If you have ever been an IT-developer on a project, you might have experienced being surprised by the end product, and discovered that several sub-elements did not fit quite as well as you first thought they would. Perhaps you have had to re-adjust the delivery date.

Scrum is a word which originates from rugby and is an abbreviation for “scrummage”, which means a quarrel. But it also describes a new work method, which was used by the mymome.com team in the process of creating the new website. Using the Scrum method you always work towards a fixed launch date and ensure, at short intervals and as a team, that the sub-elements are complete.

No nasty surprises
Scrum is a toolbox and a method with which you often start over by taking a close look at your project and tune what already exists. It is about constantly prioritizing which functions needs to be developed here and now, transparency in development  among the whole team as well as focus on the end user.

“Every second week we had a finished project and as a result we knew exactly where we were all the time regarding content, and we got to know our developing speed which helped us to plan more and more precisely,” says Christian Steen Jensen and continues: “Using Scrum, you try to avoid nasty surprises, like suddenly experiencing that you are moving in the wrong direction. It is about visibility in the project. We knew what the programmers would deliver, but not at which speed. After the first couple of rounds the team got to know their speed and development and as such we got more and more competent at evaluating what was possible and reachable,” says Christian Steen Jensen, Business Development Manager and head of the team behind Mobile Memories.

Believe in a better product
Every morning the team had a “daily scrum” where everybody got up to explain what they did the day before, what they expected to reach on the day and if there was anything getting in their way.

“It can provoke anxiety if every day you have to be accountable for what you did the day before. But it became a routine for us. I totally believe that you will get a better product using Scrum. We quickly saw the project as a whole. But you need to get the whole team and the organization along first,” says Christian Steen Jensen.

Forced to prioritize
Christian Steen Jensen feels that Scrum is a tool that forces you to stick to deadlines and keep prioritizing.

“If you do not use Scrum you risk developing towards a distant launch date and that the product is not complete until at the very end. This way, you will not discover until late in the process if you have usable results and if everything works. This method
will often delay the launch date as the whole product is one, big delivery that you do not change continuously. We have not delayed our launch – instead we have tuned what we are launching,” he says.