How can I manage a Scrum project and meet the requests of the PMO while using Microsoft Project?

Question

I searched other questions and still can't figure out how we can manage a project that uses the Scrum methodology with tools like Microsoft Project.

We are a big software company using Microsoft Project Enterprise, and we control our project with daily report of team members with Project Web Access. The problem is we want to use Scrum in some of our products, but we have to plan and report our work in daily basis. In Scrum, we don`t assign every task at the beginning, and every person is free to choose what he/she want to do. So we can't schedule the whole sprint with specific resources! Also, our PMO wants to have at least a one month plan for every person!

I'm really confused. On the one hand we want Scrum and on the other we must meet our PMO's request. How can we do both?

Answer 1

Nobody who's interested in those kind of reports is interested in the fine detail.

Instead of reporting on stories and tasks, work out what the capabilities of your system are - the things that it allows users to do, or the things that the system delivers to other systems. You're looking for a large-scale overview with business-valuable outcomes (we had about 30 on a 1-year project).

If you've already got stories, you can map the stories to the capabilities / outcomes and come up with them that way (search for "Story Mapping").

This will enable you to plan and provide an overview of expected milestones, etc. It's enough to let you talk about integration issues with other teams, budget, high-level feedback, release cycles and the like without having to commit to anything lower-level.

You can then provide all the tracking based on those capabilities.

Edit: We had a much easier time on that project after we invited someone from the PMO to come and see how we were working and decide what kind of tracking he'd like. He liked the atmosphere in our team area so much he ended up sitting with us most of the time! PMO people are human, too...

Answer 2

First, the organization should invest in understanding Scrum before using it. For example,use of words like "control" and "report of team members" is not Scrum.

Now, to answer your question directly.

1. In your Microsoft Project, create line items for each sprint showing the dates for each Sprint Planning and each Sprint Review. Set effort as Story points and then create a Team Velocity chart. This is doable in Microsoft Project.
2. Provide the product backlog and explain to the PMO that it's ordered by customer priority.
3. Invite the PMO to the daily stand-up to listen.
4. Invite your customers to meetings with the PMO to show that the Scrum projects have backing from the people who matter most.
5. If the PMO insists on "controlling" the Agile team and you are unable to convince them otherwise, then suggest a trial run using Agile methods to help with buy-in.

Bottom line, the problem is not the tool you use, the problem is attempting to mix two very different methods.