Tailor the scope to the timeframe
Establish cross-functional teams
Gain necessary authorisation
Take a ‘can do’
attitude
Don’t do it
all yourself
Report back
regularly
A project team can have big ambitions for the sprint and it can be tempting to expand the scope. But the project team – plus project sponsors and senior leaders – need to be pragmatic about what can be achieved in the time available, otherwise it risks the sprint failing. Not all problems or issues are suitable for a sprint approach.
Teams should comprise between five and 10 people, including professional services staff, academics and students (where appropriate). Team members need to focus on solutions from the perspective of the whole university, rather than just their home area. When teams are too small, they may lack the resources required; when too big, it can be difficult to maintain engagement.
The sprint team, including the sprint lead, need explicit authority to take action. This empowers the team to make quick decisions, which they will need to do. In practice, this means a project sponsor needs to be sufficiently senior and have sufficient buy-in into the sprint and its objectives.
All project team members are involved in developing outputs. Working sessions should be treated as time to help develop the solution rather than as committee meetings where team members just offer their point of view.
Facilitators are critical to helping in the design and ensuring quality solutions are delivered – they can be internal if sufficiently experienced, otherwise external. A facilitator ensures the team builds the required capabilities, acts as a critical friend in developing and communicating outputs, forces decision making and provides inspiration from across the sector.
Daily stand ups help build momentum, while timeboxing (allocating a fixed and maximum unit of time to an activity) provides the structure to develop deliverables.
Look back
afterward
Build
capability
Retrospectives after each sprint encourage teams to identify what worked well, what didn’t work and what could be done differently next time.
Team members need support to build their understanding so they can participate in the sprint. This means, for example, explaining the basics of agile, sprints and HCD, as well as the mindsets and behaviours needed for them to succeed. Without this, people have no idea what they are walking into and what is expected of them.
LOOK BACK
AFTERWARD
BUILD
CAPABILITY
Team members need support to build their understanding so they can participate in the sprint. This means, for example, explaining the basics of agile, sprints and HCD, as well as the mindsets and behaviours needed for them to succeed. Without this, people have no idea what they are walking into and what is expected of them.
Facilitators are critical to helping in the design and ensuring quality solutions are delivered – they can be internal if sufficiently experienced, otherwise external. A facilitator ensures the team builds the required capabilities, acts as a critical friend in developing and communicating outputs, forces decision making and provides inspiration from across the sector.
Retrospectives after each sprint encourage teams to identify what worked well, what didn’t work and what could be done differently next time.