Starbucks TPMs introduced scrum without introducing a new tool for anyone else

Starbucks technical program management teams ran their projects in Jira while the wider organisation was still warming up to it.That is a hard position for a TPM. Teams collaborated naturally in Slack, so the TPMs were left keeping Jira current on everyone else's behalf: reading the channel, working out what had changed, and updating the board by hand.At the same time, project teams were being introduced to agile and learning what scrum ceremonies are for. Introducing a new process to people who are not yet sold on the existing tool is the hardest version of this problem.The TPMs needed a way to introduce both that did not depend on anyone's enthusiasm for Jira.

Starbucks chose Troopr so the new process could arrive where people already were.Team members get actionable alerts and updates about Jira issues in Slack, and updating an issue became a matter of clicking a button in a channel message. Troopr sends automated reminders and nudges about the things that need attention, each carrying a suggested action that is usually resolved in a few clicks.Daily standups run in Slack. Troopr asks participants for an update on their Jira issues and whatever else they are working on, and pulls the issue context and recent activity from Jira into the report automatically.Nobody had to learn a new tool. The process came to them.

Jira accuracy improved at Starbucks, and the teams adopted agile processes that saved time rather than costing it.Adoption worked because the ask was small. When the new process shows up inside the tool people already have open, there is nothing to resist.