Trust over control
Agile methods are based on trust. From contract drafting and requirements to meetings – there is so much knowledge in people's minds that not everything can be documented.
Scrum by textbook
In big projects such as Raiffeisen Login or MemberPlus, a comprehensive Scrum setup is worthwhile. The Raiffeisen Product Owner focuses fully on this multifaceted product. On the other hand, The Liip-ScrumMaster supports the entire Scrum team on the way to outright self-organisation. The cross-company team covers all competencies required for implementation.
Adaptation of agile project methods
If irregular or smaller developments are craftet, the project team is usually too small for a product owner and a ScrumMaster, as this can also become an "overhead". In cooperation with Raiffeisen and our other customers, we use Kanban as a methodology. Compared to iterative, time-boxed Scrum, Kanban is ongoing: each request is actively dragged into the next, self-defined step of the workflow. The main objective is to complete a requirement as fast as possible.
In other projects, such as internal non-IT projects, agility helps us with task boards, daily meetings, regular reviews and retros .
Experience and recommendations
The culture and values of a cooperation are decisive for the choice of the project methodology. Without trust there is no (positive) change. If the project manager is renamed to Product Owner and still "only" leads the team, we even run the risk of regression. Step-by-step changes, no matter how small the improvements seem, are valuable for any project. However, a complete contradiction between method and team culture is often doomed to failure.
To be continued
The next blog post will focus on agile contracts.