Scrum @ XING – a case study #3: Our conclusion

Welcome to the part three of introducing Scrum at XING. After explaining the basic considerations and challenges in the first two articles, this time we will discuss our procedures and results up to this point.

Approach and results of introducing Scrum

In July 2007, a Senior Engineer from the then new Events 2.0 project team recommended implementing development using the Scrum approach. Although we were enthusiastic, we were not prepared. As is typical for XING, we quickly sought out an available ScrumMaster and began our Scrum experiment.

It soon became clear that we needed more expertise. Consequently, all project managers and several Lead Engineers participated in Scrum training sessions and became Certified  Scrum Masters. Thereafter the Product Owner were certified and later general workshops were held for team roles. All departments (engineering, project, product, and quality management) developed adapted processes and procedure models for the agile approach, and adjusted – fortunately for us only a few – formalisms. The actual conversion to the new rhythm – one to three-week development sprints and modified routines – improved with each successive sprint.

The Events project served as an initial test balloon. Second and third scrum projects followed then over the next few months. Now, most of our development projects are implemented using Scrum. We learned how to improve further with each new team and each new sprint. To accelerate the learning process, we have our integration status regularly examined by external Scrum practitioners, who provide valuable feedback. Internally, Scrum Masters meet weekly to discuss optimization and synthesize experiences from the various teams.

After nearly one year, we are implementing projects with improved routine and efficiency, but further optimization is necessary. For example, we are currently working on optimizing the integration of the Spanish development team. Still we note that our improvement potential is migrating from scrum integration difficulties to project related topics. Here we note also that Scrum is helpful – in ways similar to Lean Management – in recognizing and correcting problems earlier in the development process.

Our conclusion so far: Introducing Scrum is not easy and requires substantial modifications to the organization and product development processes. For us, it has already paid off because of the capability to react quickly and adeptly to dynamic requirements on our platform and better usage of our skill potentials. We feel well prepared as we look to the future.