Never Built a Framework Before? Neither Had I - Here's How I Got the Basics Off the Ground in 60 days (and Beyond)
From managing scattered priorities to creating the blueprint that revolutionized how an entire company approaches agile development
When I first came to my current employer (pre-acquisition), part of my responsibility was to build an agile framework and process for 4 dev teams, while being their PM and SM.
Had I ever built a framework and processes basically from scratch before? Hell no. But I knew I could and I was determined to make positive changes.
The Challenge: Four Teams, Zero Framework, and Stakeholder Push Back
Early on, I knew there would be some push back from stakeholders as I began making changes. They were used to getting their projects in and being promised short timelines, priorities changed every week, and frankly, whoever screamed the loudest usually got their way.
It was a challenge, but it was fun. I did the first 3 steps within 60 days, all while managing all the teams.
Did we have every ceremony perfect? Or every story/task completely fleshed out? Nope. But we were well on our way to working on what was the most important in timeframes that we could handle without burning out teams.
Wanna know how?
Here’s the high-level steps I took to bring them from disorganized, frequent priority shifts to well-structured and focused.
The 60-Day Foundation: First Steps to Transformation
Cleaned up and organized the backlogs into epics and delete duplicates or obsolete items
Set up Jira with basic needs for scrum teams and deployment cadences
Set up prioritizations much less frequently than weekly (we started with 8-weeks and ended up with 13-weeks) - started with one team and expanded to all 4 on round 2
Beyond the Basics: Scaling and Refining the System
Set up frameworks around intake needs and requirements, and ensuring stakeholders could vouch for their requests and discuss with others
Set up limitations for how much each team could take on - no burnt-out teams = reduced bugs and improved quality
Began to build out Jira with custom fields and automations for teams to work more efficiently
Built out intake forms and visibility tools for stakeholders within Jira
Continuously iterate and improve the tools and processes if something didn’t work
Advocated for teams to have time to do major enhancements on their software so that they could develop quicker and higher quality going forward
Provided time during a “prioritization week” for developers to dive deep into requirements with stakeholders for prioritized projects
The Results: What A Few Months of Focused Implementation Can Achieve
The transformation was remarkable. Within those first 60 days, we had moved from reactive chaos to proactive planning. Teams stopped scrambling to figure out what to work on next, and stakeholders finally had visibility into when their requests would be addressed.
But the real magic happened in the months that followed. With solid foundations in place, the teams could focus on what they did best - building great software. Bug reports dropped significantly, deployment cycles became predictable, and most importantly, developer morale soared.
If you want to get my full guide to take your team from burnout to balance, you can get it here:
From Burnout to Balance: A Guide to IT Resource Management
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