Tech companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook have used agile methodologies to remain flexible and quickly react to customer and marketplace needs. Instead of waiting a full year to release a major upgrade, they instead release frequent updates to fix bugs, improve the user experience, and add functionality. Barnes & Noble, for example, uses agile approaches and Scrum throughout the organization and they have proven to be effective tools for website, digital reader, and mobile app development. Scrum is also used to develop and improve core business tools.
How can a team of 9 or fewer members be effective on a large project? The solution is not to increase the size of the team, but to increase the number of Scrum teams. This requires coordination of effort and Scrum has additional methodologies to accomplish this.
Publishers reading this will ask themselves how Scrum can be applied to their processes. Most organizations employ a plan-driven process that proceeds through a number of phases: business and needs analysis, design, coding of some kind, user acceptance testing, and final release. This waterfall-style process might look like this:
This works well when the challenge is predictable and static, meaning all of the up-front planning is accurate and there are few or no surprises as you near the end of the project. When you have a complex challenge, Scrum can be the better choice because it is an incremental development process. The product is continually reexamined and refined as more is understood. Scrum is capable of developing just enough and just in time.
Publishers have been using digital technology to produce print books for decades. Now their product line can include websites, digital books, audio books, videos, and interactive applications. Due to their complexity, these digital products are good candidates for using Scrum teams. The Scrum roles are relatively simple compared to traditional project management teams and most of this expertise already exists within a publishing organization.
Managing editors, production editors, and product managers can become excellent product owners as they already interact with other departments, track developmental progress, and understand the end-product requirements. To be effective in this role, they need to be empowered so they can list and prioritize requirements and mediate between stakeholders and the development team.
The development team can be sourced from the roles currently associated with those doing the work, such as copyeditors, proofreaders, designers, compositors, web coders, and so on. The team is self-organizing and should have all of the necessary skills to complete the work. Once formed, development teams should continue with the same members as they will constantly inspect and adapt their work and become more successful.
Project managers can be trained as Scrum masters and it is easier if they already have a working knowledge of agile principles. There are several differences between the two roles. Traditionally, project managers are responsible for all facets of a project, but in Scrum most responsibilities are distributed among members of the team. For example, project scope is shared by the product owner and the development teams, and communications is shared by the entire team. In order to become an excellent Scrum master, project managers need to get beyond micromanagement and learn to be servant leaders by practicing community building, listening, and giving priority to the Scrum team.
Agile practices and Scrum are not exclusive to tech companies and application development. The Scrum framework is flexible enough to be incorporated in diverse workflows. The sprint cycle allows for frequent review and improvement and can shorten the time to market, allowing publishers to deliver quality products quickly. More information on Scrum can be found on the Scrum Alliance website.
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