Are you interested in producing more results quicker and with better results? Are you searching for a way to manage your team and encourage them to take on more responsibility towards launching new products?
If so, then you need to check out the agile framework for product development. Don’t worry if you’ve tried it before without success or it all seems confusing. We’re going to break it down and show you two unique ways to implement it. Keep reading to learn optimized ways for agile and scrum training to help develop your team for optimum performance.
What is Agile?
Traditional product development methods take months to plan out and years to fully develop before they ever hit the market. In the 1980s, the software development industry formulated a new kind of product development methodology.
This new format allowed technological firms to develop new software programs much quicker than traditional methods. This new idea of producing products as fast as possible and then adjusting the features as requested by the users allows software companies to keep up with the ever-changing technological landscape.
Technology changes and improves faster than the speed of light. Software companies can’t afford to develop at former speeds of production. Therefore they created a new method for getting their ideas from creation to launch much sooner.
And that new method is embodied in the ideology known as the agile approach to product development. Industries around the globe are now adopting the agile philosophy and adapting it to fit their industry and product development styles.
Within the agile format, companies work in short sprints, anywhere from one to four weeks of intense work on the development of a singular product. Everyone on the team is working towards the launch of one product or a bite-sized piece of a product.
There are several methods for implementing the scrum method, namely Scrum and Kanban. Both work equally well and depend on the type of project or product you’re developing to market.
Scrum
Scrum can be a simple process, but it is also difficult to master. It will take time and training for you and your team to fully understand and implement all that scrum has to offer. Your project management team will appreciate the set roles each person plays on the scrum team as well as the ability to lean into their strengths through their contributions to the team.
The scrum method is a continual cycle of creation, product development, launch, and the adaptation of changes from customer feedback. Scrum relies on rapid development, fast feedback, and quick adaptation of changes.
Some benefits fo utilizing scrum include fast innovation, quicker delivery of the product, and increased customer satisfaction along with employee satisfaction and morale. Customers enjoy faster innovation and new technologies. While employees find higher satisfaction from finding roles they were meant to play and fully utilize their strengths.
These roles include scrum master, product owner, and the development team. The scrum roles are not dependant on any individual’s job description. In fact, employee morale has been seen to increase when everyone is encouraged to take on different roles in different scrum cycles.
Leaders within your company will see increased production and employee satisfaction when they listen to their employees. Listen to what each individual wants to learn in their career and skill development.
Just as agile works in sprints, the sprints in scrum are called events. These events are called sprint planning, daily scrums, sprint review, and the sprint retrospective which is the final meeting in the sprint cycle.
Scrum is better if your production cycle is repetitive and calculated. Kanban is another form of agile development and is better if your production cycle is operational such as a help desk.
Kanban
The Kanban methodology predates agile however it incorporates nicely within the agile ideology. Kanban was developed by the Japanese automotive company, Toyota. They needed a simple way to manage and control both the work process and their inventory.
Kanban was the perfect method for both. In 2004 the Kanban method was first adapted to fit the software development agile product development methodology. Most people know the Kanban planning process as notecards on a corkboard. The cards are separated into different categories within the development process, usually “to do,” “doing,” and “done.”
Cards are moved from left to right across the spectrum as the product is developed. New ideas are kept in a backlog section and delayed projects are kept in a waiting section. This kanban method is great for tracking productivity across teams and projects.
What Are the Benefits of Agile and Scrum Training?
These methods having many benefits, mostly centered around fast development and sales of products. All of these frameworks seem simple on their surface, however, implementation can be more in-depth and difficult to effectively implement.
This is why we suggest training your entire team and not just key players. Everyone on your team has many strengths and skills. You can highlight these skills by allowing team members to determine their roles within each team. Only with training everyone can you fully develop your entire team to their fullest potential.
We also suggest you start with agile training before scrum or another methodology. There are many reasons why agile training comes before scrum training. Namely, your agile training will give your entire team the basic concepts for implementation.
Keep Your Business Flexible
As you can see there are many benefits to incorporating the agile methodology into your product development. Because of these benefits many companies are offering agile and scrum training to their employees.
Employees are experiencing higher morale when they can be more engaged in the sprint cycle and take on their key roles. Customers are also happier with the continual cycle of new technology being launched regularly.
If you have any more questions on agile training, contact us today, we would love to talk with you and see how we can help your company today.
[…] model can be difficult to incorporate without proper scrum training. It is advisable that your entire team receive the training, including executives so that everyone […]