Presented by Rachel Collinson of The Donor Whisperer at eCampaigning Forum 2018

1. AGILE PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
For campaigners

2. ABOUT ME
Ran Rechord, a web agency
working with nonprofits, for 13
years, now consulting
Transitioned team to Agile in
2010
All about doggos right now

3. ABOUT YOU
1. Your name
2. Your organisation’s name
3. The most stressful campaign
you worked on and what made it
so bad

5. BEFORE WE START: you are entering a new
world…

6. YOU NOW ALL
WORK FOR:
The UK is planning
legislation to deport all
Unicorns to their origin
planet of Mythica.
You are working on a
campaign to stop the
bill, while raising
awareness and attracting
new donors.

7. WHAT STRATEGIES MIGHT WE
USE?
(I don’t mean to disrupt the suspension of disbelief
here, but we won’t actually be doing these, so they
don’t need to be realistic.)

8. BACK TO AGILE. WHY THIS
METHOD?
Some background

9. TRADITIONAL PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
What the trustees
described
What your
ED told you
to do
What the
project plan
said
What got
done
What your
target saw
How
fundraising
described it
What your
documentatio
n said
What the
results were
What the
campaign
ended up
costing
What the
follow-up
looked like
What you
actually
needed
How it was
promoted

10. TRADITIONAL PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
Guess
what you
need
Plan it all outPlan it out
Design how it
looks
Frantically
implement
and fix
issues Deadline
Actually
finish
(Maybe
evaluate)

11. RECOGNISE THIS?

12. THE AGILE MANIFESTO (MY
PARAPHRASE)
Produce things more quickly and see whether they work more quickly
Welcome changing requirements
Campaign materials and actions delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
Close, daily cooperation between all team members
Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
Sustainable work; able to maintain a constant pace
Continuous attention to excellence and good design
Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
Best work emerges from self-organizing teams
Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly

13. THE JARGON OF AGILE Sprints, scrums and
standups

14. Sprint

15. Scrum

16. Daily stand-
up

17. User

18. Epic

19. Backlog

20. Story
points

21. Velocity

22. AGILE ROLES AND
CAMPAIGNING
Who takes charge of what?

23. Scrum master

24. Product
owner

25. Team
member

26. DIVIDE AND CONQUER THE
WORK
…with user stories and
epics

27. USER STORY EXAMPLE
As a _________
I can ___________________________
So that _________________________

28. WHAT MAKES A GOOD USER
STORY?
I = Independent (not dependent on other
stories)
N = Negotiable (until started)
V = Valuable (provably leading to your goal)
E = Estimable (you can work out how long it
will take)
S = Small (plannable with a level of certainty)
T = Testable (how do we know when it’s

29. WHAT NEXT FOR SAVE THE
UNICORNS?
Let’s write user stories that
describe your tactics for the next
month

30. BUT HOW LONG WILL IT
TAKE?
Planning poker in action

32. @donor_whisperer
rachelcollinson@gmail.co
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