Presenter: Machiel Groeneveld

Objective(s) of the session:

  • Scrum sometimes need to be tuned to increase performance, my story is an example
  • Example of kanban-inspired task board: more visual workflow helps see the problem and make the stand-up more effective.
  • The positive effects of removing the time-boxed iterations: planning is easier, retrospectives are on-demand, priorities can change at the last moment.
  • How to overcome the negatives of removing iterations: introduce milestones or themes
  • A personal message: I once was a Scrum zealot, but I needed to change my dogma to improve the teams performance.

Contents:

I've been on a project for approximately 10 months as lead developer. When I started at this assignment the team was under high pressure and there was a chaos, little collaboration and loads of work in progress. There was a lot of dysfunctional behavior and the deadline was surely unattainable. During the course of a few months the team and I changed the process to a WIP-limited flow, made it more clear what the product owner needed to do, made planning velocity based and put testing on-track. The presentation will present the timeline and I'll explain the things that we used (kanban board, testing methods) and the result (increased teamwork and speed)

Format and length: 40-60 mins presentation with 20 mins for questions in between.

Process and timetable:

  • Setting the stage: when I started, the team was doing Scrum, or were they?
  • I'll tell you about some symptoms and things not working well
  • The State of Scrum: what was the team doing, was is Scrumbutt? How did they score?
  • Some things didn't work well. 2 questions for the audience, what would you do and what would you try to find out more on?
  • I'll go over the timeline and explain what we changed during the course of the coming months and what effect it had.
  • End with: To make a pun at Scrumbutt: my list of ScrumNots: things most Scrum teams struggle with and my solutions. Would you try any of these to fix your ScrumNot symptoms?

Intended audience and prerequisites:

People with some Agile experience. Most value will come when you know what an Agile introduction feels like and you can identify with the symptoms of a struggling (Agile) team.