First-ever Scrum Day Philadelphia hit max capacity

Springhouse hosted 10 experts who led 16 breakout sessions focused on the Future of Work

One-hundred Greater Philadelphia professionals joined Springhouse Education & Consulting Services at The Desmond Hotel on November 14 for Scrum Day Philadelphia to engage in discussions with national Scrum experts. Scrum is a product-development process used by businesses worldwide to improve their procedures, reduce delays on deliverables, and organize goal-focused teams. It is part of the Agile mindset, a new way of working that many companies employ to bring products or campaigns to market.

Dave West Scrum.org CEO and Product Owner — Dave West

Image of Dr. Chuck Suscheck, Scrum expert — Dave West

“New ways of working is all about team collaboration and adding value to the customer,” said Scrum expert John Gillespie. In addition, expert Jim Sammons explained, “Scrum shines a light on our dysfunctions.” Ryan Ripley, Scrum expert and host of the Agile for Humans podcast, added, “It’s an amazing complex world, and Scrum is there to help us solve complex problems.”

What is Scrum?

In rugby, a scrum is when the players huddle with heads together to advance the ball short distances toward the goal. They work together, move forward, quickly re-set, and repeat to achieve their goal. In the corporate world, the concept is similar. The Scrum team works in unison, advances the project in short sprints, re-convenes, and repeats the forward push. Each time they reach the next milestone, they chip away at their end goal.

Springhouse works and supports Agile enterprises to support their Scrum transformation efforts through training, coaching, and consulting. Open-enrollment classes for Professional Scrum Master (PSM) and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) certifications are among Springhouse’s most highly sought-after series of courses.

Scrum has traditionally been adopted by the IT field for new technology releases over the past 25 years. Today, companies employ it in other ways, such as marketing or manufacturing.

The Future of Work

“Every company might not be a software company, but every company is influenced by software,” said Dave West, Scrum.org CEO and Product Owner.

West delivered the Scrum Day keynote discussing how Scrum has changed how people approach work. In his address, titled “The Future of Work: The Impact of Scrum on How the World Works,” he described the long-term impact of Scrum and what future organizations are doing to create the right environment for Scrum and Agile practices to be successful. He emphasized that “collaboration is the only way we are going to solve many problems.”

In addition to West, the conference featured nine other experienced Scrum trainers and coaches. They guide businesses that have adopted the Agile methodology and mentor them on improving Scrum techniques in the workplace. They spoke on topics, such as liberating structures, fixing Scrum common failures, Kanban, the psychology of influence, evidence-based management, and user experience (UX). The full-day conference concluded with an introduction to the new Women in Agile Philadelphia chapter, and a panel discussion to address audience questions.

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