Case Study: Agile at scale led by SPOTIFY model for a UK based Product Engineering Firm | Benzne Consulting Pvt Ltd

Agile project management is a very involved process.

While it is designed to improve project management in numerous ways — and by most accounts does just that — it still involves large teams, a variety of tasks, and a degree of flexibility that other methods don’t account for.

If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs, our comprehensive guide to agile can serve as a nice introduction.But basically, it’s a project management process designed to foster collaboration with stakeholders, on-the-go adjustments, and rapid prototype delivery, all in the name of achieving a perfected final product.Generally speaking, agile project management is viewed as a very effective modern method.

Read the full article at Orangescrum Blog

Many folks on LinkedIn these days, seems to have a renewed interest in firing the Scrum Master.

I have been asked quiet a few times personally as to what will the scrum master do now that we are heading to a ‘New Normal’.I don’t have a crystal ball and I do not know how to read the tarot cards and so I really cannot predict what will happen in the new normal.One thing that is pretty evident is businesses are actively exploring ways to build resilience and to quickly adapt to the new normal and this, I strongly believe, is what agility was all along.With this deliberate focus of adapting the new normal, I believe, the Scrum Master role, the internal change agent, becomes critical.

So, it’s time to stop marginalizing the Scrum Master role and make an effort to understand what the role entails.

Here is a quick summary (a rather reductionistic view) of the role:Accountability of Scrum Master– Help the scrum team and the organization understand and enact scrum.Yes, his responsibility doesn’t end with helping the development team understand scrum but rather encompasses the Product Owner role and every function that are part of the delivery ecosystem.Yes!

That’s right the Scrum Masters are the Change Leaders who bring about the transformation of the system.Responsibilities of a Scrum Master –Towards the Development Team:Provide & protect AutonomyGenerate AccountabilityHelp to balance Autonomy & AccountabilityTowards the Product Owner:Product planning in an empirical environment including generatingForecast which provides transparency and business insights for stakeholdersProduct roadmap which provides the expected revenue projectionRelease planning which enables maximizing the ROIEffective product backlog management – defining business value & prioritization techniquesEffective stakeholder management Towards the Organization:Planning, leading and coaching the Organization towards AgilityThe business strategy office with insights to build stability (Process enhancement for BAU) & agility (discontinuous innovation for new business/opportunities)Finance function with Horizon based planning and Lean budgetingHR functions with Evidence-Based Management & OKRDecentralized procurement using agile contractsBuilding and Operating Agile and Scrum community, the alliance that will propel and lead the changeSo, if you find that I have missed mentioning somethings basic that pops up in many minds when talking about a day in the life of a scrum master say for example –Setting up Scrum events & inviting participants and moderating itAssigning, tracking and managing individuals’ workAttending Daily Scrum and solving each & every problem of the Dev TeamThat’s just because that’s not what they do.

Yes, as absurd as it might sound, Scrum Masters are not the teams’ admin or secretary.I believe it is the scrum master role that will plays a pivotal role in co-creating and evolving the organization’s capability to survive the pandemic and then thrive in the new normal.With this I hope, together, we can now focus on building a way of working that’s best suited for the new normal rather than wondering if it is time to fire the scrum master.Note : This post is originally published on Agilemania.

Lean thinking is a type of business methodology that is designed to provide a way to think about how to organize the human activities for delivering more profits to the society and worth to the individuals in the elimination of waste. The main motive of lean thinking is to form a lean enterprise that will sustain growth by supporting customer satisfaction along with employee satisfaction. This serves innovative products or services profitably by reducing the needless costs to customers, suppliers and the environment. Lean thinking helps the individuals in identifying the wasted time and efforts on their job and even better way to work together for improving the processes by eliminating these wastes. Through this, the enterprise will be able to deliver more results at lesser expenses while developing the employee's confidence, competence and the ability to work with the others.

5 principles that will include your workplace efficiency are:

Defining Value:   

For understanding the first principle you have to understand what value is. Value is nothing but the amount the customer is ready to pay for. It is vital to find out the actual need of the customers. sometimes it may happen the customer may not know what they are looking for. This takes place especially when it comes to novel products and technologies. There are many procedures to find out what the customer is looking for through interviews, surveys, demographic information, and web analytics. By making use of these qualitative and quantitative techniques you will be able to discover what is the need of the customer and what the customers want and how they want the products or services to get delivered and the price they proposed.

Map the value streams:

The second important principle is identifying and mapping the Value stream.  Here, the aim is to make use of the customer’s value as a reference point and identifying the activities which contribute to these values. Those products that do not add value to the end customers are considered waste. These wastes are broken down into two groups: one is the non-value added but necessary and the other non-value added but unnecessary. The former needs to be reduced as much as possible but the latter is a complete waste and should be deleted. By eliminating the unnecessary waste processes or steps you will be able to make sure that the customers are getting exactly what they want and the cost of producing the product and services also reduces.

Creating flow:

Well, after the removal of the wastes from the value streams following actions are taken to make sure that the flow of the remaining steps runs smoothly without any interruption or delays. Some of the strategies for value-adding activities flow effortlessly involves breaking down steps, leveling out the workload, reconfiguring the production steps, forming the cross-functional departments and coaching the employees to be multi-skilled and adaptive.

Create Pull:

The main aim of the pull-based system is limiting the inventory as well as work in process items that ensure that the requisite materials and information are all available for the smoother flow of work. On the other hand, a pull-based system helps in on-time delivery and manufacture where the products are created on time which is needed and in quantities required. The pull-based system is crafted out of the need of the end customers. By following the value streams, you will make sure that the product which is produced will be able to meet the demands of the customers.

Pursuing Perfection:

By following the first four steps you will be able to prevent wastes. Last but not the least Pursuing perfection is one of the important steps among all the other. Moreover, it makes the lean thinking and continuous process as a part of the organizational culture. Every employee needs to strive towards perfection while delivering the products that are based on the need of the customer. Thus, the company must be a learning organization and should always seek something better every day.

Conclusion:

With the introduction of the Agile methodology, there is a drastic change in the work process. Lean thinking helps the organization in its growth by removing waste. Lean helps the manager by finding out the inefficiencies and delivering the best value to the customers. Thus, this helps in forming an efficient and effective organization. Moreover, the principles help in crafting the proper flow of work process as well as developing improvement in the culture.

If you want to opt for any Agile certification course, you can become a part of LeanWisdom one of the leading Agile certification providers. Here, you will get the opportunity to get trained by renowned trainers who has hands-on experience in implementing Agile and Scaled Agile. To know about their upcoming batches and courses you can visit their website.

Agile testing is a software testing process. That follows the principles of agile software development. And most the testers prefer the Agile. Here get the information about why testers prefer to work with an agile approach than traditional.

Agile software development methodology is increasingly versatile to changes as there is no inside and out arranging toward the start of an undertaking rather there are changing requirements throughout the span of the task.

A steady criticism from the end users is energized.

In lithe, there is a gradual and iterative development methodology.