Scrum For Kids

Managing a Scrum Wall and running a home are feats of a similar nature.  Both systems juggle multiple parts that demand flexibility (and a sense of humor doesn’t hurt either.)  As such, Scrum methodology is a natural partner for family use in the home.

Scrum For Kids is a system that is flexible enough to be adapted within any family network.  In fact, its core adaptability is what makes it such a viable tool for all age groups of children and types of learners.   As parents, we love how it complements the different strengths and personalities of our family team members.   This is true for the children as well as Joe and me.  Joe syncs with the geek squad value of making cards through mail merge and retrospective analysis.  I plug into the intrinsic movement of the system and how completely actionable it makes us as a family team.

Scrum For Kids creates this sense of action among teams because its methodology orbits projects completely designed and developed by its users.   The content of the Scrum Wall is an exclusive family publication about what the members of a home are doing academically, socially, familially and extracurricularly.  Quite simply, it’s all about them!  Scrum For Kids invites the kids to manage and take complete ownership and responsibility for the tasks required of them by their schools and family life.  Children become developers and learn how to write stories, load their boards and move their cards.  This allows them all the accomplishment of their victories and lessons from any shortcomings.   Stand up meetings unite the family team so that no one member or his cards are more valuable than another.  Every child shares the same stage and his work is a critical component of clearing the family board.  This common goal among families builds relationships and productivity.  I thrill to think my kids feel we are an able family of Doers that can pull together to accomplish anything from building the Eiffel Tower to scale to the dreaded cleaning of the garage.  I deeply value the spirit of teamwork Scrum For Kids has seeded among our children.  Among its many other assets, it’s created a structure to help us root for each other.

That team confidence allows Scrum For Kids to also help reduce family and individual anxiety about schoolwork, because it breaks larger projects up into smaller more actionable stories.  For example, one of our kids is a more natural speller than another.  As such, weekly Spelling homework for her is easily subdivided into two task cards, “Spelling Homework,” and “Study for Spelling Quiz.”  Another one of the kids, however, feels better supported when the task is further broken down into four task cards:  “Spelling:  Writing Part A,” “Spelling, Writing Part B,” “Study for Spelling Quiz:  First Half of List,” “Study for Spelling Quiz:  Second Half of List.”   The agile nature of Scrum for Kids allows each of the children to subdivide their projects into smaller pieces that are easier for them to manage.   Stand up meetings ensure that team members are on the same page even if they accomplish their deliverables differently. This also generates a cross pollination of family strategies.  Team members can see the positive results of different family approaches and pull from those stories when they encounter similar projects and challenges.

Last winter during a presentation of Scrum For Kids to an area Agile users group, I was teased that I was a Scrum proselytizer .  Well, I don’t know if all that’s true, but I do think Scrum For Kids is Truly Scrum-cious!