Introduction
Scrum is an incremental agile and iterative framework for software development, and it is increasingly becoming essential for management of product development process. When using the framework, it ensures there are flexibility and holistic strategies for product development which are achieved through helping the development team to work as a single unit and work towards achieving common goals. Also, the framework help in challenges assumptions, when the traditional and sequential approach is used in product development, and it achieves this by helping teams to self-organize, allowing close online collaboration and encouraging physical relocation of the entire team and face to face communications between the workers which take place in a daily basis. The primary concept of scrum is the fact that it recognizes that during the process of production, customers may change their mind on what they want the product to be and for decades, the challenge has been impossible to address using the planned manner or traditional predictive.
Critique the Effectiveness of Scrum at P2P
Although scrum has managed to address several issues in product development, the framework has received major criticism. The initial advocates of scrum were highly inspired by adapting and inspect feedback loops, which helped in coping with risks and complexities. Using this approach, scrum managed to an emphasis on decision making using for the real world, instead of speculations which are common in product development. At all times, products are supposed to be in a potentially shippable form which means they must be integrated and tested at all times. Due to this element, team members and stakeholders are supposed to meet at the end of each sprint so that they can see a demonstration of a real product with shippable potential so that they can plan on the next step (Harvie, & Agah, 2016). Regardless of the impact of such process in ensuring changes can be done at any stage of product development, it tends to require additional resources which may not be available for small enterprises. Scrum present a simple set of roles, meetings, and responsibilities that will never change. However, in the product development process, removing unpredictability that is unnecessary, make it easy to cope with unpredictability which is necessary through learning and discovery, which is not possible once scrum is used.
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What Was Successful And What Was Unsuccessful?
When using software such as scrum in product development which is the foundation of the effectiveness and competitiveness of a product, their things that be successful, while some may be unsuccessful. The case study is based on two sprints. During the first sprint, there was a significant project made on the project, because the process was adhering to the specific guidelines and directions as provided for the framework to work appropriately (Yin, 2011). For example, using the directions, the first meetings were successful thus; they were even able to get feedback from the end users who were brought by Isaac. Unfortunately, the second sprint experiencing major lax in the adherence to scrum guidelines, hence affecting the team significantly by making it less spirited, hence affecting their overall production negatively.
Was This The Best Choice For Agile Project Management For This Company?
I think this was not the best choice for agile project management for the company because the framework lacked a clear description of ways a self-organized team may function which is essential for project management. The effectiveness of a team depends on how effective each member of the team understands his or her role so that they can work towards specific goals but from different functions (Harvie, & Agah, 2016). In every organization, change is defined as the process of adjusting all the operations in the project. However, using the scrum, the project was being changed bit by bit, hence resulting to major time wastage and making it impossible to identify any issues with the project until the very difficult stages are arrived at. This occurred due to hidden complexities in the program where unless a company is doing something they have done with the tool before, and ensures the same techniques are being used, it is impossible to understand how complex is a given project.
Should She Have Spoken Up To Prem Gupta? What Should She Have Said?
Prem violated the scrum guidelines hence everyone including Kendra who was in such a position would have retaliated on Prem action. Kendra had seen the progress in the first scrum, and this means that there were higher expectations on the second one; hence failing would have eventually left her with disappointment. Therefore, I would have wanted Kendra and Prem to speak about the transformation of Prem from scrum master which was the main responsibility of a taskmaster. During the conversation with Prem, I would expect Kendra to be raising her main concerns and ensure they are raised in a constructive and unbiased manner. Also, I would like Kendra to raise concerns in a private section so that they can address their conclusion on effective adherence to scrum guidelines at their next meeting.
If you were training a new project manager to take over a project like the one Prem Gupta is in charge of in the case, what would you tell your employee? Why?
When undertaking a project, not all the concepts that a new manager that should come from memorizing the entire process or knowledge. There are times when advice from a second colleague may have a significant impact. Mostly, ideas are expressed after all the risks have been identified hence making the project management process to be entirely about addressing adverse situations, instead of concentrating on using what the new project manager learned in preventing the events that are exposing the project into risks (Larson, & Gray, 2014). Therefore, as a trainer, I would first listen to what the stakeholders are demanding, and validate the deliverables to ensure all the strengths of the teams are being used adequately. Second, I will ensure there is a strong foundation of honesty, character, and integrity with the employees, through a collaborative relationship. This will ensure there is an open relationship between the trainer and the new project manager, hence creating an opportunity for an open and honest communication at all levels of the project, thus making it easy to manage risks, issues, and scope change.
During the training, I will ensure I have all the prioritized goals of the project in a very clear list, and these goals should come directly from the stakeholders and consumers. This will ensure whatever the new manager will come up with is in line with the stakeholders and the consumers’ expectations on the result (Larson, & Gray, 2014). During this stage, I will let the employees understand that the stakeholders have the right to know what has gone wrong and the plans in place to address the issues. I would, therefore, tell the employee the importance of learning from experience, and the experiences may not come from just other people but from day to day activities as a project manager. Also, I will tell the new project manager to ensure all the activities in the organization are followed up by documentation. Lastly, I would tell the new project manager that whenever he or she senses conflict, it is important to ensure he does not give in to the first reaction as a way of avoiding the conflicts. It is important to have a discussion and ensure all the team members are involved in finding the source and solution for the conflict.
References
Harvie, D. P., & Agah, A. (2016). Targeted scrum: Applying mission command to agile software development. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering , 42 (5), 476-489.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2014). Project management: The Managerial Process. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Yin, A., Figueiredo, S., & da Silva, M. M. (2011). Scrum maturity model. Proceedings of the ICSEA , 20-29.
