From Scrum to Dime: How Deployment Meetings Revolutionize Software Development
Introduction
Time is money, and meetings can often feel like an enemy of productivity. At our software development consultancy, we’ve reimagined the traditional Agile process to minimize unnecessary interruptions and maximize our team’s efficiency. We’ve adopted two key practices:
Deployment Meetings and the Principle of Least Privilege.
These unconventional methods have not only streamlined our workflow but also saved us a substantial amount of time and money compared to traditional methodologies like Scrum. In this blog, we’ll dive deep into our approach, showcase its benefits, and even provide you with a formula to calculate the potential monetary value for your company.
Deployment Meetings: When Code Meets Purpose
Unlike traditional Agile practices, we don’t hold daily or weekly meetings just for the sake of it. Our Deployment Meetings are a crucial part of our process, but we only convene when there is enough code to deploy. This means we don’t waste valuable time on meetings that don’t directly contribute to progress. The primary goal of these meetings is simple: put that code on that link. It’s a highly focused effort that ensures that our work translates directly into tangible results.
The Principle of Least Privilege: Only Necessary Attendees
We’ve coined our own sarcastic twist on privilege: the Principle of Least Privilege (PLP). This principle dictates that we only invite the individuals who are absolutely necessary for a meeting. Say goodbye to daily time-sink meetings and unproductive standups that can feel more like a ritual than a useful gathering.
Thanks to the PLP, our teams don’t meet until they genuinely need to collaborate. This might not happen for months on end, and that’s precisely what we want. As a consultancy that handles multiple projects in parallel, this approach allows our developers to focus on the task at hand, rather than diverting their attention to unnecessary meetings.
Monetary Savings Over Scrum
Now, let’s get down to the numbers. The true magic of our approach is the substantial savings it offers. Here’s a simple formula to help you calculate how much time and money your company could save by adopting our methodology:
Savings ($) = (Total number of meetings per year) x (Average wasted duration of a meeting in hours) x (Average hourly wage of an engineer) x (Number of engineers)
For example, let’s say you have 10 engineers on your team, and the average hourly wage is $50. In a typical year, you would have 200 meetings that waste 15 minutes for each engineer. Using the formula:
Savings = 200 x 0.25 x 50 x 10 = $25,000
In this conservative scenario, your company could save $25,000 annually just by adopting our approach!
Conclusion
Our Agile software consultancy has redefined the way we work, prioritizing productivity and efficiency. By replacing daily meetings with Deployment Meetings and embracing the Principle of Least Privilege, we’ve not only reduced unnecessary interruptions but also unlocked significant monetary savings. This innovative approach is perfect for companies that work on multiple projects in parallel and value their engineers’ time. So, calculate the potential monetary value for your company, embrace the change, and experience the sweet taste of time savings while boosting your bottom line.