How do you explain the feeling of achievement when you meet a goal you have worked so hard to accomplish? It's an indescribable feeling that charges you up to aim for and fulfill extravagant aspirations. We have that energy flow here are ActiveLAMP. It's electrifying!

The Beginning

A couple of years ago, ActiveLAMP decided that we wanted to try out a methodology that was causing a lot of commotion in the agile project management arena of software engineering: Scrum. The concept intrigued us enough to start to implement some of the ideas right away. The first was the daily standup (or scrum) – a short 15-minute daily meeting answering what we did yesterday, what we plan on doing today, and if we have any blockers.

Our Obstacle

We were excited to go full on Scrum team. We started implementing sprints, user stories, story points, and the meeting cycle. We wanted to take full advantage of Scrum's amazing power of efficiency, but something was missing.

After analyzing our situation, we decided it would be best to send two team members to get certified as ScrumMaster and Product Owner.

The Realization

The training not only revealed the answers we were looking for but advised us to prepare for uncomfortable moments when implementing Scrum. This was due to the fact that one of the goals of Scrum is to improve efficiency in teamwork. One way it does that is by giving the team opportunities to self-evaluate how they are doing and to suggest ways of improving for the next sprint (or cycle). When starting this habit of self-evaluation, it can be hard to be honest and critical of our own abilities. It can be even harder to recognize that the long-established way of achieving something may not be the best or most efficient solution.

Ascending to the Next Level

Armed with proficient training and excellent advice, ActiveLAMP was ready to go full steam ahead. With each new sprint cycle, we improved our efficiency. With each new realization of a crooked gear in the system, we reworked, re-tweaked and reevaluated until it worked.

Today, we are in an on-going cycle of improvement. One which we have learned to love and appreciate.

Scrum Series Coming Soon

If you think you want to start your own Agile Scrum journey or are having a hard time implementing Scrum with your team, you're in luck. I have a series starting in November that will cover the following topics:

• What is Agile Scrum? How can it help your team?
• Scrum certification
• The scrum meeting cycle
• Steps to start implementing scrum
• Assessments for unproductive meetings

If you have other topics or questions that you would like for me to cover, leave your suggestions in the comments section below.