By Phil Southward
Negotiating a Scrum team through the often laborious processes required in a waterfall-based organisation without getting stuck between departmental snags or ensnared in the inexorable documentation eddies along the way is an arduous and, if I may be excused the pun, agile undertaking. Sitting out the umpteenth interdepartmental project sign-off meeting, a Scrum practitioner could be forgiven for thinking that the waterfall manifesto, if there was such a thing, would value:
• Processes and tools over individuals and interactions.
• Comprehensive documentation over working software.
• Contract negotiation over customer collaboration.
• Following a plan over responding to change.
In this clash of cultures, conflicts inevitably arise, yet if my experience in a couple of large (over 4,000 employees) waterfall-based companies is anything to go by, the two can be made to fit together. Somehow.
First up. Work around the keepers of the waterfall manifesto by negotiating a change to the contents of the waterfall deliverables to make them more Scrum-like. Second. Alter the Scrum artefacts and definitions to fit with the waterfall world negotiated above. Finally, as a last resort when nothing else is possible, create all the required waterfall process documentation and deliverables, while running projects internally using Scrum. Successfully negotiating the waterfall will involve some combination of all three.
