Story boards
Hi - I've recently been charted with doing an ERP in 90 days hence my need to go the Scrum route. My team base has never, ever had the pleasure of working on ANY type of project which gives me a clean slate to 'mold minds'. Anyway, I need to come up with a very simple story board format so that they can begin to understand their roles, the Agile methodology, etc. I'm leaning toward the whiteboard solution. Do you have any suggestions as to formatting this?
Thanks much
> I've recently been charted with doing an ERP in 90 days
By ERP do you mean Enterprise Resource Planning? If so, what have you been "charted" to do? Build a new ERP tool? Use an existing ERP tool? Apply ERP to a particular function or suite of functions, Financial modeling, HR, bills of materials...?
> hence my need to go the Scrum route
Can you explain your reasoning here? Why precisely do you perceive a need to adopt Scrum in your case?
> My team base has never, ever had the pleasure of working on ANY
> type of project which gives me a clean slate to 'mold minds'.
Scrum does not give you a clean slate to mold minds. You still inherit existing dysfunctions and cultural norms. Agile transformation means dealing with this and it is a hard journey.
> Anyway, I need to come up with a very simple story board format so
> that they can begin to understand their roles, the Agile methodology, etc
Why would you use a story board to explain roles and methodology? You can certainly use a story board as a training tool, but why are you focusing on this in particular?
> I'm leaning toward the whiteboard solution.
Do you mean using a whiteboard as a physical story board with index cards or post-it notes to represent stories and tasks?
> Do you have any suggestions as to formatting this?
The simplest board will have three stations: Backlog, Work In Progress, and Done. However, a board is an information radiator and as such it is expected to tell the truth. How true would those three stations be, if your team was to adopt them? Would the demarcations between them be clear? Would there be additional stations for testing, review, awaiting deployment, or other such sinks in which work can accumulate?
Hi - I should have been more clear -
The product for the ERP has been chosen. I'm chartered with gathering all the business requirements and business analysis, etc It's the urgency of time that is pushing me into the Scrum arena.
As mentioned, these folks have never been exposed to any projects, terms etc. They are experts at their jobs I am doing a presentation on Agile overall so that they can become familiar with what their roles and responsibilities will be.
With that said, I'd be using the whiteboard for the backlog, sprints, etc. We don't have any developers that would be making any coding changes. I'm also struggling with the possibility that I may be both the product owner and the scrum master due to the limited amount of IT folks (2). 3 including me.
I appreciate you taking the time to provide info. I could use all the expertise I can get on this one.
I don't see a strong case for using Scrum here. A short timescale for making a final delivery is not a good reason for adopting Scrum. Moreover, there is unclear product ownership and - it would seem - no particular appetite for incremental release and evaluation.
I'd suggest, in the first instance, simply eliciting a backlog of work and enumerating the stakeholders involved. I think you need transparency more than anything else at this stage. Use the whiteboard for that purpose. Get a very simple story board up with the three stations I mentioned. Find out who is responsible for return on investment, prioritization, actioning work, resolving blockages, approvals, and securing the release of value. Establishing a Definition of Done for this work is important. Once you understand the roles and the scope of work and the appetite for incremental release, you can then decide whether there is a case for using Scrum or perhaps another approach such as Kanban.
Thank you sooo much for the guidance!! I completely understand what you are saying and it fits the task at hand perfectly!!
Happy Holidays!!!!