%% Last Updated: - [[2021-02-17]] - [[2020-09-16]] %% - Author: [[Maarten Dalmijn]] - URL: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/basecamps-shape-up-how-different-is-it-really-from-scrum-c0298f124333 > Is Shape Up a process framework? No. It is a toolbox full of techniques that you can apply as you see fit in your own process. Shape Up will not help you discover your own better working process. It provides tools you can use in your working process. Shape Up cannot be combined with Scrum for three reasons: Shape Up prescribes not using a Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is a mandatory artifact in Scrum. Shape Up works in cycles of six weeks. Scrum does not allow a Sprint length of 6 weeks. Technically you could work around this by breaking down a Shape Up cycle in a few Sprints, but that would conflict with the Shape Up approach. Refinement (shaping) of the work happens outside the team, following a dual-track process of Discovery and Delivery. > Is Shaping the same as refinement? Shaping and refinement are pretty similar, but there are some key differences: Shaping, preparing the work, so it’s ready to be planned as part of a six-week cycle, is done by senior members outside of the team. In Scrum, the Development Team refines their own work to make it ready to be worked on. Shaping results in big blobs of work that presumably fit in a six-week cycle. Refinement splits features up in smaller, sprint-sized chunks. Work does not get estimated, but the appetite gets set. How much time will we spend on this? The two options available are Small Batch (two weeks) or Big Batch (six weeks). Shaping does not affect the Product Backlog in any way, as there is no Product Backlog. > Scrum vs. Shape Up Summary What do they have in common? Time-boxed approach to delivering software. The scope is flexible during the time-box. However, there are limits to this flexibility. As long as it meets the intended objective of the Bet or the Sprint, flexibility is permitted. Refinement is necessary to make work-ready. The team has full control on how to split up work in tasks and how the work is performed. What are the differences? Shape Up has no Product Backlog. Shape Up follows a Dual Track Agile process of Discovery and Delivery. Shape Up refinement (Shaping) is done by senior members outside of the team and gets handed over to the team that will execute it. In Scrum, refinement is done by the team that will perform the work. Shape Up is a toolbox, Scrum is a process framework. Shape Up will not help you discover better ways of working or delivering value. Shape Up mainly contains best-practices that work for Basecamp. It is not well-described and structured like Scrum (yet). Shape Up offers no prescriptive approach to scale with many teams. Scrum neither, but at least there are many Scrum scaling frameworks available. How you make Shape Up work on complicated products with many teams is unclear. ^a3cc7f > No Product Backlog. Maybe having no Product Backlog is a bit extreme, but I do think it’s good to keep your Product Backlog short and relevant for what you will be working on soon. Otherwise, your Product Backlog will become stale and come back to haunt you. > The things I don’t like: Shaping is done by senior members outside of the team, possibly introducing waste and inefficient hand-overs. Teams get assigned to the work. I believe stable teams perform better than short-lived, temporary teams. How do you ensure teams have knowledge of the technical component they will be working on? Or is this taken into account when assigning team members? Totally unclear how Shape Up will work with bigger teams or scale with many teams. My initial impression is that it does not seem extremely scalable. No moment of reflection built-in where people can chime in to improve the process. This is a missed opportunity. Shape Up does not cover validation of what you’ve delivered, just discovery and delivery. The voice of people who will perform the work in the betting process seems small, apart from key senior people. It would be nice to include the team more in the decisions on what will be worked on, so there is more buy-in. In short, I’d not try out Shape Up as the risk of potentially throwing away six weeks is too big. And if you do it in a two-week cycle, I don’t think it’s very different from Scrum. ^9ef1c9 ## See also - [[Weaknesses of Shape Up]] - [[Shaking Up Shape Up]]