Welcome back to another week at www.implementingscrum.com.So there are a few different ways a Scum Team can get started.This week, we examine what is called the “Top Down” approach.Just from the words used to describe this approach makes me feel a little queazy (sick to my stomach).Why?It invokes thoughts of command-and-control organizations, something that has a tough time implementing Scrum — or any new framework / methodology / whatever within their organization.
When the top level “CxO” (”x” can = “Executive” or “Technical” or “Financial” or whatever bigwigs like as their titles) comes up with these great ideas and wants to “push” it down to the people that work for them, a lot of the times the people actually doing the work roll their eyes and think, “Oh, another change of the week.”
And suck it up.
And.
Do it.
Only to the point where things do not break.
And.
They stay under the radar and do not rock the boat.
And.
Are not really productive with this Scrum stuff that is being shoved down their throats.
Yikes.
We have seen this before (in this series of cartoons, you may want to look at the, “You Suck. And Somebody is Sad” entry.
Ouch.
It happens way too often.
And.
There is usually a very large mushroom cloud going off somewhere in the organization.
Then.
Some other “fad” gets brought in to clean up the mess of the last one.
Rinse and Repeat.
Ug.
Frustrating, huh?
I think you can see if you are in an organization that is rolling out Scrum in this fashion….
[political correctness off]
You are screwed.
[political correctness on]
So.
What can you do besides look for another job?
See if you can help actually make it work.
And.
That will be what the next cartoon in this series will address.
Until then, remember.
All is not lost!
Really.
Gotta run!.Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.
You can also enter The Scrum Community to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!
October 1, 2007
Hi all,
Some of you may have noticed last night there may have been a “large” file distributed to you. If that was the case, please accept my apologies.
Now for the good news — all the “original” blog entries are now located here — every entry for the past year (plus!).
I need your assistance please.
If you have a few minutes and notice the “tags” (or categories) in the right column of your screen — please make sure they make sense and/or let me know if they need to be consolidated or updated in any way.
And.
If you are paying attention and reading this (thank you by the way, AGAIN!!!!)…. we now have over 50 cartoons on the site and growing every week. For those of you that do not know, I have co-authored a book with Scott Ambler in the past, and now publishers are starting to show interest in our site to publish as a real book (wahoo!).
I have some ideas I’d love to share and bounce off some people… if you are interested (there is no pay) in becoming a sounding board for some of the ideas, please let me know and we can have some conversations via email or actually talk!
And.
One final request.
The site is growing each week — and I thank you for that! If you can, PLEASE pass this site (even “just” the homepage) to your friends and co-workers anywhere in the world. I will continue to appreciate it. We are translated in almost a dozen languages so far, with plenty more opportunities out there (any takers?).
Hope you have a great day.
- mike vizdos
Welcome back to another week at www.implementingscrum.com.So I do a lot of writing about food. I love food, as anyone who knows me can tell you.
Some of the past postings referencing food include:
1. The Classic Story of the Pig and Chicken [our first comic strip on the site]
2. The Food Factor. Another Metric. [Boy did THIS one get comments!]
3. BBQ Sauce. Sweet or Hot?
4. What’s for Dinner? [my six year old son did the art work]
And now.
This one.
So what does this really have to do about Scrum?
Failure is a good thing in Scrum. Not Food.
It happens all the time — even in “traditional” projects; however, with Scrum, you can fail early and often.
And this is OK.
So how does a team of people in a highly competitive environment — maybe weaning themselves off the command-and-control type management style — actually start working as a team?
Part of the job of a ScrumMaster is to help teams start identifying failures — early and often.
And this is HARD to do.
Really.
So.
One of the techniques I teach people when coaching new teams is something called, “The Failure Bow.” It comes from Improvisational Theater and it helps people ummm, not take themselves so seriously.
Yes. Software Development is a serious game, and should not be taken lightly.
But. And this time I do mean, “But.”
Scrum is about people.
The basic premise of this is the following:
A person on the team screws up. Makes a mistake. Immediately — maybe even during — following the mistake, the person who messed up can throw up their hands and say, “Unexpected Results!”
Now. With a team just started out, this is tough to do. Especially from teams that work in silence today.
In a team that is working well, guess what happens?
People laugh and have fun with it.
And.
The mistake is [usually] not repeated. Because people learn immediately — and move on.
Here is an exercise I do with teams (usually when either starting a new team or at a Retrospective):
Everyone stand up. And think about something that they have screwed up recently (they do not have to share this with anyone).
Now, make an exaggerated gesture about how you feel. And walk around the room talking to people about something in using that gesture.
It sometimes results in laughter, but most of the time it is quiet and subdued in the room.
Now.
Think of the same thing you recently screwed up.
Put your hands up and go around the room talking to others with your hands raised over your head.
Start each greeting with, “Unexpected Results!”
Wow.
The room erupts in laughter and noise.
And people see the point.
Usually (smile).
Hope this helps in some situations. It does for me often. Maybe because I screw up a lot (I mean learn!).
Gotta run!.
Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.
You can also enter The Scrum Community to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!
September 24, 2007
Hi all,
I am in Boston now (got in this morning) and will be at the SD Best Practices Conference through Friday afternoon, and speaking on Friday morning about Scrum in the Real World. If you are attending and want to meet — or have people from your organization here — please let them know to stop by and say, “Hi.”
This week Tony and I complete the last of a three part series on Retrospectives. Part one is here and part two is there (smile).
First, let me ask you a question — what do you see when you look at this cartoon strip?
Really think about it.
There is no right or wrong answer. Your objective and subjective opinion matters.
Now, lets take a moment to step back and see what the team has come up with. OK, so the team right now is you, and use me as the facilitator.
Make a list of what you think these are. Go ahead. Nobody is watching you, its OK.
If you have done the exercise above, take a moment and step back (take some time) to reflect on the different pictures that have been developed from your list.
Take some time and think about them.
Close your eyes — do not fall asleep — and visualize this. Open them when you are done so you can continue reading this blog entry!
Hmmm.
The list may be pretty long.
Maybe take the top two or three things on the list you created.
Can you use them to make a difference on what you do daily with Scrum Teams?
What are you personally going to do with this information now?
Thank you for taking the time to do this, as I know your time is valuable.
Now.
Guess what we just did?
We used a framework from the book, “Agile Retrospectives, Making Good Teams Great,” by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. Other great books on various agile topics can be found here.
The framework has five things — and go back up (now that you have the list) — to help you get the most from your retrospectives.
- Set the Stage
- Gather Data
- Generate Insights
- Decide What to Do
- Close the Retrospective.
Wow.
You can also enter The Scrum Community to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!
September 17, 2007
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