Specimens, Sprints, and Scrum Masters: Project Management at the Museum für Naturkunde

Project Management: Scrum, Agile, Kanban, sprints. These words might sound out of place in a natural history museum, but at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN), we’re experimenting with project management tools that can work beyond the tech world. Our Digital Catalog Infrastructure team includes developers, data managers, media managers, and digitization managers, all working toward building and maintaining the systems that support the museum’s digital data landscape. To manage this complexity, we introduced Scrum practices in a workplace not traditionally built for agile methods. As certified Scrum Masters, we adapted agile principles to fit our museum context: introducing short iterations (sprints), structured meetings, and sprint planning boards to organize priorities and improve communication across groups. This presentation shares our lessons learned: What worked, what didn’t, and how we balanced flexibility with structure to keep the team aligned. We aim to show that, with the right approach, agile methods can bring clarity, focus, and momentum to even the most traditional scientific institutions.

Видео Specimens, Sprints, and Scrum Masters: Project Management at the Museum für Naturkunde канала Living Data 2025