Is scrum fit for small organisation? [closed]

B

7

9

is it possible to convert their method to scrum in a small concern

Bid answered 5/12, 2008 at 9:2 Comment(0)

B

16

Two best practices of Scrum are :

Grouping your staff in small teams.
Keeping communication quick and efficient (especially meetings).

So yeah, definitely, Scrum fit a small organization. In fact, as a small organization, you need less REorganization to start applying scrum !

Blumenfeld answered 5/12, 2008 at 9:7 Comment(1)

whole-heartedly agree: scrum for large organisations is really a matter of breaking yourself into lots of small organisations – Reichard 5/12, 2008 at 9:12

I

5

You can even do scrum alone, it's called "Solo Scrum".

Interpenetrate answered 5/12, 2008 at 10:51 Comment(0)

M

4

Scrum can be used at all levels, as others have pointed out, it can be done alone as a scrum of 1. Likewise, you can have "scrum of scrums" which is essentially a pyramid of scrum teams. Each team focuses on a feature or related feature sets. The teams would elect a member or two to represent that feature team to a larger audience (they don't need to meet daily!) and that group can move up ... You can also switch the representatives up, but I'd suggest doing that in between sprints, which is the best general time to make changes.

The most important thing that I say to anyone starting out with scrum is:

Start with the basics, don't get caught up in fancy software! Use index cards, marker boards, etc. The only exception to this rule is if the team is dispersed.
For the first several sprints, play by all of the rules of scrum. Only make drastic changes after you have several sprints under your belt. This way if the process doesn't work for you, you know that it wasn't because of an immediate change you've made.
Keep changes out of the sprint. Management doesn't like this idea because they want control, but right up front have an agreement that product changes happen between sprints.
find a "scrum sponsor" that is someone who has been through some sprints and can offer assistance (but not interference).

Good Luck!

Maneating answered 8/8, 2012 at 21:25 Comment(0)

H

2

Yes, but...

A problem I've encountered with Scrum in a small organization, is that the Product Owner was frequently unavailable (due to having lots of other responsibilities as well).

Needless to say, this can severely affect your agility. If you want to apply Scrum in such a situation, be sure to clearly communicate that the role of Product Owner is a time-consuming one.

Hosanna answered 5/12, 2008 at 9:20 Comment(0)

R

1

No problem. My experience is that even large company decides to move to an agile (scrum) they are starting with Scrum in small team - as "a proof of concept".

For example, we started as 2 developers and moved to Scrum with more than 20 developers, 4 teams and 3 separated projects.

Radie answered 16/12, 2008 at 20:21 Comment(0)

I

0

There are certainly some aspects of scrum that only apply to large teams but it can work in smaller teams too.

Like many things, it's a case of just taking what works for your company or team rather than blindly following all of it because "that's what you do".

I've seen it work very successfully with 1 developer and a 3 week budget just by cutting it down and adjusting it to only the ideas that are relevant to that size project. Not sure if that still counts as scrum but it worked.

Ultimately, any project management plan is better than none and the sooner you realise there is a problem the less impact it will have.

Ivers answered 5/12, 2008 at 9:36 Comment(0)

G

0

Scrum is best suited for a small organization because of the following reasons:

There is not much mindset of a command and control to change.
Easier and more informal discussions between scrum team and the product owner.
There are not many well defined silos of Development team, Documentation team, QA team, etc. So, it is easier to form a team from people working on a product and get them going.
Not many prior processes in place which might hinder setting up the Scrum process.
Small organizations do not typically have the overheads of creating huge reports for progress reporting to senior management. You can just invite them to see the burn down on the wall whenever they want.

I guess these are enough reasons. Take it up in your organization.

Just make sure to have someone who knows the process well to implement it for you. Also, good to get a coach for the first Sprint.

Geography answered 27/9, 2012 at 2:46 Comment(0)

Recommended topics

Hot tags