Comfortably Scrum
A Senior Scrum Master examines Liberty Mutual’s decision to move to a Scrum framework, and how it’s paying off in uncertain times.
When Liberty Mutual’s leadership was deciding on an agile transformation back in 2016, I’m sure that helping teams be successful during a pandemic was not on any list. But maybe it should have been.
Social distancing has forced people to work from home, isolated from one another, which is dramatically different from their usual in-person way of working.
This change has led to many questions, such as:
- Can teams function well if they aren’t sitting together?
- How will teams know what to work on?
- How are teams going to be able to operate over the long term?
The answer to these questions is found by using Scrum and leveraging its Agile principles.
Our teams have been using the Scrum framework for years now, utilizing its practices each Sprint. And it is the same framework that will allow Scrum Teams to be successful during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Development team connects every day to plan their work for the next 24 hours. A simple conference call will get the job done. In addition to discussing what they will do today, it also provides an opportunity to highlight any unique impediments the team may have due to the changes this crisis has forced upon everyone.
Having one or two members within a team working from home can be handled easily enough. Having every person within the company working from home is a whole other level of complexity. Scrum makes sure there is continual alignment between stakeholders and the Scrum Team through Sprint Reviews. Switching the Sprint Review to a video conference will let everyone continue to inspect what has happened during the past Sprint and adapt the Product Backlog if needed for future Sprints.
Scrum provides a great way to measure how much work a team can handle during a single sprint. This measurement is called velocity. Continuing to work during this pandemic may cause a team’s velocity to dip for many reasons, from technical challenges to personal stressors. Being able to measure velocity will help adjust expectations and priorities during the team’s Sprint Planning. Analysis of team velocity may also help inform the organization on how the pandemic is impacting its teams.
Strengthen the team’s commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect to its customers, stakeholders, and one another.
The most significant value of Scrum during this pandemic is the Sprint Retrospective. Scrum Teams need time to pause and discuss the successes, failures, and challenges they have had. It will strengthen the team’s commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect to its customers, stakeholders, and one another.
If you questioned that Scrum was the right choice, it was. It helps creates confident teams that are creative, resourceful, and whole.
Leadership doesn’t always get the praise they deserve, but their continuous commitment to Agile is one reason we can be resilient and continue to meet the needs of our customers during this challenging time. And for that, we are grateful.
