Scrum @ XING – a case study #2: The challenges

Welcome to part two of the Scrum case study at XING. After explaining the reasons for introducing Scrum in the previous article, today we will discuss hurdles associated with the transition.

Our challenges of introducing Scrum

The initial challenge was to understand Scrum within the entire company. When Scrum is misinterpreted as a project management method or process model similar to the spiral model, most of its advantages remain unused. A precursor of such an unfavorable condition is the retention of traditional project structures and planning methods. The challenges are therefore not in the complexity of processes, methodical approaches, or tools. The greater hurdle is to understand the agile values – as described in the Agile Manifesto – as well as the new principles (goodbye project management triangle!), and then implement new roles and responsibilities. These premises fundamentally alter portions of the product development process.

The knowledge and experience required for the new scrum roles often first appear to be incompatible with predominant job descriptions at a company. The repositioning of the central project manager as the Scrum Master (organizational expertise for the team and the processes) as well as the entrepreneurial role of the Product Owner (responsible for goal, budget, and priority allocation) must first be accepted and internalized. The willingness of management and employees to implement these changes and further share responsibilities is absolutely essential. To function properly, this requires a corporate culture that can adhere in principle to the Agile Manifesto.

Technical optimization was also necessary, even though XING had already published products and features each week prior to introducing Scrum. Our project team infrastructure and routines were not designed to publish weekly completed code within a project without loss of productivity. We had to make several adjustments and modify our work processes and tools ­- for example, aspects of our quality assurance and release management procedures and infrastructure.

The final section describes our approach for introducing Scrum and the results up to this point.