As you probably have noticed in previous posts one of my main interests is leveraging Agile and Scrum in enterprises to improve the way they work and let have the teams more fun and better results at the same time.
No surprise then that I have a Google Alert on «Enterprise Scrum» and that the website of Mike Beedle pops up now and then. Mike Beedle is the author of the first Scrum book (with Ken Schwaber), the author of the first Scrum paper published (with Jeff Sutherland, Ken Schwaber, Martine Devos and Yonat Sharon), and co-author of the Agile Manifesto. He is also the author of the upcoming Enterprise Scrum book. It is not finished yet, but you can read the executive summary on his website.
I will read the whole book when it comes out, and until then I will restrain myself from giving my opinion. But one thing I picked up from the summary and I really liked is his implementation of the concept «Improvement Cycles».
Every Improvement Cycle (a Sprint in Scrum), has a PE3R structure: planning, execution, review, retrospective and refinement.
Planning: Plan on starting or continuing with an activity (provided you passed a DOR – definition of ready for the activities)
Execution: Execute and get things DONE (according to a DOD – definition of done, for the activities)
Review: Inspect and Adapt the results obtained on the things DONE, making everything transparent
Retrospective: Inspect and Adapt the team and the process to improve it
Refinement: Refine the Value List (Product Backlog), to change/improve the efforts
You can apply these cycles on any kind of activities. Recruiting, marketing, sales, etc. You can decide on the cycle length (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and can run overlapping cycles (weekly and quarterly for example). I like this way of describing the essence of Scrum because it is easy to relate for people that work in enterprises. It is that simple.
«Scrum management» brings several advantages:
– better teamwork of the team, builds a «cooperative culture»
– results oriented – focus on getting things DONE
– deadlines – everything we humans do gets done though deadlines, so the Cycle structure helps
– inspects and adapts everything: 1) Review: the work , 2) Retro: the team and the process, 3) Refinement: the vision
