Apr 13, 2020
Scrum Cource Day one : Cynefin framework
Day one scrum training course held by scrum.org.
On day one, we talked about when to use scrum framework. There is no silver bullet for all issues or problems, even scrum is not a silver bullet. My trainer mr joshua was very interesting and communicative, he encouraged us to think by giving a question “when to use scrum framework ?”. Vast majority of us answered “we should implement scrum on every project”. And he said that our answer was wrong.
Then he drew a schema then he called cynefin framework. Based on Wikipedia : The Cynefin framework is a conceptual framework used to aid decision-making.
Created in 1999 by Dave Snowden when he worked for IBM Global Services, it has been described as a “sense-making device”. In my perception / conclusion cynefin framework is a framework helping a leader to make decision by grouping / mapping problems based on domain / environment. Each domain has a specific cause and effect relationship. Where effect is a problem itself and cause is root source of the problem. There are 4 domains in cynefin framework : simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic.
Simple : sense-categorise-response, where in simple domain the cause and effect relationship of the problem is obvious. We can sense or predict the problem. For example :
a. in work or school environment, you will get punishment if you come late.
b. You will be charged for nominal amount of money if you late to pay your debt / bill.
c. In a project where requirement, timeline and budget is clear
Therefore every project on simple domain is better to use water fall model. Water fall model or top down model, has characteristics where every solution come from the top. The hierarchy of waterfall model usually from manager => system analyst => technical leader => programmer.
Complicated : sense- analyze -response. cause and effect relationship still makes sense. In this situation someone need to sense the problem, analyze the problem and response to the problem. For example:
a. CEO sense a problem where revenue is lower than last year then he ask a help from data scientist to analyze the problem, and response to the problem base on the analysis results.
b. As a HR employee you are facing problem where you can not input new employee data to HR system, then you ask a help from IT division or vendor to solve it. IT division / vendor will analyze and fix it as a response.
Complex : probe — sense — response. cause and effect relationship is unclear enough. For examples :
a. You have desire to create a ecommerce platform like ebay.com, at first you must investigate and define the market, after that you create an ecommerce platform application to be launched to market, then you will get response from the launched application. Do the iteration of probe — sense — response until you get a proper solution.
In this domain you have a role model like ebay.com as ecommerce platform
Chaos : act — sense — response. cause and effect relationship is vary unclear, on this situation you are as pioneer. For example
a. Elon musk spaceX. I you have read the autobiography of elon musk, once he was building a space X company. At the time, he had no source of information about rocket launcher, he did act — sense — response iteration, to get a good product for spaceX.
On this domain, the problem is so challenging, only persistent leader can survive. If you can reach this level I guarantee you well be a successful leader.
