The frameworks of Agile and lean, specifically ScrumXP and Kanban with the emphasis on planning, collaboration, teamwork, and frequent releases, provide a vehicle for application in life activities beyond the business world. Limited research has explored the areas in which ScrumXP and Kanban can contribute the same level of success experienced in business activities to life projects. An example of a life project is building a tree house for our children. The emphasis of this paper is to illuminate the experiences of 13 agility practitioners in Southern California and the application of ScrumXP and Kanban in life projects. Data for the research was gathered through interviews with 13 agile practitioners. Permission was requested and granted from the participants. Purposeful sampling enabled the intentional selection of individuals that would provide the most information under investigation. The participants identified several life projects that were applicable for ScrumXP and Kanban. Positive experiences and results from the participants were captured and analyzed. The seven emergent themes were (a) applied to schools and academic environments, (b) planned family vacations and holidays, (c) organized kids’ school work and activities, (d) improved family relationships, (e) improved home projects and chores, (f) transformed my life, leadership, and career skills, and (h) learned to do things at a sustainable pace. Keywords—Scrum, XP, lean, Kanban, agile, agility, transparency, inspect, adapt, commitment, innovation, empiricism

1. Keep the Agile Groove Alive!
Dave Cornelius, DM
Scrum Alliance, Agile Alliance
5Saturdays.org, KnolShare.org
Costa Mesa, USA
DrDave@5Saturdays.org
Abstract—The frameworks of Agile and lean, specifically
ScrumXP and Kanban with the emphasis on planning,
collaboration, teamwork, and frequent releases, provide a vehicle
for application in life activities beyond the business world.
Limited research has explored the areas in which ScrumXP and
Kanban can contribute the same level of success experienced in
business activities to life projects. An example of a life project is
building a tree house for our children. The emphasis of this
paper is to illuminate the experiences of 13 agility practitioners in
Southern California and the application of ScrumXP and
Kanban in life projects. Data for the research was gathered
through interviews with 13 agile practitioners. Permission was
requested and granted from the participants. Purposeful
sampling enabled the intentional selection of individuals that
would provide the most information under investigation. The
participants identified several life projects that were applicable
for ScrumXP and Kanban. Positive experiences and results from
the participants were captured and analyzed. The seven
emergent themes were (a) applied to schools and academic
environments, (b) planned family vacations and holidays, (c)
organized kids’ school work and activities, (d) improved family
relationships, (e) improved home projects and chores, (f)
transformed my life, leadership, and career skills, and (h)
learned to do things at a sustainable pace.
Keywords—Scrum, XP, lean, Kanban, agile, agility,
transparency, inspect, adapt, commitment, innovation, empiricism
I. INTRODUCTION
When groove is used to describe a specific experience, it
often denotes a rhythmic feel or sense of moving to a specific
cadence. The agile groove is a cadence that consists of people
collaborating to innovate products and solutions to meet
customer demands. The cadence is a crescendo of prioritized
work equalized by a diminuendo of conflict between team
members and other stakeholders. Cadence is ingrained in the
following areas: (1) a rhythm of fixed delivery time based on a
common industry 1- or 2-week time-box, (2) commitment to
finish work with the highest customer value, (3) frequent
transparent reviews of progress, (4) inspection of progress and
learnings through a frequent feedback loop with all
stakeholders, (5) adaptation by continually improving on
agreed upon areas of learning, and (6) reflective growth by
empirical experiences during each 1- or 2-week cycle through
retrospectives. People work at a cadence of a 1- or 2-week
time-box to deliver prioritized work that meets customer
demands and enables a consistent expectation to review the
progress of the individual or team. The 1- or 2-week time-box
is called a sprint. Predictability is achieved by a consistent
time-box and review cycle by stakeholders, which supports the
translation of challenges into opportunities. The commitments
to finish work that provides the highest customer value
eliminate the distraction of doing things that do not add value.
Distractions are often introduced when people do not focus on
the highest priorities that produce the highest value. At the end
of each sprint, customers and teams work together to conduct a
transparent review of the outcome of the completed work
performed by the team. The feedback provided to the teams
allows for actions to inspect and adapt according to the
information received. Continual learning and improvements are
created through empiricism and the wisdom of people sharing
knowledge. The practice of agility certainly provides a groove
for the practitioners and enables work to be completed through
an ensemble of players. Like a jazz ensemble, people
collaborate to create an outcome that is pleasing and that
changes the atmosphere to one of great expectation and
possibilities. A certain amount of expectation is associated with
agility to get things done with higher quality and at a faster
pace. The shift is certainly positive, and the sustainability of
the practice is important to all who have had experience with
that approach of getting work done. The sustainable longevity
of the agile practice has a reliance on individuals and
organizations adopting the new way of completing work. A
nonprofit organization seeking to sustain the agile practice is
5Saturdays.org. The program uses agile concepts to introduce
collaborative and project-based learning for high school
students and facilitators. The planned outcome is to establish a
future generation of knowledge workers capable of self-
organizing and producing value at a sustainable pace.
In 2001, a group of 17 technologists came together and
created the Agile Manifesto. Since then, the agile practice has
become a global phenomenon with over 350,000 certified
practitioners. However, the adoption of agile practices has been
limited to software and product development. Over the
decades, we have experienced the explosion of new
applications on the Internet for the common person and the
shift in the way we share, communicate, and conduct
commerce. The same experience should occur for people
adapting agility and lean practices in life projects. Life
projects are the activities we do for ourself and others. An
example is building a tree house for your children.
The agile practice espouses five key tenets:
Transparency: Provides visibility to the stakeholders
responsible for the outcome of the product or project.

2. Inspect: Involves a frequent review of a project’s progress
toward achieving the promised goal.
Adapt: Adjusting the process or activities to meet the
demand of change.
Commitment: A decision to devote time, energy, and
resources to complete a task.
Empiricism: Knowledge derived from experience.
Empiricism enables teams to learn from experience [1].
Organizations and individuals thrive when culture includes
transparency, inspect, adapt, and commitment as core enablers.
Transparency allows people to share information openly to
create an opportunity for new knowledge. The practice of
inspecting or evaluating the outcomes of work enables course
correction or celebration as needed. The ability to adapt or
innovate changes the lens of our approach to pivot to an
alternative or to create the next opportunity. Finally, we shift to
the courage to make a commitment to go forward and complete
what is needed to ensure the success of the organization or
individual.
II. SCRUM AND KANBAN
The agile practice consists of several frameworks, but
Scrum is the most commonly used by companies. Scrum is an
agile project management framework for teams and
organizations to create finished products or services that add
the greatest value in the shortest time. Scrum practitioners
evaluated conditions and empirically decided the next course
of action [1]. A recent study concluded the perceived value of
Scrum to organizations included (1) team empowerment and
collaboration, (2) teams that achieved strategic alignment and
transparency, (3) efficiency and waste elimination, (4)
delivered software that improved customer experiences, and
(5) customer demands met with finished software faster to
market [2]. Furthermore, several studies ([1], [3]-[9]) described
positive results from the application of Scrum. The same
ScrumXP techniques and practices can be applied to
individuals and teams at home or in the community. If we
could apply the practice of agility to our daily lives, 3M stock
would go through the roof because of the high demand for
Post-It notes.
Kanban is the mash-up of two Japanese words. Kan is the
word for card and ban is the word for signal. The meaning of
Kanban translates to card signal or signal card. Imagine if your
mate’shoney-do lists are placed on a Kanban board. Think of
the assigned cards on the board signaling the flow of tasks
being completed and your mate provides feedback to help you
be more productive. Table I illustrates the honey-do list in the
Kanban board. I can only imagine the comments about the
value stream from “to-do” to “in progress” to “done.” Another
example of a signal card is the movie ticket. At the movie
theater, your movie ticket tells you the name of the movie, the
theater your movie is playing in, the time of the movie, and the
price of the ticket. The movie ticket in your possession is a
signal to check the time of day, look for the sign that displays
your theater number and movie name, and find the attendant to
take your ticket, which indicates that you paid. Kanban is also
an alternative lean tool that allows individuals and teams
working on other activities outside of software and product
development to ensure a predictable outcome by working
transparently.
TABLE I. HONEY-DO LIST KANBAN BOARD
To-­‐Do
In
Progress
Done
Wash the cars
Mow the lawn
Take out the garbage
The Kanban board plays an essential role in my daily
activities. Figure 1 illustrates the Kanban board that enables the
planning and execution of my daily activities for family,
community, professional development, and business
development. My home Kanban board has four distinct
columns, which include (1) bull pen, (2) to do, (3) work in
progress (WIP), and (4) done. The bull pen houses all
incoming work that is not prioritized and committed to be
worked on. The to-do lists are the prioritized work committed
for the current week. The WIP column contains the activities
that are being worked on and is given the highest priorities.
The “done” column lists all the finished work. Each day, work
is pulled based on demand from my family, community,
professional development associates, and business activities.
The key to managing WIP is to remain within the constraints of
time and other resources. The WIP constraint enables a steady
flow of work to ensure a sustainable work pace.
Fig. 1. Kanban board used to plan family, community, professional
development, and business development activities.
III. RESEARCH DESIGN
A description of the application of agile practices to
improve our personal projects was lacking. The emphasis of
this paper is to illuminate the experiences of 13 agility
practitioners in Southern California and the application of
ScrumXP and Kanban in life projects. The research questions
that informed this research were as follow:
1. What are the applications of agile practices for
personal or nonbusiness use?
2. What were the benefits experienced?
The research was a multicase qualitative study that
consisted of six key interview questions administered through
face-to-face conversations with 13 agile practitioners at an
agile open-space conference in Southern California. The
research participants were informed of the intent of the
research and signed a permission form to grant permission for

3. an interview without compensation. A handheld audio recorder
captured the interviews. The data collected in the interviews
underwent transcription, coding, and preparation for
interpretation.
The interview questions included the following:
• Q1: Outside of the business world, can you identify
other areas to use the agile (ScrumXP or Kanban)
practice for a better outcome?
• Q2: Do you have a life-changing experience or story to
share after using the agile (ScrumXP or Kanban)
practice?
IV. DEMOGRAPHICS
The composite of the 13 participants included 31% women
and 69% men. The roles of the interviewees included three
Scrum trainers, one Scrum coach, one Scaled Agile Framework
(SAFe) coach, three Scrum masters, three Scrum team
members, and two limited agile practitioners in Southern
California. Table II describes the roles of the agile
practitioners. The interviewees attended an agile open space
conference and participated in face-to-face interviews after
granting permission. Participants were selected randomly based
on availability and willingness to participate in the research.
The study participant received a code based on a unique
identifier after the study participant provided a signed informed
consent form. The coded participant and associated data were
identified with the unique identifier for the duration of the
study. The unique identifier would have supported the removal
of data if a study participant withdrew from the study. The
security of personal contact information protected the
participants’ identities, data collected, thematic analysis, and
findings and included the use of code identifiers. The audio
recordings, transcriptions, and coded data were stored on an
encrypted portable memory drive. The data from the drive will
be erased 3 years after completion of the study, and only the
researcher will have access to the drives.
TABLE II. AGILE PRACTITIONERS ROLE
Role
Description
Scrum trainers Train individuals and organizations in the Scrum
framework and practices.
Scrum coach Coach individuals and organizations in the most
effective way to obtain the maximum value.
Scrum masters Remove roadblocks that limit the team’s success.
Coach team members in the Scrum process and
framework. Provide the conduit to integrate
cross-functional teams.
Scrum team members Engage in design, build, and test activities to
produce a high-quality product to meet the needs
of customers.
V. INTERVIEW QUESTION RESULTS
Seven themes emerged from the analysis. The emergent
themes were (a) applied to schools and academic
environments, (b) planned family vacations and holidays, (c)
organized kids’ school work and activities, (d) improved
family relationships, (e) improved home projects and chores,
(f) transformed my life, leadership, and career skills, and (h)
learned to do things at a sustainable pace. Table III contains
descriptions from participants that supported each theme.
TABLE III. APPLICATION OF SCRUMXP AND KANBAN
Participant
Example
School and academic environments
R2SBV Education and teaching.
R2SGB Academia—professional skills development.
R2SGB Improves communications in academic program cohorts.
R2SDS It would be great for schools.
R2SUA This is a great fit for the education world, especially in
math classes.
R2SBR Education has more potential for self-organizing teams
and cooperative decision making.
R2SBR Students would say my class changed their lives.
Family vacations and holidays
R2SUA Plan my family vacations and Thanksgiving dinner.
Schoolwork and activities
R2SDJ A tool to help kids become organized and visualize the
outcome by prioritizing.
R2SDS Used it to organize my kids schoolwork.
R2SMK Helped my kids plan homework, when it was due, and
when it was done.
R2SMK “the end of the school year we do a retrospective to
identify what worked well, what didn't, and what will we
do differently.
Home projects and chores
RS2UC Organizing life activities at home and with our children.
RS2BD Managed projects at home to satisfy the ‘honey-dos,’ a
beautiful thing adding value.
RS2BD Helped my spouse manage priorities.
R2SDS My spouse and I have planning meetings to prioritize our
house work.
Family relationships
R2SDS Used retrospective to improve our relationship.
R2SFL Used by families to help each other know what each other
is doing.
R2SFL Obtain collective family ownership to make their living
environment better.
R2SFL Focus on improving our family and place of work.
R2SDS My kids chore time was cut in half, which was life
changing for my family.
R2SDS Retrospectives with my kids help me to grow as a parent
to learn more about my kids.
R2SJJ It changed my life and perception with my son, I don't nag
him or remind him to do things.
Leadership and career transformation
R2SBV Agile changed my life.
R2SGB Changed my career to work on the business side.
R2SBD Became an agile guy versus a PMO guy.
R2SBD Helped me develop the right kind of leadership skills
versus managing.
R2SBD It has been career changing.
R2SDJ It has been life changing and the way I approached work.
R2SMK As a Scrum Master I have more fun and freedom.
Doing things at a sustainable pace
R2SFL Learned to climb a mountain at a sustainable pace.
R2SBR I used Principle #8, Sustainable Pace, to help my team get
work-life balance for my team so they won't quit.
R2SRS I was able develop a sustainable pace and bring joy back
into work.
VI. LIMITATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
The results of the study are subject to a few limitations.
One limitation of the study was that the study participants were
from California and did not include participants from other
areas of the United States. A second limitation of the study was
the small sample size. The findings of the study may not be
generalizable across people from other counties, states, and
countries. The results are, however, suggestive.

4. VII. CONCLUSION
The results of the study indicate that the use of ScrumXP
and Kanban need not be limited to software and product
development. The groove that each participant found was a
positive experience in the application and benefit of ScrumXP
and Kanban in education, family, career, and home projects.
The diverse group of people provided various context that
highlight seven emergent themes: (a) applied to schools and
academic environments, (b) planned family vacations and
holidays, (c) organized kids’ school work and activities, (d)
improved family relationships, (e) improved home projects and
chores, (f) changed my life and career, and (h) learned to do
things at a sustainable pace.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Dr. Dave Cornelius is the founder of 5 Saturdays and leads
the group’s Leadership Council. In addition to being a
published author and speaker, Dave is an experienced IT and
business professional and a globally recognized lean and agile
catalyst who empowers others to achieve their very best. He
specializes in coaching, training, and leading collocated and
distributed teams to deliver quality innovations from concept to
cash. Dave also has held several leadership roles where he
helped transform IT into a partner with other groups within an
organization. Dave holds a doctorate in management (IS/IT
emphasis), a master’s degree in business administration, and a
bachelor’s degree in computer science. His professional
certifications include public speaking (Toastmasters DTM),
product management (PMC II), project management (PMP),
agility practices (PMI-ACP, CSP, SPC), IT service
management (ITIL v3), and process optimization (SSBB).
Learn more about Dave by visiting Dave-Cornelius.com or on
LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/daveauck/. You also can
follow Dave on Twitter @DrCorneliusInfo.
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