Navigating Agile Horizons: A Client's Perspective on big-room planning

A palpable sense of anticipation fills the air as we gear up for our first big-room planning session just around the corner. The journey to introduce agile methodologies has been underway for a few months now, with some teams already trained on Scrum and successfully delivering value to the business. While excitement abounds, the prospect of aligning multiple teams, some well-versed in Scrum and others adhering to traditional waterfall practices, is a unique challenge.

* Note: before you ask, yes, we are planning together with scrum and non-scrum teams and it is intentional.

As I try to put myself in the shoes of the business, I thought of five key items that I would hope would be addressed to ensure a seamless transition and maximize the potential of unique environment:

1. Harmonizing Scrum and Waterfall Practices

With a mix of teams using Scrum and others following traditional waterfall practices, we will need expertise in harmonizing these diverse approaches. Balancing the flexibility of Agile with the structured nature of waterfall requires a nuanced approach to ensure collaboration and cohesion across the organization. Managing dependencies will be critical in creating a unified plan.

2. Leveraging Team-Level Scrum Experience

Acknowledging that some teams have already completed Scrum training and have been successfully using it at the team level for several months, we look to Scrum Masters to provide support as we plan across teams. Optimizing team-level Scrum experience will be vital in transitioning smoothly to a big-room planning session and aligning our initiatives effectively.

3. Adapting Velocity for Cross-Team Planning

Understanding and adapting team velocities will be crucial in the upcoming planning session. Our ability to extrapolate team velocities will enable us to set realistic goals and timelines for our prioritized initiatives. To plan outside of the scrum teams, will will need to leverage key players in the technology department who will be attending the planning session.

4. Seamless Integration of Prioritized Initiatives

Entering big-room planning with a prioritized list of initiatives will enable us to refine the right initiatives and be prepared to answer questions related to scope, risk and dependencies. As long as we decompose the initiatives into finer detail, we should be able to understand dependencies to plan across teams.

5. Agile Mindset

Navigating an environment with a mix of scrum and waterfall requires a mindset that embraces both flexibility and structure. Fostering this mindset across teams will be pivotal, ensuring that the benefits of Agile methodologies are realized even in a mixed-methodology setting.

As we stand at the cusp of this significant big-room planning session, we are confident in our capabilities and the collective spirit of our teams. With their support, we are eager to chart new territory, align our diverse practices, and propel our organization forward into a future marked by collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement.

Action item:

• Put yourself in the shoes of the business. What would you want to know before planning? During planning?

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