Scrum as an alternative PM method
As ((otrs)), the commercial organization behind the OpenSource Service Management Solution OTRS, is evolving over the last 5 years really successful we are facing more complex projects than we did a few years ago. Therefore the need for a project management framework like PMI or Prince2 is evident.
But from my experience, besides all the positive aspects going along with those frameworks, the negative aspects like exorbitant documentation, planning and communication are effecting your daily business more and more.
This leads to a schedule planned out with telephone conferences discussing functional specification hundreds of emails that need to be processed every single day of your life. The most extreme example I experienced in this case was a customer putting more trust in the underlying project plan than in the deliverables provided by my development team…
To break that circle I am naturally open minded to new ideas to improve project management and to implement a better understanding between the specialist division and the developer department. Lately I came across a method called “Scrum”. This method is trying to split a complex implementation project in smaller, easier to handle development phases called “Sprints” that have a duration of 4 weeks max.
The stakeholders provide their requirements in these sessions as “user-stories” that will be collected and documented in a “product backlog”.
Every single development phase start with a kickoff meeting where all user stories that need to covered / implemented within this phase will be transferred to the “sprint backlog”.
The communication with the customer will be covered within predefined cycles where to talk about feedback and reached or missed goals.
From my point of view this method has the capability to ease the stress of complex implementation projects and also provides a good chance to establish a very good relationship and understanding in between the project sponsor and project contractor.
— Let’s scrum —