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Increased Visibility When Using Scrum
The use of Scrum on Project X has greatly increased the visibility of the project with both the client and senior management. Initially, there was some skepticism as to whether the team would be able to deliver anything within a single Sprint. This was due in part to the history of the project and the implementation of new development methodologies.
Any concerns about the use of XP and Scrum were quickly dissipated when the project team was able to demonstrate working software that addressed both interface and data quality problems during the first Sprint review. The functionality wasn't complete, but it showed visible progress and tangible benefit. The demonstration of working software allowed interested parties to have a concrete understanding of the functionality and quality of the software that had been developed. In addition, it communicated the team's progress much more effectively than written status reports.
At the Sprint review, IT and business management were able to see the team and business owner collaborating about what had been done and what to do next. As the senior IT person said, "Agile (Scrum and XP) solves my problem of customer involvement." Management queried the team, "How have you been able to make so much progress?" The team attributed much of the progress to close communication and collocation of business users and the team, optimizing communication and productivity.
Interested parties were also invited to communicate directly with the team. This allowed both parties to communicate freely and to explore some of the issues that were resolved by the project team during the Sprint.