Scrum for Small Businesses
No, I’m not suggesting that a game of rugby is the way to mange your small business. Scrum is a technique more commonly used as part of Agile software development by businesses like Google and Nokia. High Tech companies are hotbeds of innovative ways of doing things. Developing a new phone is high risk and manpower intensive and the competition may launch something better while you’re halfway through building it. This kind of environment demands that an organisation be focused , flexible and responsive and Scrum is one of the ways that they achieve this.
Scrum evolved in the ’90s* and got its name largely because of the most visible aspect of the process – a daily team ’scrum’. The daily scrum lasts for no more than 15 minutes and each team member has to state what they achieved yesterday, what they plan to achieve today and if they anticipate anything preventing them from achieving this. Take a moment to imagine this within your own business, how long does it usually take for you to find out what everyone is doing and whether they’ve got outstanding jobs from last month because of a problem they can’t solve by themselves? And this is just the beginning…
The complete Scrum system
Scrum also shares many points of similarity with systems like LEAN and Six Sigma – team members pull tasks from the list and thereby take ownership of them; management focus is on removing barriers; the whole team has visibility of progress towards the overall goal.
Scrum’s main flaw is the overhead in organisation required once the task gets too big for one team (more than about 8 people). But this makes it ideal for most small sales and service businesses and for small but urgent projects. I’ve implemented Scrum processes within the context of large technology projects in the past and believe that they could deliver great results within the small business context. If any readers are looking for innovative ways to increase the responsiveness and flexibility of their business – to meet customer needs faster and better – call me on 027 4776 881 and I will come and tell you more about Scrum.
* Scrum references are:
Ensuring your business is sustainable is much more than being careful about the resources you use. You need to consider if all your processes and systems will work in the real world, with real-world competition, real-world resource constraints and of course real people inventing, manufacturing, delivering and buying your products and services.