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Scrum in Universities

October 11, 2010

Scrum has great benefits that can be used to improve the way we work and is being taken to the University level. Watch the story of how the students working on Design Studio projects at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Raikes School of Computer Science and Management have increased their delivery to clients using Scrum.

Click here to watch the video: http://www.scrumalliance.org/pages/who_uses_scrum

(download)

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Where do we go from here?

October 8, 2010

It's *already* been two weeks since the Scrum Beyond Software gathering. To the attendees, 
how you would like to keep the momentum going? Post comments below on your ideas, thoughts for ways we can continue to connect, share stories, opportunities, work collaboratively and support one another.

One fruit from the event I'm excited about is helping Kennan with her amazing event to bring down walls and foster collaboration in the world of science. Tobias is presenting a session on Scrum, and I know Lyssa is hoping to be there for the panel sessions. Read more about it, then consider making a donation as funds are in short supply. A BIG shout out to Pascal for following through on his promise to start micro-financing projects that matter by donating to this!

Towards a better future together,
- Gerry Kirk

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"Scrum beyond Software" from my perspective as your Open Spacefacilitator

October 1, 2010

This is what I posted on the International Open Space Technology practitioner email list which people can join if they’re interested in Open Space. http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html 

For those who are interested in Open Space in general, you check this out too!  http://www.openspaceworld.org

“At the very beginning, the recovered “Miss Fix it” that I was with “No task too big” from the corporate world, becoming an Open Space facilitator seemed like a climb to Mount Everest. This weekend supported by so many friends (Christine Whitney Sanchez, Harold Shinsato, Lisa Heft, Larry Peterson, Diane Gibeault, Harrison of course, Alan Stewart, Juan Luis Walker and so many others), I felt I peaked at a Base Camp level with an absolutely wonderful team: members of the Scrum Technology community and their many allies.  Indeed I have facilitated many Open Space events  but this one in Phoenix AZ was truly unique and special.

For this two day event, there was community before we even met.  (The true spirit of pre-work as Ms Heft would call it). Weeks before, topics were flying on the internet around this theme of “Scrum beyond Software” on blogs, on twitter, on facebook and everywhere. Dreams were starting to crystallize, anticipation was building and the spirit of welcome was in the air.

I’ll admit that I was somewhat trepidatious in this chaotic, “who’s doing what” shared leadership, self-organizing world with my new techie friends. I breathed in and breathed out, knowing that what they have done to change the world in technology, in community, as free agents and free spirits to make this global world a smaller place, through technology change and large system change, well I knew they had something precious to share with the rest of the world.  And share they did.

From California to Serbia, Canada to the Eastern US, from the Mid-West to the Far-West, they came.  The banner and welcome signs became works of art, the chairs quickly arranged in circle, everything was ready the night before. Comfortably settled in this incredible place called “Gangplank”, certainly worth reading about (http://gangplankhq.com/ ) that could not have been better chosen for all its principles and values which parallel so much of who we are in Open Space, the conversations began.  Quickly participants bounded to the center, many still infused with the Orlando event last March that Harrison hosted.  The topics just kept coming, too many to really count because it really didn’t matter.  It was the passion behind the words that mattered most.  

What I realized in that instant is that when there is a spirit of welcome, a diverse group, people who are there because they want to be there, a sense of urgency because the world needs this and a complex topic that sparks and ignites, well indeed magic or real life happens.  People quickly shed their facades, threw caution to the wind, and they got to work.  In my opening remarks, I talked about nervous energy (for those who had never sat in a circle like this in Open Space) and pent-up energy (for those who just wanted to get on with it so pressing were the topics they wanted to discuss) suggesting that these were the perfect ingredients for innovation and creativity.  I invited all to pause, to look around that giant circle as if seated in the Arizona desert  to see who was there and to leave room from within for the 4 principles and the Law of 2 feet to do their thing.  Leave some space to be surprised, I said, and let go of pre-determined expectations.  These principles and this law, would be some of the precious take-aways to be used in our life beyond this event.  

No sooner were those words spoken than my job was done.  I truly became invisible (with a slight tad of sadness I’ll admit) knowing that passion and responsibility had found their place and there was truly nothing left to do.  Yes in some cases, there were concerns: were people documenting their reports, were we capturing the names of all the participants…and I chose to simply smile knowing that I could not interrupt the intense conversations (butterflies, bumble bees and participants) as it would perhaps crash the one magical moment where individuals were connecting and creating something greater than I could imagine.  I had no doubt that everything would be alright, that responsibility would combine with passion and that action would naturally emerge which it did and will.

So I stood back and quietly watched the intense expressions, the energy bouncing off the walls (exhausting at times), the charged discussions, the markers flying on the flip chart sheets, the smart phone video cameras capturing the action in the moment, the live stream twitter comments enticing folks outside the room to respond. It was exciting; it was exhilarating!  Anyone interested, have a peak (blogs and live stream) http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/

And then at some point, I shed my facilitator role too and had a few wonderful and life changing conversations with a few butterflies.

As we closed the circle after two days asking people to say not what they thought but rather to describe how they “felt” about what had happened, I knew then just as I had experienced it at the Wave Rider event in Toronto (with Harrison Owen based on the title of his latest book)  and also at WOSonOS (WORLD OPEN SPACE on OPEN SPACE)  in Taiwan that these moments would never happen again. This is it and this is now!   Certainly what happened in those two days borrowing from the title of one of Harrison’s books is that for those two days in Phoenix, we were “Expanding our Now” and I, for one, will be forever grateful to have had a small part in making this happen with others.   My love affair with Open Space continues. “

Suzanne

Suzanne Daigle

Managing Partner US Operations

s.daigle@nufocusgroup.com

www.nufocusgroup.com

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NuFocus Strategic Group
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University Park, FL 06820
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Achieving Business Strategic Goals with Agile Methods

September 30, 2010

THE QUESTION:  Can we use Scrum/Agile to help achieve business strategic goals...and what might that look like?

We started with a discussion of how a Company’s strategic planning without Scrum/Agile might look.  Our example revealed a strategic planning process that included input to the strategic planning process via SWOT analyses, the creation of annual objectives, quarterly Tactical Operating Priorities (TOPs), and then more detailed SMARTs (for achieving the TOPs).  We then asked the question of “Where and how this process might benefit from a more Scrum-like/Agile process?” 

Next, we had a brief discussion about some challenges of the non-Scrum approach described above:

• Transparency of progress at the lower levels (i.e., SMART progress)

    o Tracking progress required someone to go and ask various people about status of TOPs and SMARTs.

• Impediments (what’s impeding SMART progress)

   o Impediments didn’t necessarily become known (or resolved) in a timely manner.

• Understanding that the goal (TOP) has really been met.

 

We then took a look at some of the Scrum components to see if they could apply, and if they did, would the process be better:

• Scrum Roles

   o Scrummaster – <not discussed>

   o Product Owner – the PO provided interesting discussion.  We generally felt that the President / CEO would be a product owner…possibly a “chief product owner”, with other executives acting as “TOP owners” (The TOP owners responsible for achieving the TOP don’t necessarily have to be executives).

   o The Team – The term “team” applies, but at different levels.  The collection of people that “own” the quarterly TOPs act as a “TOP Team”.  Additionally, strategic TOPs vary widely in their goals, and the people within the company that are best suited to achieve those goals vary greatly.  So, the set of people that own the SMARTS identified to achieve a TOP represent another Team.

 

• Prep-work / Backlog Creation

   o Talked about strategic goals representing the backlog.

   o Backlog can be built using traditional strategic planning mechanism (e.g., SWOT), and President/CEO acts as final PO, prioritizing the Strategic priorities (with help of executive team).

   o Grooming backlog – not really discussed, but the breaking down of TOPS into SMARTS is analogous to breaking down epics into stories.

 

• Release Planning

o Strategic planning releases tend to be on “Quarterly” releases.

 

• Iteration Planning

   o An analogy to iteration planning would be running multiple iterations during a quarter.  This may or may not be useful…and quarterly strategic objectives may or may not fit into an iteration, e.g., six 2-week iterations?

 

• Tracking / Visibility

   o Some sort of Agile tracking would help provide visibility/transparency.  Burn downs would also be useful.

 

• Daily Standup

   o Daily may not be needed, but some sort of standup would provide the “standard” benefits – e.g., keeping people moving, identifying impediments quickly, needed collaboration, etc.

 

• Demo

   o A demo of the accomplishments towards the strategic goals would be useful.  This simple Agile technique would force the needed accountability and resolve any "Is it done?" questions.

 

• Retrospective

   o Always useful to think about what went well, what didn’t, and possible improvements.  This regular, consistent, review of the process would provide the same benefits as it does in software development

 

If anybody is interested in exploring this more, please contact me perry.reinert@infusionsoft.com.

 

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Scrum In Portfolio/Product Management

September 30, 2010

INITIATOR

David Fox

PARTICIPANTS

Lisa Mauren, Bernadette Wellman, Alan Dayley, Paul Kerper, Richard Marks, Rich Cheng

SCRUM IN PORTFOLIO / PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

* Like a road map providing prioritized direction for portfolio/product.
* Business has to breakdown need into pieces that can leverage opportunities scrum delivery can offer.
* Senior level management and product ownership level must have access to each for this to work.
* If organization is adverse to change or "additional process" may need to introduce scrum concepts subtly without passing the name "scrum" or associated terms.
* There needs to be clear path to input ideas for their consideration; should include success criteria. One company uses a standard form which asks a series of questions, all as consideration to submit for their backlog.
* Backlog is reviewed weekly by key decision makers; sizing is preparatory to it, size may effect priority.
* Scrum at portfolio/product management level involves many levels; they should all have a common language of terms..

* Initial estimate of cost should be based on sizing; an empirical view should be used if available.
* Bring in "flavor" of floor experience into estimation process.
* If something is too big too size, consider breaking it down.

* Need to identify your Product Owners, those that own the ROI. They have to exist at the portfolio level. Look for portfolio owner as a possibility.
* When implementing Scrum and related roles like Product Owner, cannot let the existing structure continue to be the voice, must be given to the Product Owner.
* One organization has Functional Steering Committee using Scrum.
* Focus on principles/values.
* Have a Chief Scrum Master.
* Take a look at SAP which had a rigid organization, Carlie Gehle provided scrum coaching there. She is now with U.S. Airways.
* Take a look also at Max Keeler.

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Scrum/KanBan for Instructional Design Session Summary

September 29, 2010

The session addressed the following topics:

-how to apply scrum and KanBan concepts to the development of instruction
-is the ADDIE model of instructional design similar to a waterfall method?
-scrum application in an outsourced development model
-scrum application to medical education or education in general

The following process for online course development was shared:
1. Write course objectives
2. Write course description
3. Get course approval
4. Write weekly objectives*
5. Write learning activities*
6. Add content*
7. Create syllabus*
8. Writer teaches first course
9. Updates are made
10. Write instructor guide

The * areas are the ones in which user stories might be beneficial.

A resource for managing the repetitive activities for developing a course is: leankitkanban.com

ADDIE discussion: (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation)
-if implemented as the product development process, ADDIE is similar to waterfall
-although it is said to be iterative, when implemented without working in layers, it can lead to rework
-the phases of ADDIE can fit into a scrum model if deconstructed and applied with other lean and agile principles

Outsourced Development Model:
-a KanBan board may help track progress
-emphasis should be on reviews of completed lessons to insure instructional integrity

Scrum Application to Medical Education:
-learning outcomes = backlog
-reflection = retrospective
-individual lesson = sprint
-entire curriculum = release

This discussion spawned an action to look into an experiential learning session for learning professionals on how scrum applies to education.

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Scrum Beyond Software Open Space Sessions Index

September 29, 2010

Below are links to each of the session summaries...enjoy!

Scrum and the Improv Arts: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/scrum-and-the-improv-arts

The Common Foundation of Scrum: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/the-common-foundation-of-scrum-0  

Ripples from the Future: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/session-ripples-from-the-future  

Agile Scrum in Physical Fitness, Personal Training, and Nutrition: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/agile-scrum-in-physical-fitness-personal-trai  

Games that Matter: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/games-that-matters  

Evolve! Using Scrum to Raise Consciousness and Awareness in the Workplace: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/evolve-using-scrum-to-raise-consciousness-and  

Creating a Working, Experimental Micro-finance Model for new Knowledge and Community Resources: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/microfinance-session  

Using Scrum in Mixed Technology: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/using-scrum-in-mixed-technology  

"Interrupt Driven" Scrum: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/interrupt-driven-scrum  

Scrum Congress. I think I Want it- Could it Work?: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/scrum-congress-i-think-i-want-it-could-it-wor  

Can we Mobilize the Agile Community to Tackle the Critical Problems in our World?: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/can-we-mobilize-the-agile-community-to-tackle  

Scrum in Infrastructure: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/scrum-in-infrastructure

Scrum/Kanban for Instructional Design Session Summary: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/scrumkanban-for-instructional-design-session

Scrum in Portfolia/Product Management: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/private/CHvyyICtCB

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