Keeping your customer involved and informed during a project can be challenging. A daily SCRUM can help to overcome communication barriers. One of the worst things that can happen during a project is for the customer to get a nasty surprise at the end about expectations that won't be met or budget/duration over runs. Even on the most professionally run and meticulously planned projects there is a lot of paddling going on beneath the surface. The thought of embedding the customer in this can be scary at first, especially if things are not going to plan. However by inviting the customer inside the project not only do they get a direct feel for how the project is progressing from the people actually doing the work, but they also get to feel that they are a part of the project team and in control of their destiny. Having the customer attend the daily SCRUM provides an excellent forum to flag potential issues as the team is discovering them rather than later down the track. Communication lag is reduced and it’s easier (and much cheaper) to detect and repair misunderstandings as well as respond to ‘discoveries’. The up-side is that the customer will develop a much better understanding of the challenges facing the project team, what they are doing to get around those challenges and more importantly, the customer can assist in focussing the team on the important business priorities and in actually finding a solution. For those not familiar with scrums (aka stand ups) in this context, it is a very short, sharp, daily meeting for all project team members to run through what they have achieved, what they are doing next and to raise issues impeding their progress. Each ‘pack member’ gets no more than 2 minutes to answer the 3 basic questions: “what did I achieve yesterday?” , “what do I commit to achieving today? and “what is or could slow me down?”, the whole exercise is over in less than 15 minutes but can save hours every day. 2008-12-24T04:38:00Z Scrumming With Your Customer 4 How to keep your customer involved and informed during a project? SCRUMs can help 2009-02-25T22:44:26Z