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Jose Duarte discusses the five core values of Scrum and the efficiency of the work team

Scrum principles are very easy to understand and implement, plus their entire philosophy is based on agile manifest principles, so you get results very quickly. An advantage of this framework is that you can use five Scrum values to improve the efficiency of the team, even without using the rest of Scrum roles, ceremonies and artifacts. Jose Duarte, an entrepreneur and Scrum Master from Costa Rica, discusses the five core values of Scrum and why they’re important.

In the 2017 Scrum Guide, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland propose that, for a successful implementation, it is necessary for the team to consolidate on the five values of Scrum. These Scrum values are aimed at your team achieving greater independence and autonomy, in which each member is able to solve the challenges that arise. If you want your work team to be more productive, it is best that you start implementing the values as soon as possible.

Commitment is one of the values of Scrum that is fundamental within any work team, because in every project, there are group and individual goals that it is necessary to achieve the objectives set. Says Duarte, “When your team lacks the necessary commitment it is very difficult for you to reach any proposed goal, because when any inconvenience occurs, you will have more excuses than solutions. On the other hand, if you have a committed team each of the people understands the importance of their functions and care about fulfilling the objectives and helping others to reach the goal of the team.”

Courage is the ability of each of the members to face the challenges that arise and the strength to resolve unforeseen situations without losing their heads. It is one of the values of Scrum that you must work every day with your team so that when an unexpected situation arises, everyone is ready and prepared to face it. A lack of courage makes the personal objectives and the objectives of the work team are not met, because this value of Scrum is a determining factor in effectiveness. When your team has a high level of courage and the tools needed to face challenges, they offer less resistance to change and adapt faster to any situation.

When you are an entrepreneur it is common to find yourself between several situations and important projects at the same time, with which the execution of the activities becomes a spiral with no way out. That’s why focus is one of the Scrum values that both you and your team should cultivate to improve time management and the execution of the necessary tasks according to the priority. It is important to meet the goals that each member is focused on meeting both individual and collective objectives in the stipulated time. When your team lacks this value of Scrum it is very common that you lose motivation, since planning is ignored, resulting in low productivity.

If you want to have a motivated, innovative and productive high-performance team openness to change is one of the Scrum values that you must cultivate, this is applied by organizations such as Google. By limiting this value of Scrum, you eliminate the space needed for team members to develop new skills and thus increase their motivation. “An unmotivated team has a low productivity and can also generate an unpleasant work environment.” asserts Duarte, “Instead, with a wide openness, innovative ideas and timely results appear. Therefore, each of the people must be involved and committed to the project to manage the challenges that are presented to them and bring to fruition each of the objectives set.”

Respect is another of the values of Scrum that should not be lacking in a work team because when combining people with different disciplines it is necessary to respect the different points of view. When there is a low level of respect, barriers are generated that decrease motivation and damage commitment, resulting in declining productivity. On the other hand, when there is a high level of respect, each of the team members has what it takes to perform their duties without any hindrance, increasing commitment and productivity. The work team must have sufficient maturity to offer an environment of trust where each member can develop as an independent member within their functions and manage themselves.

Incorporating the five values of Scrum can improve performance and allow the team to carry out any project presented. Remember that when all people are managed under these five values, each member cares about achieving individual goals and empowering others to achieve collective goals.