Eleven Lessons Learned from an Agile Hardware Transformation

About this event

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 (https://linkedin.com/in/kevinthompsonphd) This meetup will be in a "HYBRID" setting! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- 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. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- 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: 1. Scrum itself translates surprisingly well to hardware development. 2. Many software-oriented Scrum practices must be replaced with hardware-appropriate alternatives. 3. Hardware work can be decomposed into Sprint-sized, testable deliverables. 4. Cross-functional teams remain a key ingredient for successful Agile development. Our Speaker: Dr. Kevin Thompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinthompsonphd/) 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 (https://kevinthompsonphd.com). He is the author of the book Solutions for Agile Governance in the Enterprise (https://www.amazon.com/Solutions-Agile-Governance-Enterprise-SAGE/dp/0578420589), and specializes in helping engineering organizations adapt Agile methods to complex hardware environments.