How Scrum Helped the FBI
For those of you who have read Jeff Sutherland’s book, Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, you are probably familiar with how Scrum was implemented at the FBI and what a difference it made relative to the waterfall approach they had been using prior. In this post, I’ll give a quick background for those who haven’t read about this and then dive into some key aspects of Scrum that really changed the game for the bureau.
The FBI's Sentinel project was a large-scale IT project aimed at modernizing the agency's case management and information systems. The project faced a number of challenges, including scope creep, budget overruns, and delays.
In an effort to get the project back on track, the FBI turned to the Scrum framework. According to Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum and author of the book, the FBI was able to significantly improve the performance of the Sentinel project by implementing Scrum principles and practices.
Some of the key ways in which the FBI used Scrum on the Sentinel project included:
Setting clear goals and priorities: The FBI used Scrum to establish clear goals and priorities for each iteration of the project, which helped to ensure that team members were focused on the most important tasks.
Improving communication and collaboration: Scrum's emphasis on regular, face-to-face communication helped to improve collaboration within the project team, and enabled team members to work more closely together.
Enhancing adaptability: The Sentinel project was able to respond more effectively to changing circumstances and adjust its plans as needed thanks to Scrum's focus on flexibility and adaptability.
Increasing transparency: By using Scrum's framework for regularly reviewing progress and identifying areas for improvement, the Sentinel project was able to increase transparency within the organization and identify problems more quickly.
Overall, the FBI's use of Scrum on the Sentinel project helped to improve its efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptability, and played a key role in its success in completing the project on time and within budget. This is another book I highly recommend picking up - more information around recommended resources can be found on our Scrum Resources page.