Agile Scrum Process Illustrations

Agile Scrum Process Illustrations

In 2010, I was in the middle of designing the Agile developer experience for Microsoft . A lot of time was being spent internally training and coaching developers and program managers to shift their thinking into an Agile mindset.

My colleague Sam Guckenheimer was writing a book (3rd Edition) on using Visual Studio 2010's capabilities to accelerate agile teams. He asked if I could provide the illustrations for the Scrum lifecycle. I couldn't say yes fast enough. Mostly because Sam is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Getting the chance to visualize a process used by millions of people is once in a lifetime.

The problem

Sam had a problem with all of these - the whole point of Agile is continuous iteration - why was everyone still showing the Scrum process as sequential? Additionally, Scrum was presented as a single monolithic process. Finally, none of the popular infographics at the time were professionally designed - they were mostly clipart or PowerPoint slides put together by consultants.

Metrics for success

After a couple of conversations with Sam, I had a clear set of success criteria.

  1. Depict Agile Scrum as the series of related, iterative processes they are.
  2. A single graphic should be decomposable into the loops for each discipline and stakeholder.
  3. Professional graphic design, mirroring the design aesthetic of Microsoft publications circa 2010.

Loops all the way down

At the time, Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software was at the forefront of the Agile coaching world. His graphic representation of the Scrum process was being copied by hundreds of consultants and coaches.

Mountain Goat Software - Scrum overview 2005-2011 (source)

Even today, most depictions of scrum follow this visual model - left to right sequential process with a loop for sprints and a loop for daily scrum / standup.

First attempt

So I got to work. I started on the visual style first, adapting Mike's canonical graphic to Microsoft's visual style of the time and making it "loop".

Agile Scrum V1

This could be broken down into each sub-process so Sam could build up to the full graphic over the course of the book. It also leverages the art style of Office and Windows Server of the time. But - it still looked too sequential, was too visually busy, and didn't work well in black and white.

Take 4 - Circles

Agile Scrum V2

This was the first iteration that started to feel "right". Circles building on one another. The style was a bit more modern visually, and the communication hierarchy worked well - details weren't overwhelming at a glance.
But this didn't fit the decomposition criteria, to present each look in isolation meaningfully.

Take 12

Agile Scrum V12

By the 12th iteration, it was starting to come together. The biggest problems remaining were the "lumpiness" of the visual elements, and the disparity of detail from the inner loop processes (sprint, standup) and outer organizational processes.

Final form

Infographic showing the stages and workflow for the agile scrum development process

This is the final infographic. The visual style is refined and adaptable - flattening bridging between the cartoonish faux-3d of the early 2000's Microsoft and the soon to be everywhere "Metro" design language.

Most importantly for Sam, it presented every aspect of the product organization as interrelated but independent cycles of planning, work, delivery, and learning.
Logistically the graphic worked well in black and white as well as monochrome, text can be dropped in part or full, and each loop can be isolated in part or full to talk to subsets of Scrum activity.

If you'd like to use this graphic for your own, you're welcome to do so as long as attribution is provided back to me.