Planes, Farm Animals & SCRUM

Imagine your graduate class designing and flying planes or herding hundreds of farm animals.  Students in the MS Leadership & Organizational Change program accomplished these very tasks during a deep dive into Scrum Project Leadership. Understanding the role of a SCRUM Master was core to their final weekend of study before graduating.

SCRUM

Scrum is a project framework that is revolutionizing software development and other product innovations. It is rapidly replacing traditional GANT chart project management in speed, predictability, and overall success.

Scrum is based on Agile Leadership - where small teams make the project decisions. The Scrum Master, a ‘servant leader,’ provides guidance and support. The Product Leader represents customer needs and helps the team develop a backlog of priorities. The team engages in a one- to four-week Sprint which yields a working prototype of a product or service. Throughout the Sprint, teams frequently communicate and help each other. With its emphasis on customer-centric priorities, team-based decisions, a continuous improvement mindset, and servant leadership, Scrum is becoming the project leadership method of choice.

PAPER PLANES

The three graduate leadership cohort teams were given six different paper plane designs.  Each team chose a servant leader. The challenge was multiple nine-minute Scrum sprints. The goal was to build as many planes as possible. To be considered successful, a plane must fly twenty or more feet.

Plan - 3-Minutes

• What designs will we choose?
• How will we build them?

Build - 3-Minutes

• How many planes will we assemble?

Test

• Each team tested their planes in the hallway.

Retrospective - 3-Minutes

• What will we change in the next sprint? 

It was festive in the hallway as pilots tested their designs. Teams cheered each other on as some planes soared while others crashed on take-off. After three sprints the learning outcomes were achieved.

• The faster you fail, the faster you improve.
• Assess your competition. Maybe there is a better alternative than your design.
• Assess the whole process. Sometimes the difference is the pilot, not the plane.

LEGO FARM ANIMALS

With help of the local Lego store, enough parts were secured for the three teams to build hundreds of farm animals. In order of complexity were the horse, cow, sheep, and duck. The plan was up three nine-minute sprints. A backlog called for specific numbers of animals to be built by each team. As in the previous Scrum activity, a servant leader was named. There were three minutes each for planning, building, and retrospective.

The challenge was two-fold: determining the animal priority in each sprint and sorting the parts for assembly.  Scrum calls for the highest complexity to be completed first.

The teams developed plans. This time a burn-down chart was used to track how fast the sprint backlog was depleting.  The three teams eliminated their backlogs in less than three sprints. In all, 335 farm animals were produced and corralled. Additional learning outcomes were addressed.

• Don’t procrastinate; prioritize the most complex tasks.
• Divide and conquer; some assemble, and some sort parts.
• SCRUM shows an easy way to accurately forecast sprints.

The class earned their last weekend of the program celebration. With a little more reading and practice, each student can become a certified SCRUM Master. As each graduate moves on their life's journey, they better understand the power of self-directed teams supported by servant leaders.

For more information, visit the the MS Leadership and Organizational Change program page.