Kick off with a scrum!

On the next six pages, we present extracts with key phrases and expressions that you can use during project meetings.

1. Plan for the real world

Rania: How many of our projects actually start and finish on time? How often do we exceed the budget and miss the deadlines? Lucy: It happens — a lot.

Rania: Exactly. The psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky identified why projects finish over budget and behind schedule. Or fail to achieve the goals.

Lucy: Kahneman, the Nobel laureate?

Rania: Yes, that’s the one. Basically, we are too optimistic. Too confident about the time we need to complete a task. They called this the “planning fallacy”.

Dean: It’s good to have a name for our problem!

2. Introducing Mike and scrum

Lucy: So, how can we finish under budget and on time?

Rania: Let me introduce your new scrum master. This is Mike. Mike: I’m going to help you to be more agile in future.

Dean: So, can we extend the deadlines?

Mike: If necessary. We will work more closely together, Dean. On scrum projects, we collaborate more. And as a team, we agree on the plan, the tasks and the timeline together. We execute the tasks. We assess the results. And we repeat this cycle as needed. Rania: Improvise, adapt and overcome!

Lucy: I know that meme!

3. More meetings

Rania: We work to deadlines, but

we will share our progress more frequently.

Dean: Not more meetings! Rania: Yes, but they will be more productive. More meetings mean more oversight. That’s how we ensure that our day-to-day work is progressing towards our goal.

Mike: We’ll be working in twoweek working cycles, or sprints. In each cycle, we will meet every day to review our progress. This meeting today is the kick-off for the first sprint of our first scrum project.

Lucy: Cool.

4. The daily stand-ups

Rania: Are we OK with daily stand-ups? I’ll schedule them for 10 a.m.

Dean: Well, I have a bad back. I can’t stand for too long.

Mike: Sorry about your back, Dean. Don’t worry, stand-ups last ten minutes. If you prefer, you can sit down, of course.

Rania: Can we all keep our points short and simple so we really do finish in ten minutes?

Mike: Let’s move around, walk and talk. It keeps the blood pumping! How’s your back right now, Dean?

Dean: Great, thanks.