Eleven Lessons Learned from an Agile Hardware Transformation
Details
Our Agile & Scaled-Value Project Management Meetup hour in September 2026 is scheduled for Thursday, September 17th, 2026.
Time: 12:00 pm PT/2:00 pm CT/3:00 pm ET
Topic: "Eleven Lessons Learned from an Agile Hardware Transformation"
Our Guest Speaker: Dr. Kevin Thompson
This meetup will be in a "HYBRID" setting!
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Onsite (In Person):
Venue address: 4 N 2nd St, San Jose, CA 95113 [10th floor, Room# 1045]
Seats are available at the venue on a first-come, first-served basis.
Online:
The Zoom link will be visible to those who R.S.V.P. as "Attending".
Pls. Note: To protect privacy and ensure a smooth session flow, we request that attendees refrain from using AI-assistive recording or note-taking tools during the meetup session. Thank you.
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An introduction to the meetup:
Can Scrum really work for hardware development? This presentation answers that question through a case study of an Agile transformation at Thermo Fisher Scientific involving the development of a new mass spectrometer. The engagement provided an opportunity to test predictions from my eighteen-month research project on Agile methods for hardware development. The presentation summarizes eleven practical lessons about what translates directly from Scrum, what had to be changed, and why.
Takeaways:
- Scrum itself translates surprisingly well to hardware development.
- Many software-oriented Scrum practices must be replaced with hardware-appropriate alternatives.
- Hardware work can be decomposed into Sprint-sized, testable deliverables.
- Cross-functional teams remain a key ingredient for successful Agile development.
Our Speaker:
Dr. Kevin Thompson holds a Ph.D. in Physics and has worked as a scientific researcher, software developer, project manager, Scrum Master, Agile consultant, and trainer. He has led Agile transformations across more than 100 engineering organizations, with a particular focus on hardware and embedded-systems development. He is the author of the book Solutions for Agile Governance in the Enterprise, and specializes in helping engineering organizations adapt Agile methods to complex hardware environments.