An Executive Scrum Team

An Executive
Scrum Team

Alexandre Magno
Figueiredo
segunda-feira, 7 de dezembro de 2009

Agenda

1. What led me to use Scrum with executives?

2. Some “pains” in the executive world

3. The Scrum Executive


Alexandre Magno, CST - novembro.2008


1. What led me to
use Scrum with
executives?


Using Scrum practices to
support executive teams
wasn’t planned at any moment


I noticed that some agile practices
could help those teams, once I
noticed that - surprisingly - many
problems from project world also
repeated in the executive world


Planning Poker in the
director’s board

The CIO of a certain bank
called me in his room to ask
about something he considered
“curious”: he was just walking
by the project’s ﬂoor when he
saw many people playing cards
during working hours!


Planning Poker in the
director’s board

After explaining the whole
Planning Poker process to the
director and telling him that it
stimulates communication and
avoids inﬂuencing opinions, I
was amazed by a “Ha...that’s
what I need for our
management meeting!”


“Coffee break” at IT
ﬂoor

“I loved those boards”, the CIO
told me after the meeting.
“With them I have daily updates
about the project without
having to ask anyone”.


TaskBoard in the CIO’s
room

With the visibility the team’s
radiators gave him, it didn’t take
long to elaborate a Board with
the projects and actions under
the CIO’s responsability.


TaskBoard in the CIO’s
room

With the visibility the team’s
radiators gave him, it didn’t take
long to elaborate a Board with
the projects and actions under
the CIO’s responsability.

This model was showed in a
management meeting and
replicated to other ﬁelds.


Short term goals and
planning aligned to the
goals

Attending some Review
Meetings, the CIO understood
how interesting it was working
with short term goals within a
short time-box.


Short term goals and
planning aligned to the
goals

Attending some Review
Meetings, the CIO understood
how interesting it was working
with short term goals within a
short time-box.

It didn’t take long to be asked
to help him - the CIO - on
elaborating a way that he could
work with his managers’ team
on small “sprints” with short
term goals.


For some time, I kept
questioning myself if what I was
starting was something of real
value or if - because of my
passion for the Agile way of
working - I was involved with
something ﬁctitious and would
suffer the consequences in a
near future.


2. Some “pains” in
the executive
world


In software projects we are
used to hearing complaints
about requirements change.


In software projects we are
used to hearing complaints
about requirements change.

However, this “pain” is not
restricted to the software
project teams - the business
reality requires frequently
changes in the company’s
strategic plan, right after being
created.


The problems with silos in
software projects made us to
consider using multi-disciplinary
teams and the same thing is
happening in the business
world.


The problems with silos in
software projects made us to
consider using multi-disciplinary
teams and the same thing is
happening in the business
world.

How to make an HR manager
focus not only on his own goal
but turn him into a team
member, which in turn is
compound of managers from
different areas and make them
focus on the company’s goal?


The “solutions” don’t deliver what
they can, mostly because of the gap
between who creates the strategic
plan and who executes it.



In the most of the companies,
executives are capable to plan
competitive business strategies, but
are not capable to implement them.



In the most of the companies,
executives are capable to plan
competitive business strategies, but
are not capable to implement them.

In organizations focused on long term
results, projects considered strategic
are sponsored and in many cases
managed by higher levels.


To Norton and Kaplan (2001),
there is a misbelief that the
right strategy is a mandatory
condition to reach success. They
estimate that in 70% of the
cases, the real problem is not a
bad strategy but its bad
execution.


3. The Scrum
Executive


After the isolated experiences I
mentioned before, I decided to
think on how to apply
something really close to Scrum
as proposed by Ken Schwaber
and Jeff Sutherland in an
executive team.


The ﬂow


1 day

The Executive Team
(First who...then what)
30 days

Portfolio Backlog
Executive Sprint Executive Review
------------------- Planning Meeting & Retro
Company’s Vision -------------------
(Strategical Planning) -------------------
Who would help?
-------------------
-------------------
------------------- PO PO PgO
-------------------
------------------- PO
Product Product Program
------------------- Backlog Backlog Backlog

Product PO
Backlog

PO
Product
Backlog

Actions


The Executive Team


THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

The Executive Team

The Executive Team was
formed by managers or
directors of the unit (Sales, IT,
Finance, Support, HR and
Marketing).

THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

The need to have a facilitator
for this became apparently right
in the ﬁrst meetings and
because of this the team got an
Executive ScrumMaster.


THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

The need to have a facilitator
for this became apparently right
in the ﬁrst meetings and
because of this the team got an
Executive ScrumMaster.

The Executive ScrumMaster
was an executive (PMO) for the
company with knowledge in the
process Scrum and in facilitation
and leadership techniques.


THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

The Portfolio Owner (or
Executive Product Owner) was
the Executive Director.


THE EXECUTIVE TEAM


An Executive Product Owner owns one
or more portfolios.


THE EXECUTIVE TEAM


or more portfolios.

This role is responsible for prioritizing
Executive Backlogs.


THE EXECUTIVE TEAM


or more portfolios.

This role is responsible for prioritizing
Executive Backlogs.

The owner makes sure the vision and
strategy of the organization mirror the
portfolios.


Company’s Vision
- Strategical Planning -


COMPANY’S VISION

Executive Product Vision
Increase 30% the incomings
The Executive Team

Company’s Vision
(Strategical Planning)

1. Build Mission Statement
2. Deﬁne Business Values
3. Deﬁne Goals
4. Develop growth strategies for Values and Goals
5. Negative propensites - risks, impediments

=> Create the Portfolio Backlog

The Portfolio Backlog, or The
Executive Product Backlog


PORTFOLIO BACKLOG

The Executive Team

Portfolio Backlog
-------------------
Company’s Vision -------------------
-------------------
-------------------
-------------------
-------------------
-------------------
-------------------


PORTFOLIO BACKLOG

Having the right vision to guide
our executive team, we started
the creation of an Executive
Product Backlog (or
Portfolio Backlog)

That Backlog was made of:

:: Executive Stories
:: Executive Themes
:: Executive Epics


PORTFOLIO BACKLOG

Having the right vision to guide
our executive team, we started
the creation of an Executive
Product Backlog (or
Portfolio Backlog)

That Backlog was made of:

:: Executive Stories
:: Executive Themes
:: Executive Epics Those Backlog Items were
created by the Executive
Product Owner with
support of the Executive
ScrumMaster and the
team


PORTFOLIO BACKLOG

business case other business
informations increase
strategic annual incomings in 30%
plan

Executive Portfolio Owner

usually an executive
Executive Product Backlog (Portfolio Backlog)
action
Sponsor: Metrics Executive
In order to gain more control over the sales process
closure and follow up, the sales department needs a
Priority:
Kick-off date: P
Story
CRM tool and methodology
ROI estimates:
Sponsor:
In order to increase the participation on the Brazilian Priority:
Metrics usually an executive
north and northeast region, the unit needs a
Pg project
Kick-off date:
partnership plan to work with regional companies ROI estimates:
Executive Theme
Sponsor: Metrics
In order to increase our brand visibility the unit needs Priority: P
a marketing campaign that comprehends different Kick-off date:
medias ROI estimates:
Sponsor: Metrics
In order to reduce the default in 50% the ﬁnancial
Priority: P
department needs to elaborate an active collection
Kick-off date:
strategy
ROI estimates:
usually an executive
In order to reduce the turnover and waste in the Sponsor: Metrics program
bonus model, the unit needs to restructure the HR Priority: P
strategy. Kick-off date: Executive Epics
ROI estimates:

Resource Portfolio Backlog Asset Portfolio Backlog


PORTFOLIO BACKLOG

Besides the annual strategic
plan, where the projects usually
come from, there are other
sources. Daily, problems and
opportunities, such as market
and clients demands,
technological improvements,
legal or environmental
requirements, etc., are brought
to discussion to be resolved.


Executive Sprint Planning Meeting


EXECUTIVE SPRINT PLANNING MEETING

The Executive Team

Portfolio Backlog
Executive Sprint
------------------- Planning Meeting
Company’s Vision -------------------
PO PgO
(Strategical Planning) ------------------- PO

------------------- Who would help?
-------------------
------------------- ---------- ---------- ----------
-------------------
-------------------
-------------------



Our Sprints, which were 30
days long, started with a
Sprint Planning Meeting



Our Sprints, which were 30
days long, started with a
Sprint Planning Meeting

In this meeting the Executive Team met to plan
what they would work with in the
following Sprint.

Executive Sprint Planning Meeting

Balance Sprint’s Goal
Portfolio

Identify tasks

Who would Select what ﬁt
help? on the Sprint
Deﬁne
Velocity

Estimate it if
Estimate it if
needed
needed



The Executive Product Owner
presented the goal and
explained all the priority items.



The Executive Product Owner
presented the goal and
explained all the priority items.

The team clariﬁed all doubts
and discussed which roles
IT
would be involved in each item, IT
in an activity called Who IT
Would help? IT
support
support

support

HR



Executive Backlog

Sponsor:
In order to reduce the turnover and waste in the
Priority:
bonus model, the unit needs to restructure the HR
Kick-off date: P
strategy.

Identifying premisses for the project

Identifying the team for the project

Gathering the history of all plans During the Sprint Planning
used up to now
Meeting, the team started to
identify what tasks would be
Gathering ﬁnancial data from
the currently plan
needed to execute each item,
anticipating any problems and
Deﬁning the budget for the project risks.


Executive Sprint


THE EXECUTIVE SPRINT

The Executive Team
30 days

Portfolio Backlog
Executive Sprint
Company’s Vision -------------------
------------------- Who would help?
-------------------
------------------- PO PO PgO
-------------------
------------------- PO

Product PO
Backlog

Those projects were executed inside the “departments” PO

using Scrum and, in most of them, had the Executive Product
Backlog
Scrum team member as the (Chief) Product Owner or
Program Owner.
Actions


The Executive Daily Meeting


THE EXECUTIVE DAILY MEETING

1 day

The Executive Team
30 days

Portfolio Backlog
Executive Sprint
Company’s Vision -------------------
------------------- Who would help?
-------------------
------------------- PO PO PgO
-------------------
------------------- PO

Product PO
Backlog

PO
Product
Backlog

Actions


THE EXECUTIVE DAILY MEETING

Everyday, the team did a Daily
Meeting. Believe me, it’s a hard
task!


Executive Review & Retro


THE EXECUTIVE REVIEW & RETRO

1 day

The Executive Team
30 days

Portfolio Backlog
Executive Sprint Executive Review
------------------- Planning Meeting & Retro
Company’s Vision -------------------
------------------- Who would help?
-------------------
------------------- PO PO PgO
-------------------
------------------- PO

Product PO
Backlog

PO
Product
Backlog

Actions



At the end of the Sprint the
executives presents the results
to the Executive Product
Owner, just like a regular
Sprint Review. Thru those
results he evaluated if the Sprint
Goal was met or not.



At the end of the Sprint the
executives presents the results
to the Executive Product
Owner, just like a regular
Sprint Review. Thru those
results he evaluated if the Sprint
Goal was met or not.

Finally, the team did an
Executive Retrospective.


CONCLUSION


Despite being just the ﬁrst step in reaching more adequate
techniques for executive projects and programs, using Scrum in
this scenario was a very good experience.



As a result:

:: a new behavior of their executives.



As a result:


:: execution and strategy were closer.



As a result:


:: execution and strategy were closer.

:: greater visibility of how executive actions were aligned to the
business goals.


If you wish to know where your company is
heading to, don't look at the static strategic
plans. Instead, look at your projects
portfolio

Thank you!
alexandre.magno@adaptworks.com.br


An Executive Scrum Team

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