“Scrum Under a Waterfall” at ALM Chicago

I’m presenting my “Scrum Under a Waterfall” talk today (2/22/2012) at ALM Chicago. 

Here’s the abstract:

It would be so easy if everyone at our companies just used Scrum — or at least Agile.  No one would lean on the team for dates and deadlines, and everyone would know that change is a good thing.  It’d be one great big happy project management family.  But let’s face it — an all-Agile organization isn’t always possible.  Maybe you have a Project Management Office (PMO).  Maybe you work for a government contractor.  Maybe you have regulatory requirements.  Maybe you’re the first Scrum/Agile project at your company.  Maybe your company simply *likes* it this way.  Whatever the reason, Agile teams frequently report into Waterfall organizations. 
 
Your team thinks “backlog” and your bosses think “project plan.”  How do you make it work?  How do you ensure communication and foster trust between the two groups?  How do you bridge the project management impedance mismatch?
       
Enter Team Foundation Server and Microsoft Project Server.  The chocolate and peanut butter of the project management world.  These products integrate and replicate so that the Agile/Scrum and Waterfall groups can work with the tools they want to work with, play nice together, and get what they need to do their jobs. 

In this session, we’ll not only discuss how to use the TFS-to-Project Server integration but we’ll also talk about strategies to improve communication between the two constituencies.  Along the way we’ll discuss some of the difficulties with making Scrum/Agile work in a Waterfall-centric organization and what you can do to minimize the headaches. 

Click here to download the slides.

-Ben

— Struggling with your own Scrum Under a Waterfall?  Want some help with Microsoft Project Server and Team Foundation Server (TFS)?  Drop us a line at info@benday.com.