Scrum Fest Niigata 2023

Last week, I participated in the Scrum Fest Niigata event. Although I participated online, it was a highly enjoyable conference with a vibrant atmosphere that could be felt even through the screen.

Firstly, Scrum Fest Niigata is one of the conferences held in the agile community, and it seems that there are conferences with the name "Scrum Fest" taking place in various regions.

In this blog post, I would like to reflect on Scrum Fest Niigata based on the sessions that left an impression on me while watching in real-time.

新潟の日本酒について

This session started by providing a detailed explanation of the history and nature of Niigata sake, and then gradually delved into the surrounding environment related to sake. It discussed how, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumption of sake has been decreasing, which made the presenter realize that they had only focused on the product of sake without considering other factors. In other words, they realized that merely relying on the mindset of "If you make a good product, it will sell" is not enough to survive. They explained the current initiatives, which involve listening to consumer feedback and adjusting product development. This approach of listening to consumers and adapting product development is truly agile, demonstrating that the agile mindset is applicable across industries.

何も無いシステム開発体制を打開する為に取り入れたウォーターフォールとスクラムの仮説と実践について

While typical cases of Scrum adoption involve transitioning from waterfall development, this session shared the story of how Scrum was introduced in an environment where the development workflow was not well-defined. It can be easier to convince stakeholders to adopt Scrum when there is a clear contrast with waterfall development, but in the absence of such a structure, it seems challenging. The session highlighted the importance of making the decision to focus on a subset of individuals rather than attempting to roll out Scrum to everyone, which was a valuable insight.

Reaching the “Big Picture” In Testing and Quality / テストと品質における「全体像（ビッグピクチャー）」への到達

Daniel Maslyn discussed the importance of examining things in detail as well as taking a holistic view in terms of testing and quality. He shared the concept of "Testing Zoom," which involves zooming in to focus on details and zooming out to see the big picture. By repeatedly zooming in and out, it becomes possible to have communication that transcends perspectives, as if one were looking at an elephant and a mouse. Additionally, the statement that each individual is crucial and can have an impact on something, akin to the butterfly effect, was very impressive.

不確実性に打ち勝つOKR戦略

This was a presentation by Odanaka-san about the update strategy for OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and how they were actually used in practice. Since I was not very familiar with OKRs, listening to Odanaka-san's presentation made me want to study them further.

One impressive aspect of this presentation was the notion that by establishing unshakable Objectives (O) within OKRs, it becomes possible to reassess Key Results (KR) and still achieve the desired destination.

There was an interesting question from the audience: "Is there a concern that lowering the level of Key Results might decrease the team's motivation?" In response, the speaker mentioned that such a possibility exists. Therefore, it is important to carefully assess the situation when considering changing Key Results to avoid falling into a trap.

Overall Impressions

Scrum Fest Niigata seemed like a tremendously enjoyable event. I hope to participate in person at the next opportunity.