Scrum@non IT

Story: Agile Scrum Team@nonIT

Scrum enables organizations to work on a topic in a well-directed and powerfull way. In 2016, we were able to support a team in a four-phases process in order to get to know new agile work forms with Scrum and successfully experience them in a pilot team.

Customer:
Automotive/car industry, OEM

Goal:
Starting a Scrum Team in the non-IT area

Process:
1. Leadership kick-off: In order to enable as many executives as possible to experience the meaning of Scrum ,we decided to build the pilot team with team members from five different functional groups. So, the managerial staff was already involved in the planning before the project started. The basis was a one-day crash course in Scrum as well as another day of mutual strategy development (expectations, product, goals, road map). The product defined by the team was department-wide process improvement.

2. Kick-off with the team: The team members, the future Product Owner and Scrum Master had the opportunity to get to know Scrum in a team kick-off and work with Scrum Inventory like User Stories, Backlog and Sprints right away. The team got the demands already developed by the customer from the Product Owner and started the first Sprint planning. We also used the kick-off to go through typical elements of team development.

3. Pilot phase: In a project phase lasting three months, the team showed a steep learning curve. The on-side support was provided by one of our customer's agile guides. The assignment of a guide who had just completely participated in the first Sprint in the project room was one important factor of the successful and quick cooperation of the team.

4. Link to the rest of the organization: It was the goal to create further motivation for agile work forms and to include the surrounding organization. The team reported their experiences in a large group event and other employees could gain an insight and get to know  agile elements like estimating, working in sprints and with time boxes, reviews and retrospectives in a Scrum exercise within a short time.

Result:
From our perspective, it is possible to use Scrum in a functional organization as a fast lane for particularly complex projects. Thereby, the managerial staff could gain important experience in the sense of Management 3.0: the management's creating good frame conditions was especially significant for the success (room,training, resources etc.). Due to the structured and well-prepared start, the team quickly found common ground and worked with high motivation. The team demonstrated that as an agile team – supported neither by managerial staff nor by a project leader – they repeatedly reached the demanding sprint goals the had chosen themselves.