Building a Jet Fighter Faster, Cheaper, Better with Scrum - Saab did it and so can you in your Org

Advanced military systems are some of the most expensive and most complex research, design, and manufacturing challenges in the world. The sheer cost of military procurement worldwide is measured in the trillions of dollars, and for decades costs risen seemingly indefinitely. As a result, many companies are seeking new ways of working that will control costs while delivering the highest quality. Saab Defense has adopted an Agile process to address the issue in both hardware and software teams to produce a new multi-role strike fighter, the JAS 39E Saab Gripen.

The complete paper can be downloaded from the?Scrum Inc website.

Go Through the paper to

• Learn?how Saab has scaled Scrum across hundreds of teams and multiple disciplines
• Understand how Scrum enables Saab leaders to surface and address impediments daily
• Learn how?Saab has scaled the retrospective to drive continuous improvement of the organization

Paper authors:?J?rgen Furuhjelm, Project Manager, R&D, Saab Aeronautics; Johan Segertoft, Project Manager, Avionics Software, Saab Aeronautics; Joe Justice and J.J. Sutherland, Scrum Inc.,

Key Takeaways

• Agile (and Scrum) can be used in every level or engineering discipline. In this case from software,?hardware & fuselage design. This shows that the agile can be applied successfully almost everywhere
• It's important to set a common pulse of deliverables. In this case, 3 week sprints (all beginning/ending on same day), 4 sprints per increment, several Increments per “Development Step” (typically next Test Aircraft)
• 1000 engineers/100 teams working together on the aircraft, all with team autonomy (within the constraints of the framework) to adjust to local context and decentralized decision making
• Minimized organisational hierarchy, complete transparency, decisions made at lowest level possible means reduced bureaucracy and faster decisions which are mostly right
• Product owner as proxy for the customer, plus Saab & customer pilots, more responsibilities to POs but as feedback from real customer is rare (due to product and market) having POs step in compensate that gap
• Alignment with Strategic Plan as a living document in constant need of adjustment based upon?learning. This plan is not a micromanaged gnatt chart of work for next few years

Note - Some of the text is copied from other articles and rest is as per limited understanding from the author !!