Helping Raytheon BBN succeed with Scrum
Raytheon BBN -- a premier research group within Raytheon Company -- wanted to use Scrum for one of their DARPA projects. They called us because they’d seen us introduce it on another project.
About
Raytheon is an industry leader in the field of technology. From defense and civil government to cybersecurity solutions, Raytheon specializes in cutting-edge technology solutions for their customers. At the time of this writing, they had 60,000 engineers worldwide.
Raytheon BBN Technologies is a Raytheon division specializing in research and innovation. Raytheon BBN works in multiple arenas, including big data, cloud computing, immersive learning, military and defense, and synthetic biology tools.
Challenges
Raytheon BBN wanted to use Scrum for a DARPA project they’d recently won, but their development team hadn’t used Scrum before. We had to efficiently introduce a new process, so they could rapidly get up to speed and show early results for their customer.
What We Did
We got the Raytheon BBN team up and running with Scrum over the course of a few days. Then, we supported them for several weeks to help them deepen their understanding of the process and tailor it to their needs. From coaching to one-on-one support, we gave them the skills and tools needed to effectively use Scrum.
We:
- Introduced Scrum during a brief initial meeting
- Coached the team on key roles and responsibilities
- Helped the Product Owner craft an initial backlog
- Immediately started the team executing basic Scrum rituals
- Supported the team for several weeks with tools, mentoring, and feedback
- Participated in their Scrum rituals for in-the-moment guidance
The Results
Raytheon BBN’s DARPA project team was rapidly up and running with Scrum and able to quickly achieve the velocity they needed to deliver early results and establish credibility with their customer.
