Welcome back to another day at www.implementingscrum.com.
Today, as promised, I will tell you about the exercise related to the cartoon this week (see above and yesterday for more information).
This is an exercise I normally do at a Certified ScrumMaster Workshop on the first morning of the first day; the main reason for doing this is because it drives home a lot of different points that I can then reference as the workshop continues.
It is that powerful.
And.
It is easy to do.
There are three steps to this exercise, and this is not something that I have invented alone.
Today I will talk about the three steps and tomorrow I will debrief about the different sections of what has actually occurred. This is also an example of what I do in real life (smile) with my workshops and exercises.
Step one is to break the team into “managers” (chickens) and “workers” (pigs).
They can self select. One of the first lessons with Scrum and Agile in general (smile).
This is also a good introduction to the terminology of chickens and pigs, along with their “old” versus “new” roles.
The managers are given instructions that they can only tell the worker what to do. The goal is to go sixty paces in about a minute (sometimes two depending on the number of attendees). They can tell the worker to go left, right, forward, backwards, stop, or go. They may not touch the worker.
The worker must listen to all instructions from the boss/manager without question. A pace is a regular pace and people are not allowed to skimp on any of these paces (understand?).
A few things to “prepare” for this: Setup the room beforehand with some masking tape on the floor. People are not allowed outside these boundaries. They can also (for later) represent something very important to the team — organizational constraints.
Say “start” and keep time.
One more thing (ug) — you can become a “barrier” if people are progressing too quickly. This is fun. Heh. Really.
After the time is up, have everyone stop where they are.
Most of the class does not get to sixty paces.
This is normal.
Step two in this exercise is to allow all the people to self organize and get to sixty paces.
It usually takes about thirty seconds from the time you say “start” until the time the team completes this part of the exercise.
When people are done, have them stop and raise their hands.
This third part is the beauty of the exercise and brings home some other points — of which I will write more about tomorrow. I need you to keep coming back and learning more with me!
Ask for people in the room who were born on a even day. Realistically this winds up being less than a third of the attendees.
Now.
Tell them they are blind.
And.
The team must self organize to make sure everyone goes sixty paces.
And.
Nobody can get hurt in the process.
When they are all done (keep a time limit of a minute or two again if needed), have the people sit down at their original seats.
Tomorrow I will go through the questions and answers I debrief with the attendees.
At least the beginning ones.
The lessons learned in this exercise are used throughout the remainder of the Certified ScrumMaster workshop.
Think about the questions that you may have when doing this exercise, and what, as a ScrumMaster working with a team, the implications would be.
Have a great day or evening and I will have more information tomorrow for you.
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!
December 11, 2007
Welcome back to another week at www.implementingscrum.com.
Welcome back!
This is an exercise that has evolved over the years of me teaching the Certified ScrumMaster Workshop (by myself and with others).
First let me explain the “idea” behind this cartoon (smile).
I recently spent some time back down in Boca Raton to see my parents (and have my boys spend time with their grandparents); for those of you who have not heard of it, let’s just say its where a lot of people go to retire — what a place for me to grow up! My father told me about a new law passed in Florida — and I am not kidding — that says a dog can not be considered a “second passenger” for the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lane (where vehicles with 2 or more people can drive on the highway because it is “faster” in lots of traffic).
Aneeeeway…. this brought me to a funny conclusion of, “What if the dog was a seeing eye dog?”
See the humor in it?
OK. It is pretty weak and not intended to tick off any person who is blind. Really.
The point is (finally Mike!)…. sometimes on a team you will have people that do not have a clue of what is happening around them. They do not see things that have happened in the past.
And.
This happens a lot of times when teams are either forming or add new people onto their existing Scrum Teams.
Wow.
So one of the exercises I do in the Certified ScrumMaster Workshops is the following:
WAIT.
I will post the exercise tomorrow.
Before reading the post tomorrow — THINK about what this can mean to your team, organization, and enterprise!
Wow.
More tomorrow on this.
I promise!
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!
December 10, 2007
Welcome back to another week at www.implementingscrum.com.
Thanks for sticking with us last week. We lost a few subscribers but by the end of the week we saw a large net increase. So thank you for helping me get the word out on this site and blog.
I also got some great feedback and ideas for content in the future.
Keep it coming please.
This week we conclude the three part series on the process of hiring a new ScrumMaster.
Part one is here.
Part two is here.
Part three is below (smile).
Part one talked about what a typical HR department posts when frankly, they are clueless on what they really need. The point here is to remember to work with the people posting the positions to make it realistic to what your team is looking to hire.
Really.
Part two talked about the interviewing process. Wow. This can be complicated – for both the potential scrummaster and the team that person may be working with.
Make it fun if you can.
Notice in the comic strip this week that the chicken did not make the final call for selecting a ScrumMaster.
Who should?
The pigs (or the scrum team).
Really.
Why?
Remember this person who will be filling the role of a ScrumMaster for the team is going to be working with the team on a daily basis.
What does a certified ScrumMaster do?
It depends on the circumstance. As I was reminded in a comment from my last comic strip (see the comment at the bottom and feel free to add to it!).
Some teams may actually like and receive a ScrumMaster who professes Scrum as the Silver Bullet.
Personally… I have not seen this work effectively; however, remember that is what I have found working with the teams around the world.
Remember though… everyone is different and we need to remember situations and teams need different things depending on their — or your — needs.
The last part of this comic strip talks about the possible need for a ScrumMaster to have to sit through the class for training anyway (and no it is not just to learn the “Secret Handshake of a ScrumMaster” (sigh).
Or.
Whatever training the Organization requires.
Read that last sentence and remember it!
Sometimes it is like the Dilbert comic I think many people have seen (and sent me!) this week. More on that later I think (smile)… this posting is long enough for today!
So.
What are you going to do differently when hiring your next ScrumMaster?
Anything?
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!
December 3, 2007
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