Why Your Process Changes Are Failing—The Stakeholder Alignment Problem | Deniz Ari

Summary

Summary of "Why Your Process Changes Are Failing—The Stakeholder Alignment Problem" featuring Deniz Ari

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Deniz Ari
Release Date: May 21, 2025

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1. Introduction and Context

In this episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte delves into the intricate challenges of implementing process changes within Agile teams. The focus is on the stakeholder alignment problem, exploring why certain change initiatives falter despite initial enthusiasm. Deniz Ari, an experienced Agile practitioner, shares her firsthand experiences navigating these challenges.

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2. The Complexity of Change

Deniz begins by emphasizing the universal difficulty of change, regardless of its nature—be it introducing new tools, technologies, frameworks, or even altering meeting structures.

“Change is always difficult for anyone. It's not like some different personalities. But we need to give it little bits, give some time, and trust the process.”
— Deniz Ari [01:42]

She references the change curve, highlighting the emotional journey individuals undergo, including phases of denial, anger, fear, and eventual integration.

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3. Implementing New Tools: JIRA and BigPicture

Deniz discusses her experience with introducing BigPicture, a tool integrated with JIRA Atlassian, to manage multiple projects and dependencies within her Scrum team.

“I introduced BigPicture tools under the Atlassian. It has plenty of functions like Gantt charts, linking dependencies, and tracking people's capacity. It's a very user-friendly and visual tool, which is why everyone initially liked it.”
— Deniz Ari [03:30]

Initially, the adoption was positive due to BigPicture's intuitive interface, facilitating better visualization of project timelines and dependencies.

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4. Challenges in Sustaining Change

Despite the initial success, Deniz encountered significant resistance:

“Over time, I found myself the only person updating and using the tool. Others stuck with their existing project plans and often didn't engage with JIRA.”
— Deniz Ari [05:05]

This highlighted a common issue where individual initiative in adopting new processes doesn't translate to team-wide adoption, leading to fragmented workflows.

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5. Aligning Product Owners and Team Expectations

A central theme was the misalignment between Product Owners (POs) and the development team. POs often sought high-level milestones and straightforward timelines, while the team required detailed task breakdowns to set realistic sprint goals.

“Product Owners wanted high-level descriptions for milestone dates, but as a Scrum team, we needed to break down tasks to create achievable sprint goals.”
— Deniz Ari [06:26]

This disparity led to conflicts, as the team needed to provide detailed plans for effective sprint planning, while POs were focused on broader deliverables.

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6. Bridging the Communication Gap

Deniz attempted to mediate by understanding the PO's perspective and the team's technical constraints. She emphasized the importance of mutual respect and clear communication.

“I tried to understand why the PO was coming from their perspective and explained our technical limitations, even though I'm not a technical person myself.”
— Deniz Ari [07:38]

Her role became that of a translator, ensuring that the PO's strategic goals were aligned with the team's operational capabilities.

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7. The Importance of Shared Tools and Documentation

Deniz stressed that relying on disparate tools hampers collaboration and transparency. She advocated for using unified tools to maintain visibility and accountability.

“When everyone uses the same tool, like JIRA, it creates visibility on what each person is working on and ensures alignment across the board.”
— Deniz Ari [09:57]

She also highlighted the pitfalls of depending solely on human memory, especially in complex software projects with numerous tasks and acronyms.

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8. Continuous Adaptation and Learning

Embracing Scrum's iterative nature, Deniz acknowledged that change is ongoing and requires constant adaptation. She pointed out that both external client demands and internal team dynamics necessitate flexibility.

“Scrum allows us to keep adapting because everything can change easily, and our ceremonies help us navigate these changes continuously.”
— Deniz Ari [08:39]

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9. Overcoming Resistance to Change

Deniz shared strategies to mitigate resistance, such as demonstrating the benefits of new practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. She noted that even small changes require patience and persistence.

“No matter how small or big the change is, human reactions are the first obstacle. We need to keep explaining and reinforcing the benefits for upcoming sprints.”
— Deniz Ari [10:15]

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10. Conclusion

The episode concludes with a reaffirmation of the Scrum Master's role in facilitating change and ensuring stakeholder alignment. Deniz's insights underscore the necessity of empathy, clear communication, and strategic tool implementation to navigate the complexities of process changes within Agile frameworks.

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Bonus Segment: Global Agile Summit Promotion

In the closing segments, Vasco Duarte promotes the upcoming Global Agile Summit in Tallinn, Estonia, highlighting its relevance for those experiencing Agile fatigue. The summit promises real-life success stories, workshops, and conferences featuring renowned Agile thought leaders.

“The Global Agile Summit is a different kind of event. We're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding in the real world to inspire you to take action.”
— Host [11:42]

Key Details:

• Dates: May 18-20, 2025
• Location: Tallinn, Estonia
• Highlights: Workshops, keynote sessions by industry leaders like Clinton Keith and Jurgen Apelo, and tracks focused on Agile Business, Product, and Development.

Participants are encouraged to join to gain fresh ideas, network with over 200 Agile professionals, and rejuvenate their Agile practices.

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This detailed summary encapsulates the core discussions and insights from the podcast episode, providing valuable takeaways for Scrum Masters and Agile practitioners seeking to understand and overcome the challenges of process changes and stakeholder alignment.

Transcript

[Host]

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to make Agile work well? At the Global Agile Summit, we're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action. Whether you're a leader, a product innovator, a developer, you'll hear practical insights from those who've done it. They'll be telling their own stories from the stage. I'll tell you more about this at the end of this episode. So stay back and listen to the full detailed description of what we have in store for you at the Global Agile Summit. But if you can't wait, you can go right now to globalagilesummit.com and check out our full schedule for now onto the episode. But I'll see you at the end of this episode with more details on the Global Agile Summit. Talk to you soon. Hello, everybody.

[Podcast Host]

Welcome to our Wednesday the Leading Change episode here on the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. And this week we have with us Denise Ari. Hey Denise. Welcome back.

[Denise Ari]

Hi. Hello.

[Podcast Host]

So change is the topic of today's conversation, Denise. And we really want you to focus on a specific change process you were part of. And how did that happen over time, right? Like what were the steps that you took, what were the strategies, the approach, the tools, the tips, the tricks and the techniques that you learned during that process that you still apply today?

[Denise Ari]

The change subject is. It's quite interesting and I'm really into it, you know, because this is very difficult. At the same time it's a very long process. The it doesn't matter which change it is for. Is it like in work environment, tools, technology, even meetings, you know, even the framework you're implementing or creating something from scratch. Is the. It's the change change always difficult for anyone. It's not like a. Some. Someone's only, you know, some different personalities. But what I know about the change we need to little bits give some time and we need to trust the process which is maybe you heard about this the change curve, you know the. It's not happening in one line. You know there is a phase of the change, you know the denial. There is a. Some sometimes anger, blame, fear and burgeoning and there is sometimes quiet and depression. You know the. Or maybe when you go down about the curve exploration, decision integration and. And this is like a kind of process. Doesn't matter which kind of change the time can be, you know, the time milestones can be changed. But yeah it will, it will definitely gonna take phase phases because this is the new thing you as a human you're reacting doesn't matter we change or who's introducing as a human because you need to protect what you have in know the. That's why change always difficult and interesting subjects. I just want to carry on what are with my change story. You know that I involved and what happened or what I learned. As a SCRUM team we use JIRA Atlassian tools and of course we had some way of workings. You know the you know the creating backlog, Sprint planning, you know the refinements. We are following this kind of things. But there was some and generally we have more than 10 in flight project. It's not like a one huge project and some of them related to each other and there is a ton of dependency. That's why I introduced big picture tools under the Atlassian. It's kind of. You have plenty you know that you have plenty functional under the big picture like a Gantt chart. You know link it and people's capacity. You know the storage and filters. It's amazing tool. I don't know if I I. I like a lot and I introduce. I did like some tidy up on my JIRA backlogs. You know the I'd introduce the management. But yeah it just. It was a big reaction. You know I mean like oh everyone like it. It looks nice because the you know the it's very user friendly. It's not like a JIRA or you know the it's very. Because visual. It's very catchy. That's why people like it. But. But what happened time to time I found myself the only person updating using the tool and the people still sticking with their project plan. You know even not looking the jira. This is my only. Not only but biggest headache in this environment. What I am where I'm working and where did the.

[Podcast Host]

Where did those project plans live that people were using instead of you know kind of using a tool that everybody agreed on.

[Denise Ari]

Like what did you heard Microsoft professional. My nemesis. Yeah. You know. Yes. It's. It's up to people. You know of course I can't put pressure people or how come you're using this. Yeah use. But we as a Scrum team we have a Sprint planning. Isn't it Sprint duration. You know do we have capacity? We are sizing what we have and the allocating people. You know if there is a spike or anything and we're identify on Sprint planning creating Sprint goal which is realistic and inviting. Even the po. You know the inviting pos on the these planning meetings and it should Be aligned what we have isn't it as a project wise and deliverable date. But the expectation they even identify and use the same words because generally when we have a technical pos, you know that they want to have more easy. You know I mean like short lines for the milestone wise and. But as a Scrum team we need to break down. Otherwise we concise it. Otherwise we can't create the spring goal.

[Podcast Host]

So was there a conflict? Right. Like product owners just wanted to have this very high level descriptions and then the team was trying to break things down in order to be able to. And how did you solve that conflict?

[Denise Ari]

Try to try to be bridge is my weakest point. I always trying to sort it problems and not helping for myself but it's helping the people at least. Yeah. Just trying to understand why the po. Where is POS coming from? You know because of course he's on it, you know that he needs to deliver. He respect the teams how they want to work which is way of working with our Scrum. But at the same time he needs to get what he needs. I mean like achievable dates, you know the blockers or dependencies. Because generally my team's working back end purely and it's very complicated areas and very big services and tons of dependency and if you're having new person non technical person it's like a terms like a hell. But of course it's up to them and up to us. We need to be provide what you know, we need to reply the answers because as a. Doesn't matter. There's no silly answers. Isn't it that the questions and. But I am trying to be explained because I'm not technical person either. You know the if doesn't make sense.

[Podcast Host]

So you try to kind of translate what the product owner is looking for but also in a way that the teams are able to. To provide that information. Right. Because otherwise the teams might be just doing something completely different and then there's no translation into what the product owner is asking.

[Denise Ari]

Yeah and it can change it either. You know sometimes they descoping one part of the project and it's coming from the client call with here and POS coming saying oh they descop that bit and let's adaptate again. Of course this is the magic of the Scrum, isn't it? We keep adapting and we keep. That's why we keep repeating you know the. Our Scrum ceremonies. Because every. Everything can change easily and that's why it's.

[Podcast Host]

And that's actually a very important Aspect. Right. Like, because from our perspective, team and Scrum Master, we accept that there's constant adaptation and of course the product owners benefit from that because if there are changes that they want, then we can adapt to those changes. But sometimes there's something lost in translation where we are actually adapting to a change that was requested, meaning we, the team and the Scrum Master. But then the product owner thinks that everything that was agreed before is still agreed and then there's more on top. Right. And we need to balance that understanding between what we can adapt, because we can adapt, but also the decisions that we need to make. Because if we change direction, there are things that are not going to get done. Right. And if we don't have a tool to do that, if we don't have something like a backlog, for example, when we talk about Scrum, then there's no way to collaborate. So I think one of the things that you already referred to is this importance of having the same tool that is used by product owners and by the teams. Right. If everybody's got their own tool, there's no way that we can agree on what we are going to work and we can't even create visibility on what we are working on at the moment.

[Denise Ari]

Yeah, because you can't rely on human memory, you know, especially if you're working on software, if you're working with so many acronyms, you know, there's so many different tasks. Of course you need to create something and document it and link it, you know, the planet. And this change thing is just not to happen for the po. It's happening even the inside the team. For example, I was just, you know, the sizing backlog, assigning people. Sometimes it's not easy to, you know, the size the task because they don't know and they can easily push you back and, and they. Logging the times. There is a, There's a function on the tickets, you know, the people's logging time because it's kind of lesson learned. Because we just impacted like a four days, one. One task and if we can keep. Log the times and. Because sometimes it's difficult, isn't it? And. But when you introduce these kind of things, it's a bit. No. Or just neglect or avoid or ignore, but just keep repeating, you know, if you can do this, it's going to help for this and for next Sprint we can say, you know, the. It's going to be more easy, it's going to be for everyone's benefits. But yeah, it just doesn't matter how small how big the change it is as a human reaction. They will react first and after.

[Host]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Denise Ari]

Except or not accept.

[Podcast Host]

And as Scrum masters, we need to be the ones navigating this. Right? And I think that the way you started the story, like trying to bring kind of this common tool for everybody, that's a great example of a change that we can help introduce, that helps to navigate these different perspectives.

[Host]

Thank you for sharing that story, Denise.

[Denise Ari]

No worries.

[Host]

Hey friend, thank you for staying here is all you need to know about the Global Agile Summit if you've ever suffered or know people who are suffering from Agile fatigue, this event is for you. Agile fatigue is that feeling that settles in when we can't really see a light at the end of the tunnel. We get discouraged, especially when conversations revolve around the same old fashioned frameworks, the same old buzzwords and theories. We don't feel that energy anymore. Well, the Global Agile Summit is a different kind of event. We're bringing you real life first person stories of agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action and transform the way you work. The Global Agile Summit will happen In Tallinn, Estonia, May 18th. That's the workshop day, and then 19th and 20th, the conference day. And Tallin, Estonia is one of the most innovative tech hubs in Europe. The Global Agile Summit is hosted together with Latitude 59, which is kind of a citywide celebration of software startups and groundbreaking ideas. And we'll have a shared ticket for you to attend those events as well. So who will be speaking? Well, we've got an incredible lineup of thought leaders in software and Agile. For example, Clinton Keith, the person who wrote, literally wrote the book on game development with Scrum and is busy bringing Agile to the world of game development. You must check his session. The very famous and well known Jurgen Apelo, author of Management 3.0, will be talking and exploring about AI's impact on leadership. We also have Goiko Adsic, who's taking an unconventional look at product growth with his Lizard Optimization keynote. Other speakers include, for example, Sven Dietz, who's challenging everything we know about software development by ditching, literally ditching contracts and estimates. Can you imagine his teams deliver software before their competitors are even done with the contract negotiation? How agile is that? But there's more. We'll cover engineering practices in our developer track with talks on, for example, AI assisted test driven development, developing products in minutes with a different approach to how we develop, configure, deploy platforms, and much more. We also have a product track where we cover cutting edge ideas around product discovery, delighting customers with product delight frameworks. We'll have a talk about that. And we also have an Agile Business track where we will talk about, for example, Open strategy, a very agile approach to managing organizations and delay delivering software faster to clients faster than you can even write a contract. Literally. I mean, I already told you about Svendit's story is amazing. It definitely is a must see. I'm sure you'll be inspired and get a lot of ideas for your own software projects and software delivery. Now, whether you're a business leader, a product innovator or a developer, you'll definitely find value in our three focused tracks. That's Agile Business for those working with businesses and organizations, Agile Product for product managers, product owners and innovators and Agile Developer for the builders making Agile work in practice. The coders, the testers, the designers, the producers, the Scrum masters, you name it. If you join, you will meet over 200 agile professionals from all over the world. People who just like you, want to grow, want to share, and want to learn by challenging the ideas that don't work anymore. At the Global Agile Summit, you'll get new connections, fresh ideas and the energy to take your own Agile to the next level. And who knows, maybe even find your next career opportunity. So don't miss out. Check out the full program and grab your ticket [e-mail] I'm really looking forward to seeing you all in Tallinn, Estonia in May.

[Podcast Host]

I'll see you there.