Public Sector Takes on Scrum

The federal government in any country is widely known for its lack of efficiency and unwavering commitment to not change. And yes, there are some that are better than others. I know I just made a sweeping generalization. From time to time, I find a group or part of an agency that is willing to go slightly out on a limb (I do have safety nets in place), and take a chance on what others will label as radical.

I had a contract with a U.S. federal agency for a team to “build an application.” They defined the purpose of the application as well as they could, given the antiquated process of gathering requirements. However, they hadn’t thought about how they were going to deliver this application to their customers. The first problem is that they were still calling it a Project and had plans to track it in MS Project. The second was that the group had never been involved in building a product before.

DIFFICULT, NOT IMPOSSIBLE

However, it became apparent that change could at least be suggested. They needed a product that was nimble, and could be delivered quickly to solve a problem of a laborious, paper-driven process that was compounded by a plethora of mandates-tracking and reporting requirements. Using Waterfall methodology to do this was not going to yield nimble or quick results. The very fabric of the organisation, geared to always create a working group to define requirements, meant that any actual “building” would be years away.

I suggested a radical idea called Scrum (based on an assessment of the problems to be solved), and took 30 minutes to explain what this meant in terms of outcomes. Six months later, the first version of the product was released. 

ONE YEAR LATER

One year into the transformation, I interviewed the Program Manager about the experience. Here is our conversation, edited for clarity:

Q: What is one of the best outcomes of using Agile for the product?

A: Quick delivery and able to see results over short periods of time, i.e, Sprints.

Q: What are the features of using Scrum that you like?

A: Daily communication via stand up.  The customer has no choice but to be involved early, often, and throughout the development cycle.

Q: What is one of the biggest challenges that you have experienced?

A: I have said it many times… The ability of the rest of the organisation to be responsive and timely to support the development including the hit-or-miss engagement of leadership.

Q: If you could do one thing over again, what would it be?

If time was available prior to being assigned the product, I would insist on getting our workforce ‘trained up’ on Agile while forming our internal government team.

Q: What would you tell others in the federal space that are considering using Agile?

1.   Touch-base with other agencies who have successfully used Agile to get their insight and to get info on “If you could do one thing over again what would it be?”

2.   Get Agile training in advance.

3.   At times you may feel uncomfortable if you have had experience with ‘traditional’ s/ware development however, “feel the fear and do it anyway!”

CHANGE DOES NOT HAPPEN IN SILOS

I would add one thing to his analysis of what could have been done differently or better - to ensure buy-in on the change from all levels of the organisation. This particular group has a bargaining unit involved. It also relied on the IT department for infrastructure, even though this product did not use them for the application build itself, which was contained within the business line. 

And of course, because it was a government operation, there was a required security element. None of these groups were looped into the process change at the onset. So they couldn’t respond in the efficient, effective manner that the Scrum team required. As a result, the product was built, tested, and embraced by the user community that needed it, but languished while those other groups caught up. 

Change in an organisation is not done in silos. Everyone impacted needs to be involved. And by leadership making a choice not to involve them early, they suffered a lag in productivity as a result. 

While public sector operations come with their own security requirements and processes, change is possible. It just needs leadership with an open mind and willingness to get stakeholders involved early in the change process.

Learn more about the work that we do and the programs that we offer. Set up a call to start planning how you want to change the culture of your organization.

Learn More

About the Author:

INDRA A. BOOKS

Connect with us