Don’t Fall Off The Records Management Waterfall: Use Your Agility To Thrive

Gordon E. BrownAtlanta Housing Authority

Learning Objectives• Using a scrum framework in a

records management setting• Benefits of being agile• Lessons learned

Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA)Provide quality affordable housing in

amenity-rich, mixed-income communities for the betterment of the community.

Served 22,234 families in FY2016~ 250 employees

DMA2 Phase 1

DMA2 Pre-Scrum

Requirements Design

Build Test

DMA2 Pre-Scrum

DMA2 Pre-Scrum

Problems Faced

Planning vs. Delivering

Uncertainty

Inflexibility

DMA2 Pre-Scrum

Scrum To The Rescue!

Image from the Scrum Alliance (www.scrumalliance.org)

Scrum TeamProduct Owner

•High-level vision and goals•Create the product backlog

ScrumMaster

•Servant Leader

Dev Team•Requirements•Building•Testing

Pre-Sprint: Backlog

Ordering the Backlog

Items with the biggest impact

Changes to agency priorities

Politics

User StoriesAs a(n)…

I want…

So that…

Sample Stories

Tracking Work

Tracking WorkProduct Backlog

Ready for Play Development Review Stakeholder Review

Done

Tracking Work

Tracking Work

What Difference Has It Made?Delivered something to all departments including:

• Team sites• Project Sites• Workflows • Dashboards for several departments to report on KPIs• Migration of 10,000s records from shared drives to

SharePoint• Disposition of old SharePoint 2010 sites

http://info.aiim.org/2017-state-of-information-management

What Difference Has It Made?

Benefits

Has made a difference across more of AHA

Empowered the team

Enhanced the reputation of Records & Information Management

Benefits - Less Meetings1 – 1.5 hours planning per sprint

30 mins – 1 hour retrospective

1 hour refining stories per week

Daily 15-minute meeting

Benefits - Reporting

Benefits - Reporting

Benefits - Reporting

Lessons Learned

Educate! Educate! Educate!

Lessons Learned

Be agile!

Lessons Learned

Learn to say “No”

Lessons Learned

Be careful about the balance between “scrum” work vs. non-scrum work

Lessons Learned

Create agility within your team

Gordon E. BrownEmail: gordon.brown@atlantahousing.orgTel: (404) 817-7477