The Scrum Framework for business has been around for decades and was developed by Dr. Jeff Sutherland. The Scrum Framework is commonly adopted by manufacturing and software development companies. The top companies in the world including Tesla, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, to name a few, are all lean agile companies. By adopting this framework, these companies can speed up the product development cycle by eliminating waste and increasing process efficiency.
In 2020, Biztek Solutions landed Scrum, Inc., the company that coaches and consults businesses on implementing the Scrum Framework as a Managed Services client. Biztek quickly learned by working with the Scrum team the advantages of working in the Scrum Framework and committed to becoming a lean-agile company. However, Biztek Solutions does not develop products or software and works in a heavily interrupted environment due to the nature of the business – providing technical support to end-users. While it is less common for company’s like Biztek Solutions to adopt the Scrum Framework due to the heavy interrupts, there is still great value to implementing it.
The entire Biztek team has been taking Scrum training to become Certified Scrum Masters and Product Owners. To date, over half the staff at Biztek are Certified Scrum Masters with the rest of the team planning to complete certification in early 2022.
Scrum Teams
Aside from becoming Scrum Masters, the first step Biztek Solutions took in implementing the Scrum Framework was to split the technical support staff into two teams, Red Team and Gold Team. Each team has 4 team members, led by a Customer Experience Manager (Product Owner in Scrum terminology). The Product Owner is our client advocate and accountable for the value delivered to our clients. This is done by curating the team’s backlog of tasks and prioritizing the work based on the value to the client. Each team is cross-functional, collaborative, and self-managing. Each team is led by a Scrum Master who ensures all weekly sprint activity takes place and helps remove any impediments teams may have in getting their work done.
Not only did we split our internal staff into teams, but we also split our client base by assigning clients to specific teams. This allows each team to focus and specialize on their subset of clients instead of trying to support the entire customer base. With just under 90 clients, it can be difficult learning and remembering all the important items and specifics for each client, but in cutting that number in half, our teams are now able to provide better support and service since they are more focused. We plan to create more teams as we add technical engineers and more clients to the team.
Weekly Sprints
In traditional project management, project managers plan projects in the traditional waterfall method, which seldom works. The waterfall method involved planning the entire project in phases with dates for deliverables. While this sounds good, it often leads to delays and products that do not meet the client’s needs. Biztek Solutions has ditched waterfall planning and is now running weekly sprints to complete projects and tasks. Each week, each Scrum team led by their Scrum Master conducts their weekly sprint planning. During this meeting, they review the previous sprint to see what worked and what didn’t. They also look for a Kaizen, a way to improve, so that they can increase efficiency in the next sprint. The teams then plan their upcoming week sprint with the Product Owner prioritizing the work that needs to be done. The team then commits to getting the planned work done over the next week. During the sprint, each team holds a daily scrum meeting to see what has been done and what will be done in the next 24 hours and announce any impediments they have to the team, for which the Scrum Master seeks to remove to allow the team to get the work done.
In working through the weekly sprints, we have seen employee morale improve by having a more focused workload. Morale has also improved based on the teamwork the Scrum Framework promotes. Teams are swarming together to help each other complete tasks they have committed to getting done. After several weeks of running sprints, we are seeing our teams increase their velocity, meaning they can accomplish more work each week. This has led to a reduction in our ticket backlog as well as allowed us to complete projects much quicker and more efficiently.
While we have made great progress as a team this past quarter, we still have a ways to go in truly becoming a lean-agile company. By committing to the Scrum Framework, we are confident we will continue to become more efficient as an organization which will ultimately lead to both happier staff and happier clients.
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About Biztek Solutions, Inc.
Since 2006, our core value has been to provide the highest level of client satisfaction when delivering IT support for client networks, computers, servers, and cybersecurity. We are the #1 IT support services and consulting firm in Riverside and service clients throughout the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Orange County, and the surrounding areas.
Products & Solutions
Cyber Security & Compliance I IT Tech Support I Managed IT Services
Backup & Disaster Recovery I Cloud Computing Solutions I IT Consulting
Biztek Solutions provides IT support services to the following locations: Riverside, Corona, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fontana, Chino, Moreno Valley, Redlands, Temecula, Los Angeles, Pomona, Pasadena, Chino, Anaheim, Irvine, Fullerton, City of Industry, and all surrounding areas.
