Let’s do a quick scientific experiment together. You are in an art gallery and a vase is sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. A visitor, fascinated by it, approaches to take a picture — unaware of a second vase right behind him.

我们 一起做一个快速的科学实验。 您在美术馆里，花瓶坐在房间中间的基座上。 一个被它迷住的访客走近拍照–没意识到他身后还有第二个花瓶。

That vase immediately falls and breaks into a hundred. (Just like the man’s heart as he thinks of its price.) Now how would you describe this artsy tragedy?

那花瓶立即掉下来，摔成一百个。 (就像他心中对价格的看法一样。) 现在，您如何形容这种艺术悲剧？

A Stanford professor carried this same study with both English and Spanish native speakers, revealing a shocking pattern. The English described the scene with agentive expressions, such as “the man broke it”. The Spanish disagreed and said something awkward to English ears: “the vase broke itself.”

斯坦福大学的一位教授用英语和西班牙语为母语的人进行了同样的研究，揭示了一种令人震惊的模式。 英格兰人用诸如“那个男人把它弄坏了”之类的吸引人的表情描述了这一场面。 西班牙人不同意，对英国人的耳朵有些尴尬： “花瓶摔坏了。”

But what’s shocking in that? Wel…

但是，那令人震惊吗？ 威尔…

The Spanish couldn’t remember who broke the vase.

西班牙人不记得是谁打破了花瓶。

Another study revealed that Germans described a bridge as “elegant and fragile”, although the Spanish labelled it “strong and sturdy”. The secret is also in linguistics: while “die Brücke” is feminine, “el puente” is masculine — so their opinions weren’t based in reality itself but on grammatical gender.

另一项研究表明，德国人形容这座桥“优雅而脆弱”，尽管西班牙人称其为“坚固”。 秘诀还在于语言学：“ dieBrücke”是女性，而“ el puente”是男性，因此他们的观点并非基于现实，而是基于语法性别。

I know this sounds Newspeak-sy at first, but Linguistic Relativity shows that how you label things inescapably bestows power upon it — and that brings about assumptions that distort reality. That’s how a singular object can be both “fragile” and “sturdy” at the same time, regardless of how illogical that is.

我知道刚开始听起来像Newspeak-sy ，但是语言相对论表明， 您如何在事物上加标签不可避免地赋予了它力量 -并带来了扭曲现实的假设。 这样， 无论多么不合逻辑，单个对象都可以同时“脆弱”和“坚固” 。

But does that have to do with Scrum, you may ask? Well, think of all those common Scrum anecdotes you’ve heard, like “sprints made our team miserable”. Remember agilists saying that “you must track velocity to make it work” and other recurring nonsense. What is common in all those issues?

但这可能与Scrum有关吗？ 好吧，想想一下您所听到的所有常见Scrum轶事，例如“冲刺使我们的团队痛苦不堪” 。 请记住，敏捷专家说过“您必须跟踪速度才能使其发挥作用”以及其他反复出现的废话。 在所有这些问题中有什么共同点？

An unreasonable concern with agility. Scrum teams will pursue sprints as if their lives depended on it. Inexperienced agilists will forget value in favour of burn-down charts, trying to rebuild the world every two weeks. Abusive managers will exploit workers since they are “not agile yet”.

对敏捷性的不合理关注。 Scrum团队将追求冲刺，就好像他们的生活取决于冲刺一样。 经验不足的敏捷专家会忘记价值，而倾向于消耗量大的图表，试图每两周重建一次世界。 虐待经理会剥削工人，因为他们“还不敏捷”。

It’s inevitable. Just like turning “ceremonies” into “events” lightens the atmosphere, mentioning “Agile” immediately hastens it. That’s why I say:

这是不可避免的。 就像将“仪式”转换为“事件”一样，它可以减轻气氛，提到“敏捷”可以立即增强气氛。 这就是为什么我说：

“AGILE” is one hell of a cursed name.

“敏捷”是一个被诅咒的名字的地狱。

The Agile Manifesto has 68 words but “speed” isn’t one of those. I also dared to ctrl+f my Scrum Guide for terms such as “velocity”, “fast”, and “quick” but couldn’t find those.

吨他敏捷宣言共有68个字，但“速度”是不是其中之一。 我还敢于ctrl + f《 Scrum指南》中的“速度”，“快速”和“快速”之类的术语，但找不到这些。

Here’s what I found in seconds though: “working software is the primary measure of progress”. And yes, the Manifesto does mention a “preference to the shorter timescale”, but that is about avoiding extensive plans — not about whipping your developers. Also, here’s what isn’t a preference: “our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software, built around motivated individuals.”

这是我几秒钟后发现的： “工作软件是进度的主要衡量标准” 。 是的，宣言确实提到了“ 偏爱较短的时间范围”，但这是在避免广泛的计划，而不是鞭策您的开发人员。 另外，这里也不是没有偏好 ：“ 我们的首要任务是通过尽早并持续交付有价值的软件来满足客户的需求，这些软件是围绕有积极进取心的人构建的。 ”

An agile team is not one that moves tasks from Sprint Backlog to Done quickly, but one that delivers value often. And to make sure no one falls into the trap of our plagued name, the Scrum Guide dares to make it clearer:

敏捷团队不是将任务从Sprint Backlog快速转移到Done的团队，而是经常交付价值的团队。 为了确保没有人陷入我们困扰的名字的陷阱，《 Scrum指南》敢于使其更加清晰：

“The heart of Scrum is a Sprint (so) each Sprint has a goal of what is to be built (and) the resultant increment.”

“ Scrum的核心是一个Sprint(因此)每个Sprint都有一个目标，即要构建的目标(以及由此产生的增量)。”

So here we have one goal planned to fit within a Sprint. (So it must also be within the team’s output capacity, right?) Since meeting such goal “is our highest priority”, we can assume that velocity is absolutely irrelevant as long as we have a “working software” by the end of the Sprint.

因此，这里我们计划了一个适合Sprint的目标。 (所以它也必须在团队的输出能力之内，对吗？)由于达到这一目标“是我们的最高优先”，因此只要在Sprint结束时拥有“工作软件” ，我们就可以假设速度绝对无关紧要。 。

This means Sprints are meant to deliver continuous value, not burn-down charts, so the velocity hysteria is flawed from birth. Fast teams are cultivated and earned, not reaped and plucked.

这意味着Sprint旨在提供连续的价值，而不是燃尽的图表，因此速度歇斯底里从一开始就存在缺陷。 快速的团队可以培养和赢得，而不是收获和采摘。

Just like a curse, this plight is inescapable although the accursed will strive to escape it. The Agile Oedipus will fall prey to the same curse he cast upon others, failing to provide the value he preaches his traditional competitors do not provide.

Ĵ 乌斯就像一个魔咒，这种困境是不可避免虽然诅咒将努力逃避它。 敏捷俄狄浦斯将沦为他向他人施加的诅咒的牺牲品，无法提供他所传授的传统竞争对手无法提供的价值。

I won’t dare to re-christen our doomed name, but the fact is that “Agile” literally gives us a bad name. One that grows into vigilance and abuse — both in absolute contradiction with our values of Openness, Respect, and our pursuit of value. Here agility turns into indignity.

我不敢重新命名我们的名字，但事实是，“敏捷”字面上给了我们一个不好的名字。 一个变得警惕和虐待的人–与我们的开放，尊重和追求价值的绝对矛盾。 在这里，敏捷变成了侮辱。

A name such as “agilist” ought to be reserved to people like Usain Bolt, not value-driven professionals. (Which are indeed agile, but only agile to provide value.) Whenever a Scrum Team doesn’t know for sure why they are sprinting for, go one unit backwards and contemplate it: they are NOT agile.

诸如“ agilist”之类的名字应该留给像Usain Bolt这样的人，而不是由价值驱动的专业人员使用。 (确实是敏捷的，但只有敏捷才能提供价值。 )每当Scrum团队不确定要冲刺的原因时，就倒退一个单元并进行思考： 他们不是敏捷的。

“I don’t believe in deadlines. I believe in value.” — Fred Serrano, Agile Coach @ Grupo Soma]

“我不相信最后期限。 我相信价值。” — Fred Serrano ，敏捷教练@ Grupo Soma ]

As a closure, I remind you that the Greek myths taught us a simple way to break a curse: facing it and acting upon it.

最后，我提醒您，希腊神话告诉我们打破诅咒的简单方法：面对它并付诸行动。

So if a backlog or a burn-chart come hammering at the back of your head, pause and think if it’s in the best interest of your customers and squad. You’ll often see you’re chasing vanity metrics, not valuable outcomes.

因此，如果积压或烧伤的图表猛烈地敲击您的后脑，请停下来想一想，这是否符合客户和团队的最大利益。 您会经常看到您在追逐虚荣指标，而不是有价值的结果。

Remember the wise words of the Agile Manifesto: “individuals over processes”, “collaboration over contracts” — and value and respect over the velocity BS.

记住敏捷宣言的明智之言：“ 过程之上的个人 ”，“ 契约之上的合作 ”，以及对速度BS的重视和尊重。

Do you want to write for Serious Scrum or seriously discuss Scrum?

您要为《严重的Scrum》撰写文章还是认真讨论Scrum？

Special thanks to Maarten Dalmijn & Marty de Jonge for reviewing this piece!

特别感谢 Maarten Dalmijn 和 Marty de Jonge 审阅了这篇文章！