With an agency focus on IoT/M2M and other technology-based clients, it's in ThreeTwelve's DNA to elevate people over process by adapting Agile methodology to an agency setting. Here's an introduction to how and why we do what we do, the way we do.

1. threetwelvecreative
An AgileAgency
THREETWELVE & YOU

2. • The Scrum Question:
How can we better deliver product to our customers?
• Scrum, an Agile software development process, has been in
use since the 1990s. It is what ThreeTwelve is adopting to
create the Agile Agency approach.
• Developed because long-term project planning
methodologies like Waterfall are inaccurate, and place
emphasis on top-down process
HISTORY

3. KEY AGILE PRINCIPLES
3
Collaborate more
with clients
4
Focus on delivering a
workable product instead
of documentation about
a product
1
Communication
with parties is more
important than SOPs
2
Be open to change

4. Elevate people over process

5. BETTER TOGETHER
• ThreeTwelve has thrived not just because of exceptional work,
but also because of exceptional relationships.
• Clients repeatedly call out ThreeTwelve’s collaborative nature
and the personal relationships they form with us.
It’s in our agency DNA to elevate
people over process

6. EVEN BETTER TOGETHER
• That said, ThreeTwelve is a business and we need efficiencies
and processes in order to operate and to be able to scale.
• Our clients are also businesses, and we should delight them
by safeguarding their interests and meeting their needs.

7. AGILE-Y-ER
• Agile pulls our clients into the process by making them
stakeholders in everything we do.
• Of course, any business’s clients are stakeholders – but in a
traditional agency/client model clients have much less input
into the process and there is much less transparency.

8. AGILE ROLES
Stakeholders -
Client team members
Cosmic Overlord –
ThreeTwelve member;
keeps process on course
Creative Team –
ThreeTwelve staff
Product Owner –
Main client POC

9. AGILE PROCESS:THESPRINT
• The Sprint is the core time unit of the Agile process.
At ThreeTwelve our Sprints are two weeks (10 business days)
• Short Sprints allow us to deliver products regularly and to
rapidly make iterative changes to improve our process
• All work that is taken into a Sprint should be completed in
that Sprint

10. TheSprint-Tasks
• Work to be done in a Sprint is broken down into tasks
• Every task is assigned a point value that indicates its relative
difficulty to complete
• Points are NOT time-correlated. Possible points a task can be
assigned are 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 or 21. A one-point task is easy. A
21-point task is difficult and likely to take the whole Sprint.

11. TheSprint-TASKPOINTS
• The point system reflects that we as humans are relatively
accurate at predicting the time to accomplish easy tasks, but
wildly inaccurate at predicting larger, longer-term tasks
• Points allow us insight into what our true workload capacity is
• Better insight means better planning, and better ability to
complete workload.

12. THESPRINT-TASKS
• The ThreeTwelve team for a client has a maximum point
capacity that it can accomplish in any given Sprint
• The sum of points for tasks taken into a Sprint should equal
the team’s capacity
• Matching task points to team capacity ensures tasks brought
in to a Sprint are completed.
• Tasks can be in any of these discrete states: Backlog, Current,
Working, Done

13. TheSprintBOARD

14. TheSprintBOARD
• The Sprint Board is a visual representation of all the tasks
in a Sprint
• There is a column for each state a task can be in
• As a task changes state, it’s moved to the appropriate
column.

15. Lifecycle ofa Task -Backlog
• All tasks begin life in the Backlog, which is a running record
of work that needs to be done. The Backlog is the only state
that spans Sprints.
• At a planning meeting that happens before each Sprint,
clients identify tasks and prioritize them.
• ThreeTwelve decomposes tasks where necessary, and assigns
point value. Final prioritizing can be done after any task
decomposition.

16. Lifecycle ofa Task –Current
• During the planning
meeting, tasks are
moved from the Backlog
state to Current state
until the team’s point
capacity has been
reached

17. Lifecycle ofa Task -Working
• When a ThreeTwelve
team member is ready to
start working a task, they
will put their name on it
and move it from Current
Sprint to Working On

18. Lifecycle ofa Task –DONE
• When the task has been completed, it is moved from Working
to Done.
• If it’s a task that has been decomposed to also have a “Client
Review and Changes” task, that task is then moved into the
“Working” state

19. BUTWHAT ABOUT
• Client needs can change, even over the course of a single
Sprint.
• ThreeTwelve capacity typically will NOT change over the
course of a Sprint
• If new tasks arise that must be completed during a given
Sprint, the tasks are decomposed, given point values, and
brought in
• A matching point value of low-priority tasks is then moved
from the Current Sprint back to the Backlog.

20. FAQs
• Q. What if a task will take longer than one Sprint?
• A. It should be decomposed into a set of smaller tasks, giving
everyone a better idea of what’s done and what remains to be
done

21. FAQs
• Q. Can we see the Sprint board?
• A. Yes. In the traditional Scrum environment, tasks are written
on yellow sticky notes and stuck onto a physical Sprint board
or wall. Stakeholders can come by at any time, look at all the
sticky notes, and be apprised of Sprint progress.
ThreeTwelve uses a web app called Teamworkand have structured that to resemble a Sprint
board pivoted into rows instead of columns. We will invite client team members to have access
to that board so that you can see at any time during a Sprint what we’ve done and what we’re
working on. We’re also working on our own Agile Agency software purpose-built to meet the
needs of our agency and our clients.