Last week, I led a workshop on Scrum and Agile Project management at /ch/open‘s successful Workshop-Tage. 23 people, ranging from independent consultants to a complete software team from a well known insurance company, wanted to know how make their software teams ‘agile’.

The press is filled with articles about how changing requirements and poor project management are responsible for delays, cost overruns and other problems in big projects. Despite this background, the big question at the workshop was:

How can we get our management or our customers to experiment with Scrum, given how deeply Waterfall-like methodologies are embedded in our corporate culture?’

A good place to start is the so-called ‘elevator pitch,’ the 30 second description of a product or service: Who needs it? Why? And how is it different (better) than what we did before? An elevator pitch is used to launch new products and companies, so why not launch a new idea in project management for your company?

The Scrum elevator pitch:

For CIO’s and executive or operational project managers who want to achieve optimal results in the face of complex projects, and who must satisfy competing requirements for Cost, Time, Functionality and Quality, Scrum is an agile Project Management Framework which :

• emphasizes ROI, transparancy, respect, and working software, and
• defines simple playing rules which assure that all critical tasks and responsibilities are taken care of.

Unlike “Relay-Race” or “Waterfall” methodologies,

• under Scrum, teams incrementally design, implement and deliver finished functionality
• Scrum reacts to change, embraces change, incorporates change, and gives the project owner the tools to keep costs under control
• with Scrum, management can be confident of progress to the desired result on the desired date (or recognize early if plan and reality are diverging — management can take corrective action)

If the press reports are true, then this should get your boss’s attention — I’m looking forward to hearing how it worked for you!