9 Real Benefits of Scrum - Part 2

By: Kathy Kent Toney, President of Kent Business Solutions

A Kent Business Solutions Two-Part Series 

My last blog revealed the 9 Real Benefits of Scrum my client, Schier Products (Schier), experienced. I outlined 4 tangible benefits. Today’s article will dive into the 5 intangible benefits they encountered.

5 Intangible Benefits

1. Laser Focus on the Task at Hand
This has been the #1 intangible benefit for Schier. Prior to their Scrum implementation, team member attention was often divided among competing priorities, making it challenging to hone-in on any one project. Post-implementation, Schier really embraced FOCUS, a core Scrum value, and it’s paid rich dividends!

2. Disciplined and Thorough Planning
Prior to Scrum, Schier often jumped into new product development efforts without much upfront planning. This frequently caused downstream problems, resulting in a lot of “I forgots.” The Scrum framework advocates more disciplined, thorough planning. Now that Schier has fully embraced this tenet, they have achieved outstanding results.

3. Scrum as an Extension of Lean Thinking
Schier is a Lean manufacturer, so they’re passionate about eliminating waste from all their processes. Unfortunately, their product development was riddled with waste. In fact, their CEO Luke Ismert wasn’t sure how to eliminate it. Talk about frustration! As Luke began to read about Scrum, he discovered that it’s not just for software development projects. He learned all about its successful use on manufactured goods.

Now their product development process runs as efficiently as their manufacturing processes. They’ve found that Scrum is a Lean product development process, and what a difference it has made in their business!

4. Increased Team Transparency
There are two elements of Scrum that Schier incorporated which have increased team transparency: the Daily Scrum and co-location. I’ll explain more about the Daily Scrum in future blogs, so for now I’ll mention that this meeting encourages daily identification of issues, i.e. “impediments”. Team members are encouraged to discuss mistakes and identify risks without repercussions. How refreshing is that!

As for co-location, Schier’s team members all worked together in one room. That way they didn’t have to run down a colleague to talk to them. They overheard other’s conversations as well throughout the day and absorbed information by osmosis, which tremendously improved awareness of project activities.

5. Final Solution Resulted in Very Few Mid-Stream Changes/Problems
As previously mentioned, Schiers’ “I forgots” became much less frequent once they started using Scrum. Better upfront planning and daily identification of impediments made all the difference in the world to decrease mid-stream changes and problems.

Conclusion
Schier’s case study is a great example of how Scrum can reap both tangible and intangible benefits, and there are many more that haven’t been outlined in this blog. Suffice to say, Scrum is a great approach to revolutionize a manufacturer’s product development process.


Would you like to learn more? I’d love to chat with you! I’m running a great special right now, a free one-half hour consultation. Send an email to kathy@kent.solutions of times that work for you and we will get you scheduled!