The process is dead, long live the process!

For the last two years I worked in agile processes, better known as “Scrum”. While the projects I was working on definitely profited from a more or less agile workflow, it sometimes just felt like a dogmatic approach that forces you to do things in a predetermined manner.

I want to break free

To say it with Queen - “I want to break free” - when it comes to processes. Of course we need to structure our work in order to better communicate with clients. We need to set goals and from time to time it might be helpful to stop and reflect a bit about the work you did for the last weeks.

To say it with Queen - “I want to break free” - when it comes to processes.

But - for me a process that is too strict doesn’t help, especially when it forces you to do stand-ups and meetings when no meetings are necessary or it asks you to estimate your workload when you are still not familiar with the technology you will be working with. And, the worst of all, sometimes this process even forces you to work with tools, that feel like a millstone around your neck. At that point it is definitely time to rethink your workflow.

There’s probably an app for that

Every day a new tool launches that makes your work-life easier by reducing unnecessary clutter and organizing your tasks in cards or what have you. Stop looking for the best tool to organize your work. A simple task manager with shareable lists might already solve all of your problems. It forces you to focus by only allowing you write down tasks. It offers enough freedom for you to decide whether a task is important or not and it makes your team feel mature to make the right decisions. Of course it is great to have a tool that also connects to GitHub, but it is not mandatory.

Stop looking for the best tool to organize your work.

It is also good to keep in mind that we all organize our workflow differently. You already realized that in school. It’s hard to find a tool that everybody is happy with so maybe give everyone the freedom to decide how they want to keep track of their tasks. Just find a man in the middle who syncs the tasks for you to keep the big picture and you’re fine. This is where the project manager might come in to keep the team in sync. Also a good way to always know what’s going on is asking a colleague to talk about the project for 5 minutes. And when your colleague is a developer and deep in the zone, leave him a note and he’ll come back to you when he’s ready.

Stop the bullshit bingo

Waterfall or agile, Scrum or Kanban - stop trying to name everything. While your process may have its roots in Scrum, it never truly is Scrum when you’re working in a design agency. Your process will always have to adapt to different circumstances, this could be clients or colleagues or the project itself and that is perfectly fine. Not every project should be treated the same way. You always have to adapt and it is worth your time to make the client understand it the same way you do. While some of our business terminology was invented so we know what we’re talking about, other was invented to sell. I truly believe that we should stop selling projects by putting fancy name tags on everything we do. We need to take a step back and explain our work plain and simple. Keep the business enchilada to yourself because your client cannot get crazy excited over something your mother won’t even understand.

I am wrong and so are you

Your client cannot get crazy excited over something your mother won’t even understand.

To make it clear, I am not a project manager although I sometimes managed projects. I worked in waterfall processes that were awful and I worked in waterfall processes that were great. Same goes for agile. The choice of the way you work should depend on the project as well as your client and not an agency dogma. In the middle of a project we will always come to a point where we realize that some of our decisions from the past were wrong and that’s ok. Then it’s time to adapt and to change your process together with your client. Point out what you’ve learned so far and make sure not to make the same mistakes again. And keep in mind, that no process in the world makes a project successful but the people who are working on the project do. And in the end the team knows best what’s good for the project.