Agile is a project management approach that emphasizes iterative development and customer collaboration. It involves breaking a project down into small, manageable tasks that can be completed quickly and frequently reviewed to adjust course as needed. Agile is used very successfully in the software industry. We have applied it to speechwriting.

Scrum is a specific framework within agile methodology that provides a set of guidelines and practices for managing and completing complex projects. It involves working in small, cross-functional teams, with a designated Scrum Master to facilitate the process. Sprints are short, time-boxed periods of work, typically 1-4 weeks long (we use 2 weeks), during which the team focuses on completing a specific set of tasks. At the end of each sprint, the team reviews their progress, makes adjustments as needed, and plans the next sprint.

The backlog is our prioritized list of tasks that the team needs to complete to deliver the speeches for each wedding. It serves as a dynamic, constantly evolving plan that guides our work. It is maintained by the relationship manager, who works closely with the couple who are the key stakeholders. The backlog is divided into smaller, manageable chunks. In the world of agile software development, teams often divide work into 'epics', which are further divided into 'stories' which are in turn divided into tasks. In our implementation we talk about weddings, speeches and tasks. During each sprint, the team selects a set of user stories from the backlog to work on and endeavours to complete them by the end of the sprint.

The Sprint Planning meeting brings the speechwriting team and the 'business owner' together to plan the upcoming sprint. During the meeting, the team discusses the goals of the sprint, the tasks needed to achieve those goals, and the estimated time required to complete each task. The team also decides on the priority of the tasks and the order in which they will be completed. By the end of the meeting, the team have a clear plan for the sprint and are ready to begin working towards the sprint goals.

This is the phase where all the work gets done. It includes the day-to-day tasks of the team for the two week duration of our sprints. These include:

• schedule interviews, meetings and other sessions (including into later sprints)
• conduct interviews/speaker debriefs
• write first drafts of each speech
• run an internal 'Table Read' where the team can try out the draft speeches in the correct order. They will then rework the speeches based on the learnings from the Table Read meeting.
• share drafts with the speakers, collect their feedback, and make edits accordingly
• get sign-off on any speeches that are ready by the end of the sprint

The team also meet on a daily basis for a brief 'stand up' meeting (some call it a 'daily scrum').

After the speeches have been signed off, the coaching phase can start. This will focus in part on the speech (where to pause..) and in part on improving the skills of the speaker. This latter part is not normally necessary for all speakers.

Coaching is not time-bound to a sprint and will be conducted on a schedule based on how much time remains until the wedding, and the needs of the speaker.

During the Sprint review, we focus on the work that has been completed during the sprint, and tell the business owner where we stand with the other weddings and speeches in the pipeline.

The sprint retrospective meeting is a reflection session held at the end of each sprint. The team reflects on the sprint, identifies what went well, and what needs improvement. The goal of this meeting is to improve our process, and gather any suggestions the team might have for improved ways of working/new tools etc.

The ultimate tool we have to improve the quality of our output is to find out how the speeches were received by the audience at the wedding reception. We will therefore follow up with the key stakeholders of the wedding to find out how it went after the wedding.