The Daily Cost of Delaying Improvement in Scrum
Many teams are Delaying Improvement in Scrum, citing time or cost concerns, but often overlook the hidden costs of maintaining inefficient workflows—missed deadlines, wasted effort, and lost opportunities for improvement.
Teams that say,
“We can’t afford to implement this Scrum practice right now,”
may not have calculated the cost of sticking to their current inefficiencies.
The Daily Cost Perspective
Scrum Masters often freeze when they hear statements like, “This change will take too much effort,” or “It’s too costly to adopt right now.”
Then they either drop the idea altogether or overload the team with justifications. But there’s a better way to address this resistance without overwhelming your team.
Research from behavioral psychology teaches us that people respond better to decisions framed in small, manageable increments.
The “Pennies-a-Day” study by Harvard Professor John Gourville showed that breaking large costs into smaller daily amounts makes people significantly more open to change.
And that’s exactly why Scrum works. Instead of tackling massive, overwhelming goals all at once, Scrum breaks work into small, manageable iterations—Sprints—where teams focus on delivering incremental value. This approach not only reduces the psychological barriers to starting but also ensures that progress is tangible and continuous.
Why it works?
Teams and stakeholders tend to compare large initiatives to the total cost of major projects or company budgets. But when the same initiative is broken into small, incremental daily actions, it’s easier to justify. You want them to compare Scrum improvements to their daily inefficiencies, not their total annual capacity.
When to use it?
- Breaking large changes into small, daily practices helps stakeholders and teams see Scrum as a practical and achievable approach, rather than an overwhelming shift.
- If your team is overwhelmed by the perceived complexity of change. Framing improvements incrementally reduces anxiety by showing that progress can happen one small step at a time.
- Stakeholders are experiencing “sticker shock” at the time or cost of an initiative. By reframing the investment in terms of daily or Sprint-level increments, the perceived cost feels more manageable and less daunting.
- If you need to secure final buy-in for incremental improvements. Highlighting the small, immediate benefits of change makes it easier for stakeholders to commit without fearing large upfront risks.
How to use this technique?
Let’s say you want to implement daily risk reviews as part of the Daily Scrum. Stakeholders may balk at the “time cost” of these reviews, saying, “We can’t afford to add more time to our meetings.” Instead of defending the full investment, break it into smaller, manageable daily increments.
For example:
Our updated Scrum practice involves spending an additional 5 minutes per Daily Scrum to assess risks and impediments.
That’s just 25 minutes per week to keep the team aligned and reduce project risks or delays. Right now, the team is already spending far more time firefighting avoidable issues.
And here’s the killer follow-up!
“Would you say 5 minutes per day is worth more than the hours we’re currently losing due to unexpected risks and misalignment?
Share your thoughts about Delaying Improvement in Scrum!!!
