While Scrum is light and easy, foreign trade is cumbersome and complex. Is the Scrum framework capable of bringing more light to the daily lives of foreign trade professionals?
The efficiency of the foreign trade sector is directly linked to the quality of the team that manages the processes, which is why it is important to use the Scrum framework for the development of the main activities and projects in less time, with less costs and with better quality.
Scrum seeks the productive and creative delivery of the final product, to apply it is necessary to
know exactly what the final product is customer satisfaction.
In foreign trade, several factors can influence customer satisfaction choosing the right supplier, freight
quote as expected, delivery of cargo to destination on time, resolved bureaucracies, successful
operation management, security that the customer has in contracting the company, the shipment
parameterized in the green channel, the reduced logistical costs, or the release of the cargo without
delays.
But how can Scrum framework help foreign trade teams to deliver the final product in the best
Way
Teams that use Scrum achieve what is called “hyper ”productivity”, not only
does the quantity produced increase, but also the quality. What Scrum does is measure what is
being done and constantly apply process improvements, with the mindset that there is always room for
improvement within the process flow.
A trader has extensive knowledge not only in logistical procedures, but is multidisciplinary and has in-
depth knowledge of the world market, legislation, geography, culture, history, marketing and sales,
strategies, mathematics, statistics and economics.
The scrum requires multidisciplinary people, but all this knowledge is useless if there is no freedom for
the team to apply it in the processes.
The framework states that teams must have autonomy and that they can be self-managing, for that, two
factors are essential
• The leader’s trust in the team and
• The Sense of responsibility for the delivery of the final product.
“Give people the freedom to do what they think best and the responsibility for their decisions” – Jeff
Sutherland in the book Scrum The Art of Doing Double the Work in Half the Time
Another factor that Scrum believes is that all team members must be clear about the PURPOSE
and OBJECTIVE. In foreign trade, this can be applied, so that everyone on the team, even at different
stages of the process, knows the entire operation from beginning to end.
Mistakes and Learning
Mistakes are not accepted in foreign trade, an error can generate fines, blockages, high storage costs
and even the company may be indicated in the Federal Revenue’s risk management for excessive
rectification and never again manage to leave the feared red channel. However, what was not notified
to the IRS is that, unfortunately, humans are flawed and make mistakes.
Fail early, fail cheap, fail fast
If everyone is prone to make mistakes, let it be as soon as possible, that it can be resolved quickly and
that it does not generate high costs.
Maybe in practice it’s not like that, so glamorous to talk about mistakes, but nobody can deny that
making mistakes and seeing the consequences is the best way to learn and still generate examples for
the whole team. The Scrum Framework allows highly skilled team to see the results, feedback early and
often. If teams makes mistakes, they have an opportunity to inspect and adapt very quickly with lower
cost.
Time and Planning
We are living a phase in foreign trade with many changes, such as: CCT, DUIMP, (Provide
full form of these acronym or add link to what it means over Wikipedia) automation from follow ups to
entire ports, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies that are already being used to
facilitate import and export procedures. These changes happen quickly, which is why teams must be
adapt at them and act quickly to achieve the goals.
The team’s autonomy is also important for time, as it makes decision-making faster, there is no need for
procedural bureaucracies and the sector is able to act more quickly after the event, not
depending on a hierarchical structure.
Many changes can occur in an international transport operation, so Scrum helps the team to be
timely, develop in planning the possibility of change, discovery and innovation and prepare to meet your
customer’s expectations if something unexpected happens.
The main characteristics of a team that uses Scrum as a way of working:
Management and supervision identify and remove obstacles for analysts and assistants to be able to
carry out their tasks;
Ability to work in a team and divide tasks;
North embodied in the organization (what is North?);
Goals, outcome, and sprints become visible;
Agility in decisions;
Continuous improvement in processes;
Transparency.
How to implement on your team:
Choose your product owner .
This person will have the vision of the final product, and should
motivate the team to have the same purpose.
Determine a Scrum Master .
This person will be responsible for eliminating everything that is not working or is slowing down the team. He must find ways to maximize the operation. Scrum Master will ensure to coach the team and improve overall scrum process. If you don’t have a suitable candidate for Scrum Master role consider getting one of the internal member get trained on SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) certification training.
The creation and review of a product backlog. That is, a list of everything that needs to be done in an
operation. Example of a sample product backlog of a freight forwarding company, in an import
operation:
1- Customer development;
2- Quotation;
3- Contact with the agent abroad;
4- Booking with the transport company;
5- Collection of cargo at the factory;
6-Issuance and/or verification of shipping documents;
7- Constant update to the customer, through follow up;
8- Issuance of other documents;
9- Dispatch and customs clearance;
10- Delivery of cargo at destination.
This list is derived from the overall the vision of the final product, it is what must happen for the perfect
delivery of the final product, but each item in the list above can be improved in some way. Therefore, it
is necessary to revisit/ reprioritize the backlog for each step, for example:
Is item 1 happening the way it should? How difficult is the task in item 8? Is task 7 visible to the entire
team and the customer? When task 7 is performed, does everyone have a sense of “done” or does it
need to be revised several times after completion?.
Sprint planning.
The main objective must be defined, the team analyzes the backlog and
determines the priorities that must be carried out and based on that, defines the deadline for the
completion of the sprint;
Make the work visible.
The simplest way to do this is through dashboards, whiteboards, flip charts, post
its or through applications like TRELLO. A Scrum board can make the day-to-day of foreign trade
much easier, just create 3 columns that must always be fed: “To do”, “In progress” and “Done”, over
time, new columns can be created, such as “In test” or “In development” or blocked.
Daily Scrum meeting until the sprint deadline. Every day the questions must be answered “What did you
do yesterday to help the team complete the sprint goal” , “What will you do today to help the team
complete the sprint goal ?”, “What are the obstacles that are preventing the team from reaching the
sprint goal?” Remember, Daily Scrum is not a status meeting.
Sprint Review.
At this stage, everything that was “Done” and all optimizations must be exposed
to the entire company, including sectors that are not directly linked to the project. You gather feedback
from your customer and be transparent about items not completed. Also, align on what coming /
planned for the upcoming sprint.
Retrospective. Requesting feedback from customers. Also, at this stage, it should be discussed what
else the team could have done to improve, how was the development of this sprint, which can be
implemented immediately.
Next Sprint! Past experience is considered for an even faster speed of optimization at a given stage of the process.
