When most people hear the word “Scrum,” they probably envision a mashing of heads and limbs on a rugby pitch. In the software world, however, Scrum means something very different.
Most often associated with product management and development, Scrum is an agile development framework for creating high-performing teams and vastly improved organizational productivity. And it’s not just for programmers and product developers anymore.
Dr. Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, explains some of the stumbling blocks that companies and teams run into when implementing Scrum and offers tactics to avoid them.
Although Scrum is more popular than ever, the reality is that only 10 to 15 percent of companies are realizing its full potential. Often, this is because Scrum, while easy to understand, can be a difficult process to implement properly. Jeff Sutherland, CEO of Scrum Inc. recently sat down with OpenView (listen to the full interview here) to provide solutions to some of the common pitfalls that cause companies to come up short of achieving the full benefits of Scrum.
Dr. Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, identifies the trends set to have a major impact on agile development over the course of the year. Some of his insights may surprise you.
The economy may be slowly bouncing back, but companies across the country are still looking to reduce their inefficiencies while ratcheting up productivity. For many, that means asking their employees to produce more with less, and that makes Scrum more necessary and in-demand than ever.
What do the next 12 months have in store for Scrum? Here are three areas to watch for indications of how the methodology is rapidly adapting and being put to new use.
Bring the rapid reactions of the sky to your company by following the agile management lessons and practices of pilots.
At first glance, sitting behind a computer running a company doesn’t exactly translate to a fighter pilot controlling some of the most powerful weapons of warfare in existence.
In this week’s Labcast, Scrum co-creator Jeff Sutherland highlights the most common hurdles teams face when implementing Scrum and offers his solutions for how to check them out for good.
It’s no secret that in today’s uncertain economy, companies are pushing their employees to do more with fewer resources. As a result, people need to be more organized and efficient than ever before just to be effective at their jobs. It’s a tall order, and one that requires a trusted solution.
If Scrum teams at your organization are operating in guerrilla fashion without proper buy-in and support from above it’s safe to say they’re not operating optimally.
“We’re to the point in the development of Scrum where a lot of Scrum teams are executing Scrum very well,” says Scrum Inc. COO Alex Brown in this short video. “What seems to be the single biggest impediment for a lot of them at this point is that the leadership that they’re working for doesn’t understand Scrum, doesn’t understand how Scrum team works, and is very often asking team to report upwards in a traditional waterfall way, which actually is pretty incompatible with the way an efficient Scrum team works.”
Dr. Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, provides best practices for implementing the agile development methodology that will take your team’s productivity and efficiency to the next level.
With today’s companies expected to deliver impact and results more quickly and efficiently than ever before, agile development methodologies like Scrum can provide them with a structure and roadmap to success.
Getting on board with the theory behind Scrum is easy. Actually putting it into practice? Sometimes that’s a different story.
When it comes to implementing Scrum, success isn’t always a given. In this series of videos, Scott Downey, seasoned Scrum expert and owner of RapidScrum.com, provides a crash course in getting it right.
Should the Product Owner in Scrum have some software engineering experience to direct the team properly?
Suzanne Kattau of the San Diego Times writes that the executive overseeing production might not be the best Product Owner in the agile development process.
Take a cue from the development team and adopt a lean marketing approach that allows you to churn out better content faster.
Ellie Mirman of Hubspot writes that “too many marketers are stuck in a reactive – or, worse yet – waterfall process of planning, writing, designing, approving, and launching that seems to take twice as long as it should.” Adopt a lean marketing approach and tackle everything faster.