Lately I’ve been reading about people lamenting unsuccessful adoptions of Scrum within organizations. Somehow, these entities survived before Scrum was introduced. They are not just going to fold because they have not done it right. They may choose to ignore some of the principles of Agile and continue to bring in revenue without coming all the way around.

So the Agile community has some advice. Make sure good technical practices are in place. Have motivated and skilled people in the trenches with the will to change. Make sure there is executive support. Use some assessment tool. There are other suggestions, these just come to mind immediately.

If the right ingredients are not present, people are encouraged to leave the organization, or the organization to get rid of the misfits. Coaches are encouraged not to engage with dysfunctional organizations, or to fire the client when they discover that the resistance is too great.

This leaves me feeling uncomfortable. What about those left behind in the wreckage of an implementation gone awry? Fear, stress and lies are still the modes of operation. There is no hiding from the authorities. The overhead of the process is overwhelming. People are worse off, thanks to the mangled introduction of Scrum. For many reasons including personal and macro-economical, people cannot just leave the situation.

What should be done to help them?