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SCRUM as Customer Service / Training Department

Last post 03:00 pm June 21, 2017 by Ian Mitchell
2 replies
Ashley Clayton
03:15 pm June 20, 2017

Hello everyone in the SCRUM universe! 



My company is wanting to implement SCRUM company-wide, not just in our development department, but also in our operations, service/support, marketing, and training departments as well. 



I was wondering if any of you had great resources you knew of about SCRUM being implemented outside of a development environment. 



I have a fair familiarity with the methodology through a couple of readings of Mr. Sutherland's book, and this is my first time in a role where I can actually put those ideas into practice as the Customer Success Director. 



How might I set my teams up for success within the context of responsive handling to customer requests, onboarding, etc.? Have any of you encountered this? 



Thanks in advance for all your help! 

 

Timothy Baffa
12:55 pm June 21, 2017

Just a quick suggestion, but if you are looking at a company-wide adoption of Scrum, this needs to include HR as well.   If you move towards quick feedback loops and frequent customer interaction, you will struggle if people's performance is still evaluated through old measurements and goals.

 

Take a look at Craig Larman's 4 Laws of Organizational Behavior for more insight into what may lie ahead.   Good luck!

 

http://www.craiglarman.com/wiki/index.php?title=Larman%27s_Laws_of_Orga…

 

Ian Mitchell
03:00 pm June 21, 2017

First things first. How many of those "departments" - development, operations, service/support, marketing, and training - are needed to produce increments of genuine release quality?

In other words, before you look to "expand" Scrum, does your organization currently have at least one truly cross-functional Scrum Team? Does it deliver "Done" increments which are integrated, tested, and fit for immediate release each and every Sprint? Operational support and maintenance in place, along with any handover? End users trained? The necessary marketing done?

I've never seen Scrum implemented properly within a single organizational function. The integrated work of multiple functions or departments is typically needed to effect a release in the first place.

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