While I have been a fan of the scrum process from the beginning, I could tell that the marketing team was having a more difficult time with the transition. The consistent feedback I was hearing in the retrospective was that the team felt rushed. Admittedly, I could see their point. After a daily standup, the marketing demo, backlog prioritization, tasking and planning, my head was spinning and there barely seemed to be enough time for any work. Who would have thought that making one change, extending the sprint by one week, would make all of the difference in the world?
I could see a change almost immediately. The team seemed more relaxed, upbeat and eager. I think that the pressure of finishing massive projects was just too much. The short sprint was setting the team up for a failure each week.
Lesson learned, just because the system is working for me, the scrum process needs to work for everyone. So for now, all is well in my scrum world…that is, until the next retrospective.