# When Applying Scrum By The Book Fails, Understanding Context Before Changing The System | Christian Thordal

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scrum-master-toolbox-podcast-agile-storytelling-from-the-trenches-445588/when-applying-scrum-by-the-book-fails-understanding-context-before-changing-the-system-christian-thordal
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scrum-master-toolbox-podcast-agile-storytelling-from-the-trenches-445588/when-applying-scrum-by-the-book-fails-understanding-context-before-changing-the-system-christian-thordal.md
Podcast: [Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches](https://stenobird.com/podcast/scrum-master-toolbox-podcast-agile-storytelling-from-the-trenches-445588)
Published: 2026-05-18T10:05:00+00:00
Episode link: https://scrummastertoolbox.libsyn.com/when-applying-scrum-by-the-book-fails-understanding-context-before-changing-the-system-christian-thordal
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scrummastertoolbox/20260518_Christian_Thordal_M.mp3?dest-id=246429
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/scrum-master-toolbox-podcast-agile-storytelling-from-the-trenches-445588/episodes/when-applying-scrum-by-the-book-fails-understanding-context-before-changing-the-system-christian-thordal
Duration seconds: 809

## Resource

Christian Thordal: When Applying Scrum By The Book Fails, Understanding Context Before Changing The System Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes . "I treated Scrum like a military SOP — follow the book, execute the steps. But I failed to see that the context was really the tipping point. What looked like a problem was actually their solution." - Christian Thordal Christian shares a hard-won lesson from his time coaching three RPA teams at one of Denmark's largest banks during the pandemic. He inherited teams running six-week sprints with half-hour planning sessions that amounted to little more than putting items on a calendar. As a former Danish Army officer, Christian's instinct was to fix the obvious deviation from the Scrum Guide — the sprint length. He advocated for shorter feedback loops and eventually convinced the Product Owner, who also served as the director, to try two-week sprints. The first planning session was a disaster. There was yelling and scolding, and it became clear that the real problem had nothing to do with sprint length. The teams had no proper backlog. The six-week sprints actually worked because they gave teams enough time to go out to the business, discover work, and deliver it within a single cycle. Christian realized he had been applying Scrum mechanically without understanding how work entered the system. He started attending business analyst and PO meetings, uncovered the backlog gap, and helped the teams build a proper one. His key insight: what looks like a symptom can actually be a pragmatic solution to real constraints. Understand the system before you change it. In this episode, we refer to the…

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