Using Scrum for a Greater Mission w/ Jon Horton from NewSpring Church

This episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes offers a case study of how the technology teams at NewSpring church have been using Agile practices to develop innovative products that will enable their members to stay engaged with NewSpring throughout the whole week.

Jon Horton is the Web Director at NewSpring. A few weeks ago he and several members of his team attended a LeadingAgile CSM class. In the interview Jon explains how he introduced Scrum to the organization, how it is being adopted by the technology teams, how it impacts their ability to deliver value for NewSpring members and some of the challenges that they’ve faced along the way.

This podcast offers a great case study of how Agile practices are extending beyond traditional software development teams and are being used to innovate and deliver value to all types of “customers”.

Show Notes
00:08 Podcast Begins
00:55 Some background on Jon and his role at NewSpring Church
02:20 How technology help NewSpring Church meet people where they are
04:10 How Agile practices were introduced at NewSpring
05:25 The Agile practices that have proven to be the most valuable to Jon’s team
07:10 How work gets prioritized at NewSpring
09:00 The way teams are set up at NewSpring
09:24 The Sprint lengths used by different teams and why they’ve been selected
10:25 How Jon’s team got started with Scrum and how they’ve evolved their learning and adoption
11:10 Traditional practices that the team’s use to support their Agile practice
12:30 Challenges in introducing Agile at NewSpring
13:44 Jon’s plan to extend Agile beyond the technology group
14:37 Is there a difference in applying Agile within a religious organization than in a more traditional software group?
15:50 Jon’s advice for other religious organizations that are interested in trying to implement Agile
18:00 Getting in touch with Jon
18:37 Podcast end

Links from this podcast
NewSpring Church https://newspring.cc
Essential Scrum by Kenny Rubin http://amzn.to/2mMA3Ux

Contacting Jon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonhorton

Contacting Dave
You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
On Twitter at https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net

Feedback/Questions
If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes
For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/
Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.