Provides a real-world validated approach to managing teams who have to juggle delivery of change initiatives and BAU service delivery. Based on a hybrid variant of Scrum and Kanban

1. An agile approach to
managing teams

2. About knowquestion
 A specialist Information & Knowledge
Management (IM/KM) consulting
company
 We take a holistic view of
organisations, instead of just small
pieces of the puzzle
 Our expertise lies in understanding how
technology, business process, and
organisational culture intersect and
interact
 We join the dots and bring people
together

3. Services offered
 strategic governance
 knowledge management policies and
plans
 organisational change management
 EDRMS, CRM & CMS implementation
and integration
 systems / architecture design and review
 external and in-house skills workshops
 one-on-one mentoring

4. What is “agile management”?
 just in time planning & design
 key is to always deliver highest value
products first
 maximises team focus and
minimises distractions
 relies on self-managing teams

5. Big picture story traceability

6. What is “Scrum”?
Three key delivery concepts:
 Backlog
A prioritised list of incomplete user
stories
 User stories
A piece of work explicitly defined in terms
of the value being delivered
 Sprint
A fixed period for teams to self-manage
the delivery of a pre-agreed set of user
stories

7. When Scrum works
 Scrum is a fixed methodology with a
formal assessment and certification
processes
 Works well for dedicated project teams
with a single overarching goal
 Lacks some flexibility
◦ for teams with multiple goals
◦ for teams who also have BAU work to do in
addition to progressing change initiatives

8. The alternative
 Adopt a hybrid of Kanban and Scrum
 Kanban = just-in-time “pull” of work
 Key to success: limiting work in
progress
 Typical limits:
◦ no more than two active stories owned by an
staff member
◦ no more than 10 active team stories in total
◦ no more than 3 active stories with
impediments

9. Hybrid agile approach
 Scrum processes aid cohesion and
transparency
 Incorporate Kanban “work in progress” (WIP)
for dynamic changes in priority while retaining

10. Hybrid agile approach
1. Backlog management
Create or update list of
ranked user stories
2. Set sprint objectives
Agree on scope to be targeted
in next sprint
3. Run sprint
Complete agreed stories
&/or notify of impediments
4. Review and retrospective
Demo of achievements and
discussion on possible
improvements

11. Backlog management
 Stories are ranked by manager (product
owner) in order of value
 To be ready for execution, stories should
be small enough to complete within a
single sprint
 Stories for later sprints need “just
enough” definition to be reflective of
scope
 A backlog “grooming” meeting mid-sprint
to review/update stories can make
planning faster

12. Set sprint objectives
 Based on estimated
complexity, propose what is in scope
for completion in next sprint
 Product owner and team agree on
appropriate “definition of done” for
each user story
 Finalise scope of sprint depending on
outcome of discussions relating to
“definition of done”

13. Sprint execution
 Project team self-manage to deliver
the stories in scope for the sprint
 Regular status updates are provided
to the product owner
 Any impediments to story completion
are immediately flagged for resolution

14. Sprint review and
retrospective
 At the end of each sprint, a review and
retrospective is conducted
 Review stage
◦ demo of outcomes for each user story
◦ review against agreed definition of done
 Retrospective stage
◦ what worked?
◦ what could have been done better?

15. An indicative sprint cycle
 Meetings are run by team, not by the
manager
 Stand up meetings are no more than 15
minutes
 Manager becomes product owner – sets

16. To learn more
Contact Stephen Bounds
Email sb@knowquestion.com.au
Phone 0401 829 096
http://knowquestion.com.au