It started as a creative spark, grew into a manifesto in 2001 and has since played a revolutionary role in how companies conduct business. Agile is a distinct style of project management that until recently, has been primarily used by tech companies for project development. But even the founder of “The Scrum,” Jeff Sutherland, wrote that Agile is not just for software development anymore. IBM’s Chief Information Officer said implementing the Agile process in one of America’s largest companies is one of his top goals.
At Amplifier, we have stretched ourselves and jumped into the Agile movement. Our digital development team was an early adopter, having organized projects into Agile “sprints” for the last two years. Now our entire digital team has adopted the concepts and organized Agile components into our multidisciplinary teams. This allows us to work efficiently while still tailoring services to each partner and project.
At the 30,000-foot level, Agile is an organized workflow process that breaks down large tasks into manageable, concrete assignments (called “user stories”) that the team can accomplish over the period of a “sprint.” Sprints can be for one week, two weeks or even four depending on the size of the project and the level of feedback required. We tend to prefer shorter sprints so we can increase our responsiveness to our partners.
We start with a new sprint each week (this kick-off meeting is called a “Scrum”). We begin on Monday by taking on user stories from our product backlog, spread across the team. By Friday, we mark off as many of those stories as completed as we can, assess the process, implement changes that are needed and then dive into the next sprint the following Monday. Each cycle allows the team to adapt and use new information to ensure the projects move forward efficiently.
The Agile process increases engagement and breakdowns the proverbial “silos” between teams. Our designers, developers, strategist and writers can all work together with an appreciation for the various interconnected jobs to be done.
Amplifier’s approach to large-scale impact deeply engages an Agile philosophy. From the outset, Amplifier Founder Allison Duncan embraced change as a critical path to developing strategies that create measurable impact. With such an Agile approach to social impact, it made sense for us to follow a strategy that also adapts, inspects, learns and implements quickly and efficiently.
Our partners benefit from this modern approach:
We invite you to learn more about the work we do and your vital part in it. Click here to contact us to learn more.
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