Non model, radical Agile approach to meet hard deadlines in a complex stakeholder field

The pop music industry has one big advantage over other businesses… it is formed around the principles of scrum teams. As any pop band is in essence a scrum team; multidisciplinary simultaneously in a shared heartbeat with fast and effective feedback loops between team members and their stakeholders. Knowing that everyone is mutual dependent for success, while facing hard deadlines and strong competition. (not coincidentally, the Spotify model has the same industry background). And then…?

Imagine; you are organizing a 4 day music festival, turnover € 32 mlj.. In just two weeks’ time you have to build a temporarily city in an empty field, where your 60.000 customers stay four days. There are 230 supplying companies involved as well as 16 governmental organisations, with countless interdependencies. During the build and festival days you scale up to 3200 co-workers.

How do they do it? Building this temporarily city in one final, two-week sprint, with e.g. 0,05 % rework? Completely tested and backed up, ready for an unforgettable experience for the clientele while the world is watching closely by press and social media. Risks are huge, bad weather, public order, food safety, environmental challenges, you name it. No room for failure whatsoever.

Gerard Claassen

Agile Organisation Coach @ Epic Agility