TheAgileShift

2020 will forever be known as the year of COVID-19 and how everything over a few short months changed. For many organizations, their ability to respond to this crisis will define their future. COVID-19 is a very painful reminder that organizations and people need to be agile. Agile not only in terms of how they work but also what the products and services they deliver. Scrum has some history in redefining how people work. Its success over the last 25 years has led to Scrum Master and Product Owner being job titles on recruitment websites or LinkedIn career profiles. Sprints, Daily’s, and Retrospectives are now part of the normal ‘what did you do at work today’ conversations. But most organizations and career paths are still based on an industrial, pre-agile outlook with promotion and value connected to managing people and scarcity of knowledge. Bonuses are paid to individuals and reviews are determined by ‘work’ managers. What will the future look like? Does this crisis drive a fundamental change to how people work and what they work upon?

In this talk, Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org describes the long-term impact COVID-19 in the context of agility and how work may change. The talk is based on how some companies have built organizational and career models to support agility.