recklessly fast. The goal is controlled speed: moving quickly enough that feedback matters, handoffs are frequent, and everyone has to stay connected to keep the work flowing.

That’s what made me think of guitarist Alvin Lee in a course recently.

Alvin Lee of the band Ten Years After was a talented guitarist known for his fast solos. His ultimate performance was "I'm Going Home" at Woodstock. During the performance, Lee often seemed right on the edge of flying out of control. But he kept it together for some of the best 11 minutes in rock history.

That same idea applies to Scrum teams. I want teams to move fast enough that the work has energy and momentum, but with enough control that they can keep delivering something valuable.

Re-watching Ten Years After's Woodstock performance, I'm struck by a couple of other lessons I didn't mention in class.

One: Agile teamwork is characterized by frequent, small hand-offs. A programmer gets eight lines of code working and says, "Hey, Tester, check it out." The tester has been writing automated tests while waiting for those eight lines and runs the tests. Thirty minutes later, the programmer has the next micro-feature coded and ready for testing.

A good portion of "I'm Going Home" is made up of guitar solos, but they aren't usually long, wandering solos. Lee plays a solo and soon hands the song back to his bandmates. He repeats that pattern through the song, taking the lead and then giving it back.

Two: Scrum teams should minimize work in progress. "I'm Going Home" is a long song, clocking in at more than 11 minutes. But it doesn’t feel like one long, undifferentiated jam. There are frequent little deliveries throughout the performance. Listen for "Blue Suede Shoes," "Whole Lotta Shaking," and others, some played for just a few seconds.

That’s a useful lesson for teams. Even when the overall effort is large, create frequent moments where something lands. Keep the work moving. Keep the feedback coming. Don’t disappear into one long stretch of unfinished work.

OK, I may be stretching the analogy. And I certainly didn’t make all these points in class.

But a great Scrum team should feel a little like that performance: fast, responsive, tightly connected, and always close enough to the edge that everyone has to pay attention.