Agile Product Management with Scrum? Scrum is designed to address the complexity of the modern, digital age where ever-changing customer demands determine how we structure our organisations. Scrum depends on the ability of teams to learn from mistakes and self-organise around difficult problems. A lot of the traditional leadership responsibilities (such as planning, quality and customer-communication) are needed at the level of the team. For a leader this means letting go of responsibilities and a possible re-definition of the traditional role. This doesn’t mean we no longer need managers or leaders, but the role will definitely change. Dependent on a teams’ position in the maturity matrix (level 1 to 5) different leadership styles should be applied. As a leader, you should be open to delegate responsibilities and create a plan on how to do so.
Starmark, one of the leading digital marketing agencies in South Florida for many years, went fully agile. They use this methodology as the way to run their business and service their clients. Brett Circe, chief digital officer at Starmark, led the transformation, which was featured in the Wall Street Journal. One of our core values here at BizHack is to learn by doing. A case study is a great example of this core value to understand in real detail how to apply this manufacturing and software mindset, approach and methodology in the marketing world and how you can use that to more effectively market your business.
When looking to create any learning culture, including an agile learning culture, leaders need to be on board and help create a vision. A Human Capital Institute survey from 2015 found that 74% of companies wanted to create a learning culture. Those who succeeded at doing that did so by incorporated learning, growth, challenge, agility, risk-taking, and mistake-making as a positive aspect of the culture they envisioned. This vision and these qualities need to be incorporated into how the company communicates and interacts with outside organizations, employees, and potential employees. Agile learning needs to have a place in all areas of the organization and at all levels of the organization. Read extra information at Agile Certified Training for Business analysts.
When people see that the Scrum Master waits for the whole team to be present, it makes them think that the meeting can’t start without them. But if you start without them and hold them accountable for everything they missed, it gives everyone an incentive to attend on time. Timing is important, and don’t be afraid to respect it. This means that the participants in the meeting don’t fiddle with their phones, look at email and drop the coding. Enforce some rules so that the team members get used to giving their full attention to the discussions and to build respect within the team.
In Scrum, teams are self-managed. However, it doesn’t mean they can manage themselves perfectly well without a Scrum Master. Hiring a skilled and experienced Scrum Master is essential for building a productive workflow of a Scrum team. But why? What does a Scrum Master do? In a nutshell, the Scrum Master makes sure that a development team sticks to Scrum, its principles, and practices. The Scrum Master manages the team’s workflow: organizes daily stand-up meetings and retrospectives;coaches the team members and removes impediments. Apart from these tasks, the Scrum Master also collaborates with the Product Owner and helps with product backlog management. Yet, the Scrum Master mustn’t become a boss who gives orders. Scrum teams should remain self-managed and the Scrum Master can interfere and make decisions only if team members can’t agree upon an issue. A skilled Scrum Master will help your development team be focused, productive, and capable of fulfilling the most challenging projects. Discover even more information at here.