The case: The client is a consulting company experiencing a phase of growth and transformation.

To improve its ability to respond to change and increase project quality, the company decided to independently introduce the Scrum framework, starting with a pilot project for an important customer, with the goal of progressively extending the framework to other initiatives.

During the pilot project, several issues emerged due to a misinterpretation of key agile concepts, ultimately leading to an interruption of the project.

PMProgetti’s intervention: We began by working closely with the Project Manager and the Team to build a shared understanding of the agile philosophy and the principles behind Scrum. Establishing common ground and a clear vision of what it truly means to work in an agile way was essential. Many misunderstandings surfaced during the training sessions, which allowed us to clarify several aspects related to the agile mindset.

Together with the client, we reorganized the project team, focusing not only on technical aspects but also on collaborative culture and shared responsibility. After the training phase, we supported the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Team through targeted coaching activities, guiding them through the first project Sprints, helping them gain confidence in their new roles, and turning theory and tools into daily practice.

After a few Sprints, the Team began to operate autonomously, showing greater confidence, fluidity, transparency, and adaptability. Scrum events started to make sense, and the Team’s improvement became clearly visible.

At that point, our focus shifted to scalability: how to extend the Scrum approach to other project initiatives while maintaining consistency, quality, and value. We realigned the company’s PMO, defined an agile project methodology framework aligned with the organization’s project lifecycle, and supported the Management team in adopting a leadership style more suitable for agile projects. For scalability, we referred to the Nexus and SAFE frameworks.

The case: The client is a group of consulting companies. The organization decided to introduce the Scrum framework for software project development across all companies in the group (more than 80).

However, the contracts with their Clients follow a traditional plan‑driven lifecycle. Therefore, project and service contracts need to be redefined according to Agile principles.

PMProgetti's intervention: After delivering Scrum framework training for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers, and supporting many professionals (over 2,000 people) in achieving PSM‑I, PSPO‑I, and PSD‑I certifications, we were asked to provide support in adapting proposals and contracts to the Agile framework.

Our work focused on redefining the structure of technical and financial proposals in alignment with Agile principles.

We proposed a multi‑level (multi‑tier) structure consisting of:

• a Master Service Agreement section containing the fixed elements of the proposal/contract,
• a Service Category section grouping the variable elements, and
• a Statement of Work (SOW) section detailing the dynamic elements.

Milestones and payment terms were reorganized to emphasize the actual Value delivered.

For certain types of Time and Materials contracts, we introduced the concept of graded Time and Materials, linking the quality and timeliness of the work performed to the economic compensation, including a bonus for early delivery and a reduction for late delivery.

For managing Change Requests, we proposed the Dynamic Scope Option, which allows scope adjustments and innovation funding at specific moments while limiting the supplier’s risk.

Finally, we emphasized the partnership relationship by introducing schemes to manage early contract termination, with the goal of maximizing project value for the Client and strengthening the supplier group’s presence through the acquisition of additional business.

The case: The client is a company in the mechanical engineering sector that decided to develop an IT system to manage the administrative activities of its maintenance technicians (over 1,000 technicians distributed across Italy).
The project was assigned to an ICT consulting firm, which proposed an application based on a workflow management system.
The first phase of the project, carried out using a plan‑driven (waterfall) lifecycle, encountered several critical issues, and the relationship with the ICT provider had deteriorated. However, the system still needed to be completed, and the client decided to implement improvements to make it usable. Both the client and the provider (the ICT consulting firm) had many doubts about how to proceed.

PMProgetti's intervention: After discussions with both the client and the ICT provider, we proposed changing the project approach and adopting a change‑driven (agile) lifecycle based on the Scrum framework. Neither the client nor the ICT provider had prior experience with Scrum. A certified PMProgetti consultant took on the role of Scrum Master.

The Scrum Master began by organizing a workshop to introduce Agile concepts, set up the project parameters (defining roles, Sprints, the Definition of Done, the Roadmap, the Product Backlog, etc.), and - most importantly - rebuild the project team by involving both the client and the ICT provider. At the beginning, doubts were many, and skepticism on both sides was strong and evident.

However, after the first two Sprints, the joint project team (client and provider) had overcome the main issues that had emerged in the previous phase: roles were clear, the agile management of change requests made the project more flexible, the quality of both the project and the product improved, the team was following the roadmap precisely and keeping its commitments, and requirements analysis had significantly improved.

The second phase of the project was completed on time and within budget, even while managing several unforeseen changes along the way. In the final retrospective, both the client and the provider (especially the provider’s team) were visibly satisfied with the results, and the client decided to continue working with the provider. One sentence from the client particularly struck us: “This project was simple, but we would never have achieved this result without this Scrum Master.”