Scrum is a great framework but there are many ways to do it poorly. For example, the average IT worker is interrupted every 15 minutes, which equates to 2000+ interruptions for a Scrum team every sprint. This severely impacts 'flow', team productivity and often reduces happiness and increases stress. It's unthinkable on a production line, yet too often the norm in offices.

I conducted original research with Scrum teams in Australia as part of my Master of Management thesis (and achieved an A), to understand the causes, patterns and impacts of these interruptions on the team's effectiveness and their happiness. And, how mature teams control interruptions rather than let themselves be controlled by interruptions.

Attendees will play a short game to demonstrate how destructive the context switching from handling frequent interruptions is.

My talks are always highly practical and I provide 3 takeaway actions for teams to improve their 'flow' and reduce interruptions.

I delivered this talk at LAST Melbourne in 2018 and based on strong attendance, would like to deliver it in Sydney this year.

Does Agile at scale really work? How do you quantify the improvements? How long does it take? Come to this session to understand the key elements of the first year of implementing Agile at scale in Australia's largest wagering and gaming company: Tabcorp.

With a growing pipeline, reduced budget, frozen headcount and Australia's largest merger on the horizon, a perfect storm was set to rage unless we adopted Agile at scale to prioritise the delivery of work in our largest portfolio of 350+ people, and implemented ways of working that enabled the Business and IT stakeholders to collaborate continuously through delivery.

During this session we reveal the fundamental elements to a successful deliver transformation that reduced WIP by >30%, increased delivery team confidence by >20% over a 12 month period, lead to unexpected examples of Business value being delivered, and what elements you need in place to achieve the same (or better!) results. For example:

- how do you make $20 million of in-flight work visible?

- how do 350 people collectively plan their work? (including Business and IT stakeholders)

- how do you convince people the LESS work-in-progress leads to MORE productivity?

- how Big Room Planning pays for itself: the unexpected Business Value we delivered from real time collaboration

The session shares real data and photographs from the transformation to bring you inside the journey, and concludes with take away actions for companies ready to step forward and adopt Agile at scale.

This talk is for people who care about their Scrum teams, and how to tackle one of the most insidious threats to our team's productivity: the tyranny of interruptions.

In 45 minutes you'll learn why interruptions are endemic in some organisations (but not others), how disruptive they are to teams (it can take 15 minutes to re-focus after each interruption), how the impact productivity and team happiness, and several secrets from mature Scrum teams for reducing interruptions for individuals and teams.

My talks are always interactive and this talk includes a short, fun game to demonstrate how destructive the context switching from handling frequent interruptions is to our productivity. It's simple enough you can play it back in your company after the conference.

The context for this talk is described below.

The average IT worker is interrupted every 15 minutes, which equates to 2000+ interruptions for a Scrum team every sprint. This is "death by 1000 paper cuts for your teams' productivity." Unthinkable on a production line, yet too often the norm in offices.

Ask the Scrum teams around you whether they regularly deliver their committed work per Sprint and you'll find that most teams (very) seldom complete their planned work in a sprint, let alone two consecutive Sprints.

The material for the talk is distilled from original research I conducted with Scrum teams in Australia last year as part of my Master of Management thesis (and achieved an A), to understand the causes, patterns and impacts of these interruptions on the team's effectiveness and their happiness. And, how mature teams control interruptions rather than let themselves be controlled by interruptions.

I selected teams in Australia because the culture is relatively open to discussing challenges and is willing to experiment with new ways of working: hierarchy and tradition are arguably less influential than in some other cultures. (For the record, I'm not Australian...I'm a New Zealander and British, with experience working in the US and Australia as well.)

I delivered this talk the LAST Conference (July 2018, Melbourne, Australia) to a full room and it received one of the highest feedback scores from attendees at the Conference because the topic is so relevant to contemporary teams.

My talks are always highly practical and I provide 3 takeaway actions for people and teams to improve their 'flow' and reduce interruptions.

Please vote for my topic if you would like to help your teams optimise their performance and increase their happiness by reducing interruptions. Thank you.

~ Suzanne Nottage

* Many Agile practitioners don't have 100% free rein at work to practise Agile.

* After "failing" at Ironman with a Waterfall approach (multiple times), I experimented with Agile principles over several years, where I had 100% free rein to iterate, continuously improve and adapt. Ultimately, cutting 4 hours off my time and finishing 3rd in Ironman Australia 2017 in my age group.

* This is significant because at 5'2" and without any physical advantages, it was Agile principles (working smarter, not harder) that made the difference.

* You'll learn which principles had the biggest effects, and how you can apply these at work (or in other areas of your life).

Scrum is a great framework but there are many ways to do it poorly. The average IT worker is interrupted every 15 minutes, which equates to 2000+ interruptions for a Scrum team every sprint. Unthinkable on a production line, yet too often the norm in offices.

I conducted original research with Scrum teams in Australia last year as part of my Master of Management thesis (and achieved an A), to understand the causes, patterns and impacts of these interruptions on the team's effectiveness and their happiness. And, how mature teams control interruptions rather than let themselves be controlled by interruptions.

Attendees will play a short game to demonstrate how destructive the context switching from handling frequent interruptions is.

My talks are always highly practical and I provide 3 takeaway actions for teams to improve their 'flow' and reduce interruptions.