2The Bridges Programme

In Fawzooz’s village people hold their values and their homes dear. But Fawzooz heard two complaints. A mother came to tell him her son had gone quiet, and a grandmother came to tell him her grandchildren no longer sat with her. In both homes the complaint was the same: “The screen has taken them away from us.”

From those two complaints the idea began: a programme to bring the generations back to one another. And Fawzooz decided to build it with Scrum.

“Every generation holds a piece of the solution.”

How he shared out the roles

Product Owner. A counsellor experienced in psychological and spiritual support. She is the one who makes sure the programme meets the villagers’ needs and keeps faith with their values.

Scrum Master. The young man took this role. He understands both the technical side and the creative side, so he makes the work easier for the team and keeps distractions away.

Development team. Programmers, interface designers and experts in psychological and spiritual education, working together on the programme’s technology and its content.

How they adapted the Scrum artefacts

In the programme’s list (the Product Backlog) the team wrote down what people needed: interactive support sessions, activities that nourish the spirit, and ways to make it easier for the generations to talk.

In each cycle’s list (the Sprint Backlog) they picked specific tasks: how people would use the programme, what its screens would look like, and what content it would offer.

At the end of every cycle the team came out with a working piece (an Increment), which people tried and the team then improved.

The Scrum events as they lived them

In Sprint Planning the team ordered the tasks by how much they mattered to the people who would use the programme.

At the Daily Scrum each morning they spent a few minutes on their progress and what was holding them up, taking care that the technology stayed at the service of spiritual support.

At the Sprint Review parents and young people came to see the prototype. The grandmother pressed a button, and her grandson appeared, asking her about “the story of the old well”.

The mother noticed that the words were small, and that a session opened with so many questions that it would frighten the young man. The team carried both of her notes into the next cycle.

At the Sprint Retrospective the team looked back at how it worked and planned how to improve the programme’s content.

This is how Fawzooz and his team built a programme that brings the generations closer. Laughter came back into the homes, and the grandmother started learning from her grandson how to send a photo. Every generation holds a piece of the solution.