Coffee and Scrum - is there a connection?

Дата публикации: 14-09-2026 12:02:49

Years ago when I was a Scrum Master for a great team we had a ritual. Right before the Daily Scrum, we would walk to our tea/coffee station and fill up our cups with our choice of drink and then walk back to our Jira board to inspect our progress. And I assume, a lot of other teams also do the same. Grabbing their favorite drink, right before starting their day. At that time, coffee was just a drink, coming out of the machine and I never cared much about the science and recipes behind a great cup. A week ago, I completed my “barista” training and I was blown away by the amount of work that goes into making a great cup of coffee.This article is not for teaching anything new about Scrum but sharing an observation from an everyday life workplace which applies the same principles as Scrum. 



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The usual questionsOften when I am teaching one of Scrum classes someone asks - can Scrum be applied outside of software development? Someone states it is only for the ideal world and not for the real application. And then there is someone else who likes to share how they make their grocery runs using scrum. All different perspectives, all valid to some extent.I answer such questions/remarks from a place of curiosity. What they intend to achieve by applying scrum in their context and then focus on driving the idea of principles over practices.The Agile ManifestoScrum has been around before the manifesto was drafted and yet I was introduced to Scrum as an approach under the agile umbrella along with many other approaches. That was an exact image in the Scrum class I attended back in 2013. And consciously or subconsciously that image remained stuck in my learning for a long time. Even today I see a lot of Scrum Masters making posts on social media that have the same image and probably draw the same parallels which I used to have. Now, the agile manifesto clearly starts with the heading - Manifesto for Agile Software Development. So if you are into software development then surely agile is for you. And because Scrum is quite often put under that umbrella, it is considered only for software development. I have observed many organizations drawing a strict line - if it is support work, use kanban; if it is software development use Scrum.The Scrum guideIf we go to the origins of Scrum and start reading through the Scrum guide, it clarifies that Scrum is useful to solve complex problems. Complex means when there are many variables at play. And most of the variables are not clearly defined or may evolve over a period of time. With that definition, software development sounds pretty appropriate a place where Scrum can really add a lot of value; coffee making not so much. 🙂But then we come to principles. Scrum is based on Empiricism, which is learning from experience and making decisions based on observation. And that principle can be applied to every field, not just software development.The lessons from Barista training The first thing I learned in my training was the life cycle of the coffee bean even before it is ready to be brewed. There are 3 steps to a great cup of coffee:Farming and Harvesting:Creating the right “terroir” for the coffee plants so that great beans can be harvested requires “Empiricism”. Coffee plantation owners try different methods to figure out what gives their coffee different flavours. In India many plantations grow spices and fruits along with coffee. That gives the coffee flavour notes of cinnamon, pomegranate, grapes and more. The coffee plantation owners have to apply “Empiricism” to find the right blend to make their coffee taste different. Farming and harvesting is followed by cleaning of coffee beans. At this stage, plantation owners can Inspect and Adapt to make their coffee stand out. More recently, they are even using Rum and Whiskey barrels to give coffee different tasting notes. Empiricism in full glory, I believe. Roasting the coffee:Roasting is no different. If you happen to buy coffee beans you would often see the labeling as roast being either dark, light, medium, medium light or medium dark. And all that again requires continuous Inspection and Adaptation to figure out what roast works for which kind of coffee bean. The same roast level may give completely different taste notes for different coffees and different roasting levels create different tastes in the same coffee bean. Again, the coffee roaster is constantly applying empiricism to find the best roasts for a given coffee bean.Brewing the coffee:This is a completely different level of game. Once you have your beans roasted and ready to brew coffee, you have so many options - from making an espresso, a cappuccino, a cold coffee, a french press or my latest favorite a V60 pour over.And each of this requires a lot of decision making based on observations aka empiricism to get a real good coffee cup. To illustrate, I will take a simple example of V60 pour over to show the variables at play. First and foremost, the dripper V60 comes in plastic as well as ceramic. Depending on the material of choice, the heat dissipation will work. Second comes the filter paper - regular or fast pour i.e. how quickly should water pass through the filter paper and thus through the coffee bed.Third, the coffee grind size, coarser the coffee faster the water flows through it making the extraction quick but sour to taste. Make it finer, water takes longer but also makes the coffee bitter.Fourth, the coffee itself. Is it dark roasted or light, medium or medium light or medium dark. That impacts the temperature of water needed to get great coffee. Lighter roasts require almost boiling water while darker roasts are more forgiving and a temperature of 85-90 degrees celsius works well.Fifth, the time of extraction. How long water is allowed to be in contact with the coffee. A change in minute of extraction and coffee goes from great to hell.A barista has to go through all these variables every time they are brewing a cup of coffee and their sprint is usually 5 minutes tops to create a releasable product. They call it dialing in the coffee. And this is where I believe coffee making and scrum have an interesting intersection. The application of principles. Empiricism, is as important for a barista as it is for any software developer.Both the Barista and Software Developer need to inspect and adapt constantly to the variables that impact their deliverables. Failing to do so delivers an increment that leaves the customer unhappy and unsatisfied.Conclusion:Irrespective of the field of work, if your work involves constant decision making and has many variables impacting the workflow, principles of Scrum - Empiricism and Lean Thinking - can be applied to deliver the value the customer is expecting. Yes, you might not need the full Scrum framework, you might not need a whole Scrum Team and yes you might not call it Scrum. But that’s alright. Focus on principles over practices. Practices will evolve as we learn more; principles remain intact. P.S. If you want to learn Scrum with more realistic examples and real world experience then you are welcome to explore our classes at https://agilemania.com/scrum-orgP.P.S If you want to be mentored or exploring coaching check my offerings:Catalyst Circle: https://www.piyushrahate.com/catalyst-circle-an-agile-mastery-mentorship-program/Metamorphosis: https://www.piyushrahate.com/metamorphosis/ 

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