chief administrative officer (CAO). To make sure participants didn't “get comfortable and talk too much,” the CAO literally removed all the chairs from the room. Each Team Member simply and quickly stated the completed activities from the previous day, the planned activities for that day, and identified any obstacles preventing moving forward with the project. We never skipped a daily meeting, someone was always present to discuss the work performed for each team, and it exceeded 15 minutes on only one occasion. In retrospect, the meeting was a Scrum of Scrums. A Scrum of Scrums is an Agile technique that integrates the work of multiple Scrum Teams. When there are many individuals in the team they are divided into smaller groups (usually five to nine members each), working on the same project. It allows the teams to communicate with each other to ensure that they are all working to accomplish the Product Goal. The output of each team is integrated with the output of all teams. This is vital in areas where there could be overlap or the sequencing of events is important. Ceciliana's first attempt to introduce the daily meetings and remove the chairs from the conference room during a project she was leading resulted in the participants becoming upset because they were going to have to limit the time they could speak and standing was not their preferred posture. After explaining that the reason for removing the chairs was to ensure a focused and speedy meeting, the team compromised, and the chairs were returned on a condition of brevity. This is a great “lessons learned” example regarding the importance of clear and timely communications. In this case, even after allowing chairs in the meeting, meeting time was reduced from approximately two hours to 30 minutes, on average, and communications were limited to actions needed to complete the project. In both examples, the daily meeting was essential in timely project completion and is thus one technique you can use today to be Agile.
There was one specific meeting that solidified the daily meeting's value for Raven, which is the main reason we adopted the daily meeting in our Agile framework. Something was said during one of the meetings that could have changed the successful outcome of the restatement project and would have undoubtedly led to bottlenecks to complete the restatement effort. A team leader presented the accounting manager's obstacle – the need to approve thousands of manual journal entries in a very short time frame. Another team lead suggested that the approval was “easy, just select all and click approve.” Talk about correcting project errors sooner! Needless to say, the CAO took immediate notice of the obstacle and the potential risk and implemented corrective actions and safeguards against such behaviors and mindsets. One corrective action included adding additional journal entry approvers. As a result, accounting managers ceased the “select all and click approve” approach to approve manual journal entries. Additionally, the auditors monitored to ensure that this behavior did not recur by using the accounting system's embedded audit module. The auditors created a rule to alert them if one accounting manager, or any person with approval privileges, approved a certain number of manual journal entries within a limited time frame. If it weren't for the daily meeting to identify obstacles, there is a high probability that the two team leaders may have had a hallway conversation about the obstacle that week and the solution would have been “select all and click approve.” To a control fanatic, this is obviously the wrong solution. We found so much value in the daily meeting on that project that we started using it in other projects, not realizing at the time that it was an Agile technique.
SCRUM FRAMEWORK
Scrum is the most popular Agile framework. Scrum is actually a rugby term. It is not an acronym. Since we've never personally played rugby, please bear with us on the following layman's description of a Scrum. In a rugby Scrum, when the ball is put into play, the referee drops the ball in the middle of two teams whose arms are interlocked together. In the huddle, as each member is bound to another, the team communicates instructions so the team can work in unison to get possession of the ball quickly. Each team has the same goal: to quickly get possession of the ball and move the ball to the goal. To achieve this, the team passes the ball back to a Team Member at the back of the Scrum using only their feet, referred to as a hook, as their arms remain bound to others. The team must work together quickly and efficiently to move the ball to the back of their team before the other team takes the ball. Then, the team with possession tries to score as the team moves collectively downfield as they pass the ball back and forth numerous times as needed to take advantage of player expertise, skill, and position to score points. This collective, quick, and efficient movement is similar to an Agile Scrum Team working together quickly and efficiently to achieve a specific goal.
A key concept under Scrum is that a project's time and cost are set early in the project and scope is modified as new information and client needs are determined.
A key concept under Scrum is that a project's time and cost are set early in the project and scope is modified as new information and client needs are determined. Applying this concept to the rugby Scrum, each game (or project) lasts 80 minutes – the time – and each half (or increment) is limited to 40 minutes – the time. [As a side note, there are even some who believe that the Scrum time itself should be limited, as long Scrums are a “waste of time and increase chances of player injuries.” Luckily in Scrum project management, the Scrum time is already limited to one to four weeks. One could say that by limiting the Scrum time in Agile/Scrum project management, we are reducing waste and risk to the organization.] The number of players on the field – the cost – is limited. The scope, or how many points the rugby team will score, and how they will actually maneuver to score points/goals are fluid during the game. Depending on the other team and the environment – this is usually the customer's role in a Scrum – the team adapts its scope and method during play. Additionally, depending on the strengths, weaknesses, and availabilities of the team members, the project scope and methods evolve throughout the game. Usually, the team that adapts the best, wins!
Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, co‐creators of The Scrum Guide: The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game, updated the guide in November 2020. According to the co‐creators, “The 2020 version aimed to bring Scrum back to being a minimally sufficient framework by removing or softening prescriptive language” (Schwaber and Sutherland 2020). While developing our Agile auditing framework and writing this book, we refer to the 2017 version. However, although we have endeavored to incorporate the changes as reflected in the November 2020 update, you will notice references to both versions. This has no substantive effect on our framework; the essence of Scrum has not changed; Scrum is still Scrum. The latest update nonetheless makes Scrum more adaptable to all disciplines, not only software development, and continues to become more streamlined, lighter, and easier to understand. It is one team approach working together towards one Product Goal. As Jeff Sutherland says, “Scrum works best when it is fast, easy, and fun.” Following is a summary of the differences between the 2017 and 2020 versions (Scrum Guides.org 2020):
The 2020 version aimed to bring Scrum back to being a minimally sufficient framework by removing or softening prescriptive language.
One Team, focused on one Product. There is just one Scrum Team focused on the same objective, with three different roles or sets of accountabilities: Project Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers (i.e., individuals performing the audit work). You will note that in this book we use the word “Roles” to denote the different team functions. However, within the Scrum Team, there are no subteams or hierarchies. It is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal. The 2020 updated Scrum Guide no longer refers to roles but rather to “Team.”
A Product Goal. The 2020 Scrum Guide introduces the concept of a Product Goal to provide focus for the Scrum Team toward a larger valuable objective. A Product Goal provides focus for the Scrum Team toward a larger valuable objective. Each Sprint should bring the product closer to the overall Product Goal.
Sprint Goal, Definition of Done, and Product Goal. Previous Scrum Guides described Sprint Goal and Definition of Done without really giving them an identity. They were not quite Artifacts but were somewhat attached to Artifacts. With the addition of Product Goal, the 2020 version
