Instead of releasing everything to you on a Monday, the plan now is to get the comic strip out on Monday and then write a bit more about it each day of the week. This will allow both me and you a few advantages.

First, you can get your Monday fix of the comic.

Second, it will allow me to ease off the pressure of having to deliver everything in one big up front design. Wow. Sound familiar? This is one of the things agile promotes; so in reality, I will start eating my own dog food.

We will both learn more in the process. Let’s hope.

So today’s comic is meant to invoke some answers to the age-old (OK, since 1990-ish) question, What is Scrum?

There has been a lot written about what is — and is not — Scrum. During this week I will give you my thoughts about what is out there, and what still must be addressed.

Sound fair? Let’s see how it goes. Oh, and thanks again for joining me on this journey.

[tangent on]

Scrum is a journey actually… and there is no “end point.” This is something to remember as you either start or continue to practice this way of working (don’t want to say “life” because I *do* promote a work/life balance and I do not want to sound uber-cultish like some of the uber-Scrum-People out there).

[tangent off]

This comic portrays what typical people around the world think of when they hear the word Scrum.

In the first panel, generally people outside the USA think of Scrum as something that happens in a Rugby match. You can read more about it at www.scrum.com [I have no relationship with that site]. I cannot even pretend to understand it (much like cricket or football (what we Americans call Soccer)), except that it looks like at least three people trying to cram at least one other person up another poor soul’s posterior.

Ouch. I guess some would call that fun.

I’d say let’s just skip to drinking some Guinness.

To the average Joe (or Jane) American, I generally get a look of, “Huh?” followed by glazed-over-eyes when I try explaining it. I’ll address more later, but suffice it to say that even if one were to look on www.wikipedia.org for a definition, the closest to a non-Rugby or non-IT answer again lies in something pretty gross…

“A slang term in American English for the perineum.”

Umm, if you need to look that word up, go ahead. For those of you who have had a baby or have had the [opportunity] to see one (or more) being born, you may know what it is. OK, so not gross, but pretty explicit. Strange thing though…. I am an American and have NEVER heard that used as a slang term before. Maybe I just do not hang with the “right” group of people (or maybe thankfully I do and just don’t realize it!).

Finally, the last panel shows what a lot of the IT community — internationally — now knows. It (Agile, Scrum, etc.) is a good thing to have on your resume. Even if it means getting calls from a software company that produces some product called “agile” or hearing from recruiters all around saying, “Hi, I have the perfeeeeeeeccccttttt position for you.” Only to the point I ask them what it actually “is — and they cannot answer. Or make something up. Click. That noise they usually hear is the dial tone. To tie in the above references about shoving people where the sun does not shine and the perineum, think about this… who’s posterior gets routed on IT projects when they do not get delivered? Heh.

This is a good start. More coming soon to a web browser near you.Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here. You can also enter The Scrum Community to discuss this cartoon and other Scrum topics. Thank you!