Without further ado, I present to you the cast and characters of the site www.implementingscrum.com. Think I missed something or need things to be added? Please let me know!
Otherwise, please enjoy and drive responsibly….
ScrumMaster
Our intrepid ScrumMaster is very passionate about his work. Scrum is not just “work” to him — it is a way of life. While gentle and thoughtful most of the time, he has his moments and gets on his soap-box every once in a while. In life outside of being a trainer, he has a wife and family, a dog, and 3.14784845 other various pets (on average). He also is a Certified Scrum Trainer and loves traveling the world spreading his larger mistakes (which, by the way, sometimes teach you the most). He is very introverted and an ex-command-and-control-a-holic.
Chicken
This is your typical stakeholder. If there is such a thing. Others may see the Chicken as their manager (we may add a character to the cast in the future if the Chicken Role needs a specific stand-in). Either way, Chicken does really try to “get it” and is continually looking to learn to improve. And, most of the time, the Chicken takes things out of context and winds up getting the Pig in some type of trouble in the future by their collective actions. Chicken is single (spends a lot of time on the net and playing World of WarCraft and searching for Jessica Alba pictures) and is always looking for other available Chickens who have not had their heads cut-off just yet.
Pig
The Pig in this series is a hard working team member. With real life issues at stake. Unfortunately, as true many times in life, the Pig winds up taking the fall (or blame) when things go horribly wrong. Yet the Pig stays with it. And gets results. Pig is a widow and lost its mate on a trip to the Dole Pineapple Farm during a VIP Pig Roast in Hawaii; no further comments can be made on this impending action. One other fact — since inheriting the insurance money, Pig REALLY does not have to actually “work” for a living. Hmmm…. will it one day walk out, or continue to stay and learn — or teach — as the case may be?
Product Owner
The Product Owner does a great job shielding the team from the outside noise of what the team needs to get done on a daily basis. Is this the right person for the role? This is something teams continually must address with the person in that role. When originally casting for this position, I had a super-hot model-type in mind; however, as with all casting calls, it wound up that this Product Owner REALLY was the right person for the role (OK… so in reality Tony (the illustrator) voted against this — something I will have to thank him for someday!). Semi-clueless on life (we actually do not know anything about his life outside of work at this point in time); however, this Product Owner understands his business like nobody else we know… which makes him an awesome Product Owner. And he knows that working with all the outside stakeholders on a project sucks (in real life too sometimes!); however, the team respects him and looks to him for priortization of the Product Backlog and being collocated with the team throughout the day to answer any questions they may have. See — he really is awesome!
Ken
Every methodology, framework, or process [whatever you want to "call" Scrum] needs a thought-leader. The other characters look to him occasionally for his “by the book” answers. All in fun, of course. And please do not ask me if the man wears black turtle necks to bed… you will have to ask his wife that one (smile… because you see, I have never had a “Ken Sighting” without him in his trademarked black turtleneck top).
Scott
His name is Scott Ambler and he has been one of my personal mentors for many years. We co-wrote a book a few years ago and have traveled to some pretty cool places on the globe over the years. In addition to Scott being a friend and mentor, he has also published about 20 books (either as author or co-author) and now, as he likes to say, “IBM joined me.” He now works for IBM as an Agile Practice Lead (pretty cool job I think) and we still keep in touch. His profile can be found at www.ambysoft.com/scottAmbler.html.
So why have I included him as a character on this site? He knows a lot about various different agile methodologies. In fact, he is the leader in the industry on a lot of them (because like Ken Schwaber, Scott Ambler has helped get the word out about different agile software development methods.
And.
He is a bit on the controversial side. For instance, he is not a big fan of the current certification model that I (and others) teach; this should add some good content for the cartoons (smile). Sorta like I approach things in life. Coincidence? Hmmm.
Gotta run…
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April 23, 2007
Updated:
January 7, 2008
OK quick question here. Can the PO also be the ScrumMaster on the same project? We’re a small business so we have the same guy (me) playing both roles.
Eh…. The ScrumMaster and PO should NOT be the same person. Wow… Sorry it took so long to see this comment (strange). Please take a look at how I do Scrum Solo as an example. The problem is they have conflicting needs — the reality in small companies is this sometimes has to happen. What can you do to overcome this?