Bonnier Web Gurus Embrace Scrum and Agile Development

A scrum board, photo by Bill Crosby

If your boss asks you to scrum, don't worry, it's totally legal—and everyone is doing it.

Scrum is a method of managing projects, specifically digital media products.  The form of "agile development" utilizes quick daily meetings, short time frames, physical notecards and mutually-agreed-upon prioritization for a development process that is transparent, flexible and results-oriented.  From Sweden to Denmark to the U.S. and beyond, web development managers across Bonnier are embracing agile development. 

Anders Kragelund, Interactive Manager of Bonnier's Benjamin Media in Denmark is an avid preacher for agile development.  "It's a lot more than a project model, it's a whole culture," he says.  He and his team started using to tools of agile development in November of 2007.  He says this method of working allows his team to release many digital products quickly and at high quality.

Many web teams used to work in what is known as "waterfall development", which means that a project idea fell from the business unit down to the development teams.  The problem was that a single project could take months to be built exactly as specified by the business team.  By the time the product was finished, it might be out-of-date, or not in sync with the current business needs. 

Scrum is a form of "agile development".  It takes a project and breaks it up into small, easier-to-manage pieces.  During two- to four-week "sprints", web developers identify exactly what they can do during that short time frame and complete what they have promised.  Once a "sprint" period is over, a team reviews their challenges and start up a new "sprint".  This means a business unit can make adjustments to a project along the way.  It also means web developers are accountable for what they promise to do in a short time frame.

Agile development can lead to better management of expectations, higher levels of satisfaction and empowerment for both the business people and developers.  Physical note cards and project walls get the development out of the computers and out in the open where everyone—even a techphobe—can understand and interact with the work.  "Scrum is low-tech, high-touch," says Senior Director of Digital Product Development at Bonnier Corporation in the U.S. Bill Crosby.  "This is face-to-face human interaction." 

Bill is a big advocate for switching to scrum.  "Basically what scrum does is shine a very bright light in a shortened time frame," he explains.  "When it goes well, they get a lot more work done."  In the U.S., Bill and his team did a test run of scrum with bringing Usedboats.com back into operability in the winter of this year.  After seeing success with the Marine Group, he and the e-media group began rolling out scrum to the rest of the Bonnier Corporation sites.

"Agile for me is a more sensible way of controlling and steering development," says Johan Victor, technical manager for Digital Media at Bonnier Tidskrifter.  "It's a new way of thinking.  I will never be able to promise exactly what will be delivered in the end. However, I can always say that we start with the things the client thinks is the most important and that we will deliver on time.  It might be a bit scary in the beginning for clients, but they have to understand that it's also possible for you to change during the development period," he says.

Advice for web teams who want to get started with scrum:

Anders:

"You can't combine waterfall and agile development.  You either do it or you don't do it.  There's no in-between.  They are two completely different mindsets.  Management support is important.  Also, involve your developers."

Bill:

"Try it by all means, expect hiccups early on.  No scrum team comes out of the gates performing perfectly.  But understand that the most you ever lose is two weeks.  Also, scrum is a classic set of guidelines.  Every organization makes modifications to suit their individual needs.  But I'd say if you're first starting out, stick as close to the basic guidelines as you can.  From my experience, they work. "  He suggests scrumalliance.org as a resource for beginners.

Johan:

"Just start doing it.  Just start testing it and understand that there's going to be some frustration and a lot of questions.  And make sure that you change your process constantly, that you actually improve all the time."