> "SCRUM... only exists so that companies can signal agility and management consultancies can sell agility."
many companies employ scrum that way, but it's not instrinsic to scrum. it really depends on where the locus of control is. if it's firmly outside the team, it doesn't matter which methodology you use, you're looked at as cogs in the machine, as order takers. the locus needs to be in, or at the very least, right next to, the team for any kind of agile development to work. it's usually top-down hierarchy that causes that kind of friction and expectation mismatch.
But if the team has the impetus to change the processes, they can get rid of the SCRUM rituals that don't work for them. Given that it comes with quite a few, bottom up SCRUM will inevitably change into an actual agile system suited to the team.
I've never worked in a team (or run a team) where SCRUM was kept wholesale by the team or anything other than SCRUM sprints were chosen by management.
many companies employ scrum that way, but it's not instrinsic to scrum. it really depends on where the locus of control is. if it's firmly outside the team, it doesn't matter which methodology you use, you're looked at as cogs in the machine, as order takers. the locus needs to be in, or at the very least, right next to, the team for any kind of agile development to work. it's usually top-down hierarchy that causes that kind of friction and expectation mismatch.