We combine the best of both worlds - hybrid working and Scrum. Find out how we coordinate our agile working and why we still love Office Days (especially in an office like ours) here.
New Work has come to stay.
I'm certainly not telling you anything new. At TOWA, we work according to the Scrum principle and are free to decide when we want to work in the office and when we want to work remotely. Remote working is also possible and is actively encouraged by TOWA. True to the motto: Take your computer and work from everywhere.
As a Product Owner, you naturally enjoy this freedom. Working from wherever you want, is there anything better? But it also presents you and the entire team with new challenges. Different customers and projects demand - sometimes more, sometimes less - attention. Issues often have to be discussed and decided quickly. This requires a great deal of discipline and trust as well as a well-coordinated team that can rely on each other. But how do we manage this?
Scrum ceremonies: Adapted to the circumstances.
Hybrid working naturally also influences the Scrum ceremonies. For all those who don't know what Scrum is, here is a short version of the process:
Every fortnight we take time as a team to discuss the last two weeks and plan the following two (two weeks = 1 sprint). Each sprint consists of a sprint review, the retrospective and the planning sessions. This allows us to bring the entire team up to speed, learn from mistakes and maintain an overview of many projects and customers. The effort of a single requirement (=story) on the way to project success is measured with so-called story points.
Many companies want to have the entire team on site during the transition to a new sprint (= sprint change) - we don't. Our Planning Day is 100% digital. At first, Corona forced us to do this, but now we think it's even better. And there are several reasons for this:
We already start at around 08:45 and thus have enough time to prepare early without having to plan a journey (this also often leads to getting one or two story points out).
We're also fans of digital planning poker in Slack, which can be set up quickly and easily for each story.
We switch off during our lunch break. The temptation to continue talking about stories in the office is much greater than at home.
Cats wander through the picture from time to time
Sprint Reviews
We also only conduct the sprint review digitally. The team presents the results of the last sprint and obtains feedback from the stakeholders. There are some topics that are particularly important in remote sprint reviews:
01
Preparation
Of course, it is important for every sprint review to be well prepared. However, the digital sprint review also involves other aspects. Are the camera and sound working? Do I have a stable internet connection? Have I prepared the tickets accordingly? Who moderates and in what order are the closed tickets presented? These are important elements in order to present the result in the best possible way, to pick up the stakeholders well and to use the time efficiently. Especially when several teams are working on a project and present their work to the customer during a sprint review. A trial run can also pay off here in order to familiarise the teams with the new situation.
02
Realisation
The moderator welcomes the stakeholders. It is important to start on time and end the review on time. The cameras are switched on and the stories are demonstrated from the user's perspective. The stakeholders are invited to ask questions and give feedback, which can be taken into account in the next sprints if necessary.
03
Follow-up
The sprint review is used to collect feedback from stakeholders. This should also be recorded and processed accordingly. The way in which feedback is followed up should be communicated in the sprint review.
Team days and refinements at TOWA
We try to schedule the refinements on our joint team day wherever possible. As we mostly work remotely, we look forward to it all the more. So every Tuesday we meet at the Vienna office for lunch together (yes, sometimes we even cook ourselves). When it comes to refinements, we make a point of doing them in person as often as possible:
Due to the large number of projects and the different customer-specific requirements, we hold refinements on a weekly basis in order to be able to provide customers with cost estimates quickly and to be able to adhere to agreements.
Personalised refinements offer new colleagues or junior developers in particular the opportunity to get to know them better and close any knowledge gaps.
Our meeting room is also equipped with a Meeting Owl. This means that team members who are not in the office can still follow along.
Multifunctional lounge area
And there's something else: we organise our daily stand-ups - also known as dailies - either remotely or in the lounge area in the office, which is equipped with a large TV.
We bring in team members who can't be there in person that day remotely and share our Jira Board directly on the TV.
Long story short.
Hybrid or remote working works very well with Scrum if you adapt to the circumstances and openly discuss what works well for the team and what does not. You should be flexible in the organisation of meetings, offer constructive criticism if something is not working so well and regularly evaluate the current processes as part of a retrospective. Only then can the Scrum values of commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage also be practised with hybrid teams.
Customers or external stakeholders may also have to adapt to this hybrid situation. This is where it is important to provide appropriate support as a product owner. Actively obtaining feedback on the sprint reviews and processes is just as essential as feedback within the team. This can take place in the weekly meetings or in regular, separate meetings with the customer, for example, in order to shed light on the status quo of the processes.
The office becomes a "feel-good zone" and therefore no longer necessarily corresponds to the actual approach of an office. It must be technically and spatially well equipped and well thought out for hybrid working to work.
And: you can't force anyone to do this, but non-verbal communication, gestures and facial expressions are important areas for mutual understanding, which is why the use of a camera is essential. As you can see: Scrum and hybrid working go well together and offer real added value for any company - so what are you waiting for?