Get onboard with SCRUM…
Yann GENSOLLEN
GENERALI – Direction INTERNET

Why Generali chose Scrum for Project
Management ?
‘agile’ methodologies support Project Management
They are used in software development to :
 Maximize customer’s involvement thus enabling a very good reactivity
to meet his requirement
 Be more pragmatic than with traditional methodologies
 Completely meet the customer’s requirements

Why Generali chose Scrum for Project
Management ?
The context in which Generali’s management chose Scrum :
 Deliver a first release its on-line insurance web site ‘www.generali.fr’ 5 month
after kick-off
 High benefit and stake project
 Strong support from Managing staff
 Very active sponsor
 Very short deadlines
 Adopt a new methodology that enable to :
 Meet the short timeframes to have the first web site release operational
 Be able to bring subsequent web site enhancements with very short development cycles

Well-identified roles within each project
Scrum team
Product Owner
Scrummaster
Maitrise d’œuvre Maitrise d’ouvrage

Well-identified roles within each project
Product Owner = ship owner
 Define destination and content of each software release
 May refine requirements for each new release
Scrummaster = captain
 Like the ship’s captain, the scrummaster is the only master
on board
 His role is to protect his team against project scope
between each release
 He has to alert and take full responsibility to start a new
release if requirements defined by the Product Owner can
not be met
Project release = stopovers
 After each release, ‘sprint reviews’ give the team the
opportunity to show work results to the Product Owner
 Product owner may refine his requirements according to
what has been temporarily done, and eventually add new
items depending on external events.

Scrum methodology benefits
Advantages
Focus the whole team on real developments with short cycles, Scrum :
 Improves team productivity, compared to previous ‘less flexible’ methodologies
 Center processes on individuals and their creativity, improves team interactions where
previous V-cycle methodologies would have required more documentation and project
management efforts without necessarily showing the real project progress status
 Brings the customer back in the core processes by enabling a product refinement after each
‘sprint’ release
Additionally, each ‘sprint cycle’ enables to measure team performance and efficiency (number of points collected
during each ‘sprint’ cycle) and calculate in a more accurate the real project status

Lessons learnt on Generali’s experience
Relationships within the team
 Better communication and understanding within the team, improved transparency on individuals
difficulties, confidence and team involvement
Project management
 Improves project prioritization and flexibility
 Responsibilities and task sharing improvement,
 Ease project reporting and decision making
 Better project completion visibility through ‘sprint’ reviews
 Cost efficiency control through functional adjustments
Developments and deadlines
 Features optimization, developments accuracy, shorten life-cycles
 Capitalization / Optimization of the product after each ‘sprint’
Project visibility
 Good management and other actors reporting and visibility through ‘sprint’ reviews
 Emphasize team individuals

Lessons learnt : recommendations
After 1,5 year of exposure of the Scrum methodology, main recommandations
are :
 Methodology implementation requires full support from operational users and IT management
 A very well prepared sprint 0 review (startup and preparation phase)
 Requires to have a full product backlog for the first release
 Implement a continuous integration and testing automation
 Name a person in charge of the project follow-up
 Start methodology implementation on project with limited impacts on others
 Important not to forget the associated documentation (specifications update during the full life-
cycle, WIKI for technical aspects)