Daily SCRUM Meetings

SCRUM must have been a nightmare for project managers attuned to the traditional methodologies. Traditional managers who(old timers) believed in managing the projects by controlling every aspect of the project. Not that they were experts in every aspect of the project. ‘More Control --> Better Managed project’, is just a myth. Teams are encouraged to come together (face to face) on a daily basis, communicate and coordinate their activities.

In the above context, the role of the project manager changes from that of a controller, planner to that of a facilitator. Team focuses on the delivery and the project manager facilitates the delivery by removing all the impediments. This is a paradigm shift indeed.

Daily SCRUM meetings are a critical aspect of this paradigm shift. They provide an opportunity for the manager to gain a firsthand understanding of the project activities and the issues/impediments associated with the project. Needless to say that project managers have a big stake in making these meetings effective. Like any other process or methodology, there is a chance that these meetings become ritualistic and the team becomes complacent, as time goes by. Project managers have to guard against the complacency and follow simple rules to gain more out of these meetings:

• SCRUM meetings should be held on a daily basis even when there are no obvious outstanding issues. Team has to come face to face and discuss three things, namely: work done the previous day, tasks to be completed on that particular day and issues or dependencies if any.
• Hold the SCRUM meetings earlier in the day so that the team has enough time to understand what needs to be done and coordinate with others to make that happen, during the day.
• Restrict the meeting duration to 15-20mins. The project manager should make the maximum use of this time to understand the issues and impediments. Detailed discussions on how to resolve a particular issue should be reserved for separate meetings.
• These meetings should be immediately followed by a SCRUM report. Project Managers should generate the SCRUM report immediately after the meeting so that finer details of the meeting are not lost. Also, the senior managers (or other stake holders) have enough time during the day to resolve the issues.

As mentioned above ‘facilitation’ is the key function of the project manager in an agile environment. One way to do this is to send the SCRUM reports to key stake holders across the organization on a daily basis. How the manager raises the visibility of any issue, gains management buy-in and resources largely determines the effectiveness of the project manager.

Coming back to the SCRUM reports; when used judiciously, these reports can be a great way to motivate the team. So, apart from all the burning issues, project managers need to make sure that the team achievements are equally highlighted in these reports.

Key Success Factors for complex multi site projects/deliveries

Multi site projects (deliveries) execution is a complex one. Traditional project management tools are hardly effective in countering the challenges associated with this. Multi site project execution calls for a more collaborative and disciplined (process wise) approach.

Success Factors	Challenges
Processes and organizational maturity	·        Processes across locations may vary ·        Organizational maturity level may vary ·        Systems and infrastructure may be different – so to assume the same productivity levels across sites is a big mistake
Leadership	·        Ability to motivate people in a virtual setup ·        Inability to monitor the progress as well as risks, or respond appropriately to the challenges quickly
Delegation	·        Lack of trust amongst the team members ·        Perceived inability to influence the outcome ·        Inability to monitor the progress using traditional tools
Team work	·        Increased overhead and communications costs ·        Differences in time zone – work hours stretched for co-ordination ·        Cultural differences amongst people from different regions
Staffing	·        Difficult to find the right people with the right skills – especially in multi-site setup ·        Increase in travel and overhead costs

Differences in time zone, culture or abilities pose a different set of challenges as compared to a single site project. Managers need to consider the key success factors (mentioned above) and the associated challenges carefully while planning.

A final word: There is no substitute for good leadership. It is vital that project managers possess leadership qualities for ensuring multi-site project success. After all it is no mean feat to be able to influence and manage a team that is miles away from you.