The world is going agile. Are you?

The world is going agile. Are you?
In the face of the global economic turbulence, organizations are forced to become nimble and agile so that they can respond to market changes quickly. Over the last few years, many organizations have adopted adaptive project management methods like Agile to increase the efficiency of their project management function. Among the different Agile frameworks, Scrum in particular has become extremely popular in most of the organizations.
While more and more organizations are adopting Scrum as their preferred framework for managing projects, they need to overcome the initial challenges in the transition process. As with any change, there will be some resistance during the transition to Scrum. Middle managers will typically fear their loss of role or loss of authority. They may not understand their new role or how they contribute to the success of the team. People who are invested in the old methodology will also typically resist the change. These people may be systems engineers or other related positions that fear losing their role as a result of changing to Scrum.
The two basic methods of transitioning to Scrum are top down and bottom up. In top down, the transition is widely communicated. There is an effort to provide education about the change to everyone involved. This communication can be a source of change resistance. The other possibility is to change things gradually within the organizational culture. Then, the transition to Scrum will be incremental.
Another aspect of transition to consider is how much of the organization requires a transition to Scrum methods. The entire organization could be transitioned at the same time. However, this method is more susceptible to problems that may result in interrupting profit generating activities. Therefore, it is more advisable to transition different divisions in an iterative fashion to reduce risk and to provide lessons learned for future iterations.
For a start-up organization or who has a fairly clean slate, it is easy for them to adopt Scrum. However, if your organization is used to traditional project management environment, there is no doubt that you will face lot of challenges at the beginning.  It is a good idea to hire some Scrum Experts to help you in the transition process. Also, training plays a pivotal role here. It is important to train your whole project team before you start using Scrum. There are many professional training organizations who offer Scrum training around the globe. Also, there are many training programs which are associated with some recognized Scrum certifications. As a matter of fact, many organizations prefer these training programs because of several reasons – 1) employees get trained in Scrum, 2) employees can earn a professional certification at the end of the training program (of course after taking the certification exam) which in turn increases the motivation of employees, 3) certification exams also help organizations to measure the effectiveness of the training program and employee performance in a more tangible manner.
If you are trying to implement Scrum and are facing issues which seem to be uphill, do not give up quickly as the benefits of implementing Scrum is far-fetched than the initial challenges.


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How can scrum be made scalable?

Scalability of a process, network, or unit is its ability to adjust or adapt to any expansion. For example a central server is said to be scalable if it performs similarly when attending on either five clients or fifty clients. In Scrum, it means that the scaling mechanisms applicable for a single Scrum Team can also be used for larger projects with multiple teams.
Is Scrum scalable? Initially, Agile authors believed that Agile methodologies including Scrum was predominantly for small scale projects. This opinion was based on the fact that Scrum had not yet been applied on large scale projects. The Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK™ Guide) gives comprehensive directions through which Agile methodologies including Scrum, can be scaled and applied on larger projects
When to scale? In small Scrum projects there is adequate scope for the self-organizing Scrum Team members to collaborate among themselves. The problem starts when team size expands and when there is coordination required between multiple teams. Scalability in Scrum can occur at three levels – Projects, Programs and Portfolios
How to scale? Scalability in Scrum is achieved primarily through the Scrum of Scrum (SoS) Meetings. Scrum recommends small teams; however if teams are larger it is recommended that they are divided into smaller teams who can meet occasionally to discuss their status.
What makes Scrum scalable? It is recommended that Scrum Teams should ideally have six to ten members. This does not mean that Scrum can be used only in small projects – it can be scaled to be used effectively in larger projects. If the size of the Scrum Team exceeds ten members, then multiple teams can be formed to work on the project simultaneously.
Scrum of Scrums facilitates synchronization between multiple Scrum Teams in larger projects. Team representatives update each other about team’s progress, challenges faced and coordination activities. Frequency of Scrum of Scrums (SoS) Meetings is determined by inter-team dependency, size of the project, recommendations by Scrum Guidance Body (SGB) and complexity level.
Scaling in Distributed Teams:
Scrum recommends collocated teams and face-to-face communication between team members. This is often not possible, as companies have distributed teams working in parallel across geographies and time zones. For the purpose of scaling, in larger projects employing distributed teams, the Scrum of Scrum Meeting can be held using video conferencing, chats, social media etc.
The ‘Convene Scrum of Scrums’ Process is facilitated by the Chief Scrum Master (or another Scrum Master). Representatives of various teams, usually the Scrum Master of individual teams or any other designated team member. For larger projects, involving a significant number of teams, multiple levels of these meetings may be convened. In larger projects, as it is difficult to have all participants together at one time, all important matters should be discussed
The Scrum of Scrums meeting is usually held at predetermined intervals or when required, to collaborate and track progress, address impediments and dependencies across projects. An agenda for the meeting can be announced in advance by the Chief Scrum Master, allowing individual teams to consider the items for discussion. Impediments faced by individual teams, likely to affect other teams should also be indicated. Issues, risks and changes likely to affect multiple teams should also be communicated during this meeting.
Achieving Scalability:
Each team representative is expected to update other teams, usually in the form of four questions. (i) What has my team been working on since the last meeting?, (ii) What will my team do until the next meeting?, (iii) What were other teams counting on our team to finish that remains undone?, (iv) What is our team planning on doing that might affect other teams?
Result of Scrum of Scrums Meetings include Better Team Coordination facilitated coordination of work across multiple Scrum Teams, especially when there are tasks involving inter-team dependencies (as future tasks of one team may depend on the timely delivery of a task by another team). Discrepancies between work and deliverables are quickly exposed. The Scrum of Scrums is a forum where team members can transparently discuss issues and resolve them.
Scrum of Scrum of Scrums: In organizations that have several Scrum projects happening simultaneously, the Scrum of Scrums Meeting can be scaled up another level to a Scrum of Scrum of Scrums meeting. In this situation, a separate Scrum of Scrums Meeting is held to coordinate each group of projects that are directly related to each other.

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