Improving Scrum Team Collaboration with Soft System Methodology: A Case Study

Agile software development and Scrum are the most successful ways to develop software projects. Despite the general success of the agile approach, software projects and Scrum teams still fail due to impediments related to inadequate adoption and use of the Scrum method in agile teams. We conducted a case study on a Scrum team that utilizes Scrum in the business insurance industry in the Czech Republic. Scrum teams can be considered soft systems due to their complex nature that involves human elements, social interaction, and multiple individual perspectives, and open systems due to their interaction and collaboration with other teams and systems within an organization. We used Soft System Methodology to analyze the adoption and use of Scrum method in the team. We inspected the problematic situation in the team, created root definitions of the problematic areas, and proposed action steps to improve the situation. Based on the case study, we identified insights from this team’s experience that can help other Scrum teams improve their practice and team collaboration.