While discussing some stuff with Scrum gurus I discovered my view on transparency differs from theirs. This intrigued me so I digged deeper. This is what I found.
Scrum (http://scrumguides.org)
Significant aspects of the process must be visible to those responsible for the outcome.
Sociocracy 3.0 (https://sociocracy30.org):
Make all information accessible to everyone in an organization, unless there is a reason for confidentiality.
There are some obvious similarities. Both understand the transparency as opening things up for inspection to others. Both also give some space for interpretation. “Significant aspect” of a process in Scrum is a matter of discussion. Same can be said about a “reason for confidentiality” in a specific case of S3 organization.
But there are also important differences.
Firstly, the difference is what is considered to be default. In Scrum approach, only things that were considered to be “significant aspects” should be transparent. In S3, only things that were considered to be worth hiding should be hidden. Scrum by default hides things. S3 by default shows them.
Secondly, who should benefit from transparency? In Scrum, only “those responsible for the outcome” of a process in question are the chosen ones. In S3 “everyone in organization” has the right to look into what others are doing.
That is pretty interesting to me. Same term — transparency — that you could say has a clear definition might mean very different things. A Scrum organization can claim to be transparent and be very different in this aspect than an S3 organization also claiming transparency.
And BTW. in which kind of transparency — S3 or Scrum — would you like to live and why?