Jeff Sutherland's principles from "Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time," while rooted in software development, offer valuable lessons for small building companies aiming to improve their efficiency, productivity, and project management.Â
Here are 12 lessons that can be adapted from Scrum methodology for small building companies:
1.Empowering Teams
Scrum advocates for giving teams the autonomy to make decisions related to their work. Empowering construction teams to make on-the-ground decisions can improve morale and efficiency. If there is one perverse feature of construction it is top down, command and control culture, often toxic - this is one place where construction is out of step with a mountain of evidence piling up that this is not a productive way to work.
2.Prioritise Immediate Issue ResolutionÂ
Just as fixing a bug immediately saves time, addressing construction issues or mistakes as soon as they are discovered prevents them from escalating. This approach minimises delays and reduces the cost of rework. In software "If you fix a bug as soon as it’s found, it takes about an hour. If you wait more than a day to fix it, it will take twenty-four hours to fix." Construction is no different.
3.Iterative Planning
Scrum’s sprint cycles can be adapted to plan construction projects in shorter, manageable phases instead of one long timeline. This allows for regular assessment and adjustment, ensuring the project stays on track and within budget. Programs are flawed; I should know - I was an expert user of MS Project for a very long time, I learned that the more detailed the plan, the more dependency the more unreliable, I decided the optimat program had no more than 10 tasks and 3-4 milestones - the milestones are the key dates to focus on.
4.Daily Stand-ups
Implementing a brief daily meeting where team members discuss what they did yesterday, what they will do today, and any blockers they're facing can improve communication and quickly identify issues. Every site should do this with the extended team of of subbies on the site to quickly identify blockers, impediments and where they are likely to be stuck - no brainer right - but how many sites actually do this?
5.Client Feedback LoopsÂ
Regularly seeking and integrating feedback from clients ensures that the project aligns with their expectations and allows for adjustments without significant rework or delays. One way to do this is to keep a list of project objectives prominently on site at all time.
6.Empowering Teams
Scrum advocates for giving teams the autonomy to make decisions related to their work. Empowering construction teams to make on-the-ground decisions can improve morale and efficiency. If there is one perverse feature of construction it is top down, command and control culture, often toxic - this is one place where construction is out of step with a mountain of evidence piling up that this is not a productive way to work.
7.Value-focused Work
Prioritizing work that adds the most value to the project first can ensure that resources are used effectively and that the most critical elements of the project are completed first. This is not often obvious to site or project management. I think team input is critical to getting this right.
8.Transparency and Communication
Maintaining open lines of communication among all stakeholders, including clients, contractors, and team members, ensures that everyone is aligned on the project goals, status, and challenges. There is pervasive attitude in small building companies that being transparent. This is just so backwards - I can talk for hours as to why. I think I have written a separate blog about it somewhere in the past.
9.Continuous Improvement
Scrum encourages retrospectives at the end of each sprint to reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Applying a similar practice after completing phases of a construction project can help in identifying lessons learned and applying them to future projects to continuously improve processes and outcomes.
10.Use of Visual Management Tools
Scrum teams often use boards to track progress, tasks, and backlogs. Similarly, construction projects can benefit from visual tools like Kanban boards or Gantt charts to keep everyone updated on the project's status and priorities. A scrum board on site helps the whole team prioritise. We need to get away from the site manager making a list and passing that on to a collaborative methodology that is seen by all.
11.Regular Progress Reviews
In addition to daily stand-ups, Scrum includes sprint reviews where the team reviews what was accomplished. Applying regular progress reviews in construction ensures that the project aligns with the client’s vision and project specifications.
12.Invest in Team Skills and Team Productivity
Continuous learning and improvement are key aspects of Scrum. For building companies, investing in the team's skills, whether through training in new construction techniques or safety practices, can improve productivity and quality of work. Improving individual performance has tiny marginal gains. Improving a team can have monumental gains.
If I was to sum this Scrum in one sentence it would be: Productive and Organised Cross Functional Teams that are united in purpose are the gold standard in any industry and construction is no different.
Associated blog post
The thing that gave me a kick in the pants - or as my old boss would say; ‘a rocket up my arse’ is the following;
"If you fix a bug as soon as it’s found, it takes about an hour. If you wait more than a day to fix it, it will take twenty-four hours to fix."
I’d realised quickly that this does not strictly apply to software - when I reflected I could see all around me where I leave things to be fixed in my every day work where I lose focus and leave things undone - In the context of all the things I have set out to accomplish in the next 12 months - I’m seeing this as a wasteful crime.
This quote highlights the exponential cost of delay in addressing issues in software development, underlining a principle central to the Scrum methodology: the importance of rapid, iterative progress and the immediate resolution of problems to prevent them from escalating and becoming more complex and time-consuming to solve. This approach is part of why Scrum can significantly increase productivity and efficiency in project management and software development.
Jeff Sutherland's principles from "Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time," while rooted in software development, offer valuable lessons for small building companies aiming to improve their efficiency, productivity, and project management.