Scrum an agile development methodology framework, many people might not agree and would say its a methodology. As Uncle Bob has commented scrum is deliberately incomplete and can be adapted and makes it best fit for each team.
Then in this scenario can it be really a overhead??
There can be various reasons of why scrum can be felt as burden or a overhead, let´s jot jolt down some of them..
1) Scrum has been imposed on the people and they feel its more to control them than to make life easier. This kind of sensation can be noted when it was only management´s decision to implement scrum and no adequate process of adaptation was undertaken. This can make people think that scrum is overload, its bringing more responsibilities. But really speaking there is only 15mins daily and 3-4 hours bi-weekly. if you hear its a overload/ Overhead, one of the things you can be sure is team is manifesting that the decision is being pushed on them.
2) The case also can be that team doesn't like to follow processes or was not following any formal process of development. In these situations the sprint planning, the daily meetings and the important aspect of iterative delivery can be result like a overhead for the team.
Most probably results from previous development process were late delivery, not meeting user requirements and unmate commitments.
3) The most probable reason is the team only looks at the things they have to do and not what are the improvements/ benefits such as greater visibility into progress, closer contact with customers and users who can validate that the most-desired features are being built, closer coordination and greater communication with coworkers to ensure all team members are heading in the same direction, and so on....
4) The other possible reason can be that the scrum principles are not being followed correctly. The daily meeting are not limited to 3 answers and are being done for extended period of time. The planning meetings are uninformative and also extended period of time. The sprints and teams are not blinded. and so on...
5) Feeling of scrum overhead can also be existent if the team doesn't feel integrated. If there is non-existence of common projects or common Goals. This situation normally arises in the companies which are oriented towards services rather than products.
Said this a team can work its progress towards a scrumbutt most probally goes through one of these reasons. The most important part of implementation teams believing in scrum and understanding how it helps them to improve the work environment.
In my own experience Scrum is lightweight, the management is low and it gives more productive time and helps us in improving our focus on the planned work, reducing the deviations and raising the alarms in early stages.
Common sense is most important aspect of Scrum.
