1Scrum

In Fawzooz’s village ideas are plentiful, but they rarely get finished. One day Fawzooz sat down to count the illustrated stories his team had started about the village legends, and found there were ten of them, and the team had not finished a single one. He had recently learned a way of working called Scrum, so he decided to try it with his team.

He gathered a small team of village talents: illustrators, writers and designers. Fawzooz took the role of “Scrum Master”, smoothing the way for the team and shielding it from distractions. And he chose Uncle Saleh as “Product Owner”, because Uncle Saleh knows the village legends, so he is the one who decides what the project needs first.

“A small team, a clear goal, and a step every two weeks.”

The Scrum artefacts the team used

Product Backlog. An ordered list of everything the project needs, kept in order by Uncle Saleh.

Sprint Backlog. The tasks the team picks for each cycle, along with its plan for getting them done.

The core Scrum events

Sprint. A work cycle of a few weeks, at the end of which the team has something people can actually use.

Sprint Planning. A meeting where the team sets the goal for the cycle.

Daily Scrum. A fifteen-minute meeting every morning where the team lines up the day’s work.

Sprint Review. A meeting at the end of each cycle where the team shows what it has done.

Sprint Retrospective. A chance for the team to look back at how it works and plan what to improve.

The team chose a project to try Scrum. A series of illustrated stories telling the village legends in a fresh way. This time the team didn’t start ten stories: in the first Sprint it focused on just two, finishing them and showing them to a small group of children and parents.

Every morning the team met under the big tree. Nobody sat down; they all stood, so the meeting stayed short. One morning the young man complained that the paints had run out, and Fawzooz promised him he would have them before noon. Then everyone went off to work.

At the end of the cycle the team showed the two stories. The little ones laughed as they turned the pages, while the grown-ups complained that the writing was too small for them to read. The team noted what they said and carried it into the next cycle.

With every Sprint the team grew quicker and more skilled. They saw with their own eyes how flexibility, constant review and honest teamwork could produce a creativity they had never known. Each success built their trust in the new way of working, until the village library became a centre of creativity, drawing visitors from everywhere to see how stories are born and grow in the hands of the villagers.