When I got my certification as Scrum Master in December of 2019, I thought I could get a job right away. I wanted a change in my life after co-owning a print shop with my family for 16 years. I soon realized that it would be impossible without the background in software development that most companies require. So I rolled up my sleeves and started applying the Scrum principles to my print shop, G&H Printing. Here’s my journey:
February 20, 2020
I started with what I had: converted a metal door into a Scrum Board; used masking tape to define the areas for the Stories–which I changed to Orders–, To Do, In Progress, and Done; used post-its for the order descriptions; and cut-up uneven pieces of magnetic material to handwrite the tasks.
Scrum works because it considers that NOTHING GETS EVER DONE; instead, things get TO-DONE in baby steps. In other words, we make progress toward a clear goal by DOING, ASKING FOR FEEDBACK, REVISING, AND REPEATING THIS CYCLE while delivering small increments of value through high-quality products and services (without killing the staff.)
February 21, 2020
It occurred to me that not all orders were equal, so I needed a way to indicate who was more important, either because of the deadline or because of the amount of money that client spends with us. I added to the left of each post-it a “priority bar,” a magnetic where I hand-drew a symbol that looked like a battery-life.
I also came up with new magnetics in green to indicate the daily tasks like making coffee, checking the mail, and vacuuming.
March 4, 2020
I narrowed down the tasks and printed them on magnetic labels to make them prettier and easier to read. My predicament at this point was around grouping the orders, either by sales item or by the deadline. I solved it by sticking together orders with the same sales items and assigning one “priority bar” to all of them.
In the lower-left corner of each task, I wrote by hand a number that corresponded to the order in which we performed the tasks. It was useful for our intern to understand the production flow.
The post-it colors didn’t mean anything at this point. I used this feature later on to differentiate orders with locked and unlocked deadlines.
September 15, 2020
To the Scrum Board‘s right, I placed the calendar of the current month and the following month to better overview my deadlines.
I standardized the information on the post-its:
- The deadline date. I drew a lock next to it to indicate that the client isn’t flexible about the deadline (usually because of a show, a party, a trip, etc.)
- Client’s last name.
- Description of the order–sales item (s.)
I relocated the magnetic tasks to the refrigerator next door to keep the board cleaner.
September 25, 2020
G&H Printing finally bought a proper Scrum Board. My business partner adapted the three rows of trays at the bottom to store the magnetic labels where the tasks are printed. I was thrilled to see the clean look and spaciousness. I now had room to even include our working agreements (in the lower-right corner.)
I exclusively used pink post-its for orders with locked deadlines, and yellow post-its for the rest.
September 29, 2020
The final touch of adding a column just for the Priority Bars made my day. I’m so proud of this Scrum Board because it’s a testament to my co-workers’ willingness to become a Well Formed Team.