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So.

A few weeks ago had someone in a class explain this. He was trained as an Antropologist — not a software developer.

Interesting dude. Really.

Let’s say your current organizational system is like a river flowing down stream.

How rough varies.

Introduce change.

Any change.

Just one.

Scrum for example (funny how that gets worked into this conversation, eh?).

Pretend that change is a boat (or canoe, as drawn!).

Insert a Chicken and Pig for some humor (smile).

Following along with me?

Now.

Paddle.

What happens when you stop paddling?

The river flushes you back down stream.

That’s the gist.

Easy brilliance.

Does this apply in your current situation?

If you are about to just embark on this journey, remember to always keep paddling!

Stop paddling and you have made a choice to give it up — and make room for something else to take its place.

Gotta run… Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

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Wahoo. We made it another week and did not wind up six feet under or having our ashes spread in some remote location of the world. In other words… yipee… we all made it another week to see another great cartoon and continue learning.

OK… so the title of this one is a little twisted. OK. A lot twisted. I guess I should have named it “The ScrumMaster Guide to Picking Up Filing Cabinets” but then who would really want to read about that?

This week I am writing about something that all people playing the role of ScrumMaster must be aware of.

Actually, I’d consider it important for the ScrumMaster on a team to help show the Team Members and Product Owner — through example — what to do when you are in over your head and really need help.

How many times have you been in a situation where you felt like you had to “wing it” or “fake” an answer?

We have learned that as a Product Owner, that can have dire consequences for the team.

Instead of “faking it” or “winging it” or “making up an answer” the Product Owner should feel safe enough to say to the team, “I do not know, but I will find out and get back to you in the agreed upon time.”

And then do that.

Guess what following through on promises helps build?

Trust.

Really.

The agreed upon time should be something that is ummm…. agreed upon by the team — maybe as one of the team norms that are posted on the wall of your team room.

You have those, don’t you?

Right next to the Burndown Chart and team Definition of Done, right (smile)?

So what can the ScrumMaster do to help show the team that they do not know everything (really… we do not!) and sometimes we need to bring in outside help.

Think about Retrospectives.

And.

What if the ScrumMaster is part of the problem in the current system?

You know the answer.

Get help.

Really.

Ask someone else to facilitate the Retrospective.

I have written about this in the past, but have been recently reminded how important this is for all roles of the Scrum Team.

Wow.

Something as simple as asking for help.

That simple.

But.

It does not get performed enough.

As a ScrumMaster, how can you make some simple changes on a daily basis to show the team how to become the best they possibly can?

Remember that the implementation of Scrum should sometimes be taken in small baby steps.

Which small baby step can you take today?

Please share them with us in the comments or on the forum.

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

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So last week the post was a little long, and I put out some real life information that hit home hard for me. I received a ton of great feedback and people offering a lot of great advice. One thing I do want to make clear is that client was not my only client — something I have learned to not do in the past (depend on 1 client 100% of the time). As a consultant, this is a position you want to get yourself into. Really. Look at me as an example!

This week.

Um.

Where is our “old” ScrumMaster?

I kinda liked him. He was a little “off” at times; however, he started to grow on me and help with a lot of examples.

He seems to have disappeared last week.

Seems to have gotten himself whacked by some shady characters.

Oh no.

What has Tony done. What have I done?

At this point, there is now a [hot] ScrumMaster who has no problem saying, “Yes” to anything and everything asked of her.

Um.

Is this dangerous?

One word.

YES.

Notice the usage of capital letters above.

YES I AM YELLING THIS TO YOU THIS IS DANGEROUS.

I am trying to make a point (smile).

And, you may be asking yourself, “Mike… What point are you trying to make this week?”

Really?

You do not see it?

Look hard.

Read the comic strip above again, and again, and again.

Then, send me an e-mail (or write a comment on this blog entry) about what you think it means.

Really.

C’mon.

Take action and do it.

It will take you less than three minutes.

Please.

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

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This is a hard story to tell.

You may want to grab some Kleenex.

OK.

It is not that bad.

But you may want to read this through a few times and pass it on to people in your organization.

There are some great lessons learned (for me anyway).

Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent.

But.

It is a story that must be told.

Since.

Well.

It involves me.

As the ScrumMaster.

And.

I wound up becoming a “Dead” ScrumMaster today.

How did that happen?

About three weeks ago I got called into meet with the CIO of a large private company somewhere on this planet (actually it was through someone who knew him and I and trusted us both).

The company is professing itself as “Doing Agile” and has a few small projects started up.

The CIO had a particular project in mind [for me] and we spent about a half an hour having a conversation about what he wanted me to do, and discussing some of the implications (including implosion of the project).

Basically at the end of the conversation my direction was set — in the next day and a half… figure out fast how to make the biggest impact.

Boy.

I guess I did. In retrospect.

You see, the project they were getting ready to kick off as “Agile” was still not an officially funded project.

Read that last sentence loud and clearly — they had no approved budget. This was all supposedly under the radar.

So, as with a lot of organizations, people spent months and many many many hours creating the “perfect” power point presentation for their senior leadership team to review. This was prior to me coming in.

It was not good enough yet, and the team had two weeks to clean up the presentation.

I boldly asked for a team that could produce some working software during those two weeks, while the parallel effort of the funding presentation went on.

We started gaining the needed resources (wow.. did I say resources [yes… PEOPLE and the other stuff to DO a project??!!) and ideas.

We were going to take their highest priority customer and run a [one] real transaction set through a real working architecture (not on power point).

It was approved by a VP on Friday afternoon, just before a holiday weekend. I went home excited.

I arrived back on Tuesday morning and the team starting getting wind of this, and we got together in the afternoon to talk about what would happen in the next 8 business days.

Lots of blank stares and smiles, but people started getting excited.

It was something the team could focus on.

Technical people working on technical stuff — not power point presentations.

We reviewed the basics of Scrum and that during the next two weeks we would get a course — by doing the work — on what it looks like to actually do it.

Once we delivered, we would have a Retrospective and see what we could improve once the project was funded and actually “officially” started.

We talked a little about User Stories — this is a Use Case shop — and we wound up writing very basic user stories that were tasked out. No owners, no estimates. This is “normal” [real world] from what I see on the first cut in situations [and timing] like this.

Should I have put a stop to the project (or un-project) then? I made a call not to do that.

We went home.

The next morning we had a temporary conference room and we had an effective stand-up meeting.

Kept it at 15 minutes.

People were off and doing real work.

It was cool to see. I stood back.

We had an impediment with getting some dev machines that was taken care of by the team and outside stakeholders in an incredibly quick manner. Kudos for getting that first impediment out of the way!

The parallel process of getting the project funded (via the power point presentation) was happening outside of the room.

We started talking about the “Cone of Uncertainty.”

I left town that evening and the team worked for two days focusing on the tasks and items on the wall.

All highly visible to the people walking into the room (or by it).

The team got moved around a bit each day, but we had our eye on one room for the “final week” of this part of the project (or is that pre-proect?).

Not all the team members were there all the time. Hmmm…

Stand-ups stayed focused and on track. No more three hour status meetings to schedule status meetings with the entire team.

People (including me) were calling in if they could not be physically located in the team room.

I arrived the next Monday morning to the new location for the team. It was “ours” for the week. The five business days remaining on this part of the project.

New building. But we could have all the players collocated in one room or on the phone. Things were humming along.

Impediments came up and were handled by the team. Awesome. We even got a temporary AC unit put in the room to cool us off — 12 people in a small room with lots of computers… you know how that can get.

The parallel process of getting the project funded was happening outside of the room. Still. Small concern, which, in retrospect, I should have dealt with better.

During the few days I was there that week, I did what I told the CIO and others I would be doing — a lot of observation on team interaction.

I did not want to jump in and be the answer man for coding [nor did I really feel like me getting into the code would help anyone — including the people that really needed to be in it (which was awesome to see how people recognized this and stood up and took ownership without being directed!)].

I did a little nudging along the way to fill out the task cards with owners and estimates (so we could start having what looked like a Burn Down to see what that represents); however, I mainly stayed out of the way and let the technical team dive in and watch them do what many thought to be impossible.

The goal now was to deliver working software, not a methodology (a tough balance in this situation).

Get to “Done.”

Before leaving, the Project Manager and I came up with a plan for the following week.

Assuming the project was funded, the Project Manager would start assembling the team and getting them lined up to start the “real work” the next week (people had to be lined up to work on this project).

I would not be on site this week, and meeting notices started coming into my inbox as expected and according to our plan.

Then, Thursday night I get a call telling me the client probably does not want me back. It came to fruition today.

Partly because I “sat in the corner” watching.

Partly because people heard me say things that did not tow the party line (and I did not do the Schwaber, “You Suck and that makes me Sad“).

Partly because I did not code.

Partly because I was not engaged with that team doing the request for outside funding.

I am sure there are a lot of reasons.

Go back and notice a key role missing. One that was unfortunately a key to this part of the success — or lack thereof — of this part of the project.

I did not do a good job of managing and communicating expectations with all of the stakeholders — known and unknown.

Funny thing happened though.

I hear the team delivered working software.

And.

I had a lot of great conversations with the people on the team and saw negative energy transform into a powerful focus of delivering working code in a very short period of time.

Is it perfect?

No.

Is it something they can show to outside stakeholders that has true business value for them today?

I think so.

So in part I have failed that team, and I am sorry. I am doing the failure bow now — hoping they understand.

And.

I have learned [again] that any ScrumMaster can be taken out and shot at any time.

Hopefully this is a lesson learned that does not happen to you.

It has happened to me before.

And.

Will again.

I do this at a lot of places around the world, and I know I cannot please everyone all the time.

Is it any wonder that most teams fail using Scrum?

Yet.

I try.

As do others.

Yet.

I will not blow smoke or be a “yes man” (or woman, as in the last panel of this cartoon).

And.

I am OK with that.

In some places people call this career suicide — so YOU be careful.

Read this lesson.

Read this real world situation.

And.

Talk about it with other another ScrumMaster or two or three in your organization.

Talk about it with your stakeholders.

Talk about it with your Scrum Team.

Talk about it with your Product Owner.

Talk.

Have the conversations.

BEFORE things implode on you.

Because remember.

A Dead ScrumMaster is a useless ScrumMaster.

I am going to go eat some humble pie and hope that someone learns something from this posting.

I apologize if it was a long one this week.

Lots for me to learn.

Still.

I may post more on this during the week.

And if you want to hire me (smile)….

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

Interested in becoming a Certified Scrum Master?
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This is the conclusion of a three part series for the week. It has been interesting for me to write and people have written me some great emails about their thoughts on this.

Thank you.

Two nights ago I posted the first of three comic strips by a guest artist (my son Dominic). You can view that here if you have not already seen it. Part two is here. Please remember that our awesome guest artist is turning eight very soon — and drawing is one of his passions.

So take a look back at the first two panels of the series for the week. I’ll wait.

The first is where the Chicken asks the age old question.

The second, well, the Chicken get attacked by what I will call “reality.”

And.

Reality happens all the time in each of our lives.

Really.

I guess that is why they call it reality.

This final panel shows that Pig (team member) has the back of the Chicken.

What does this mean?

Think about it.

Without the Chickens — or possibly outside stakeholders in your world — the project would probably never have been funded.

Or.

Continued to be funded.

Remember, in an agile world funding really should depend on a team delivering potentially shippable software each iteration.

This is tough to do.

And.

Chickens can help the Pigs remove the impediments.

So.

Why should Chickens and Pigs work together?

Hmmmm.

This panel of the cartoon shows that while the Chicken is being attacked by their monsters (outside the project room where the Pigs are working on the Sprint Backlog), the Pigs (team members) see that sometimes they need to step-up and actually help the Pigs “fight” the monsters.

Even if sometimes the Pigs are left for dead.

Huh?

Think about how this can be applied to what is happening on your team today.

It really and truly is a symbiotic relationship.

That must be fostered.

Who’s responsibility is this?

Think about that and talk to your team about it.

And remember both need the other to survive.

Hope this helps!

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

Interested in becoming a Certified Scrum Master?
Come to my next workshop!

This week is a bit different than the usual…. whatever that may be (smile).

Last night I posted the first of three comic strips by a guest artist (my son Dominic). You can view that here if you have not already seen it. Please remember that our awesome guest artist is turning eight very soon — and drawing is one of his passions.

So.

In the first part of this series, the Chicken looked into the mirror and saw a monster.

Something that the Chicken may or may not have wanted to face.

But.

The question was asked. You know… “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall….”

And.

The mirror answered.

In this part of the cartoon (number 2 of 3), you will notice that the monster is out and attacking the Chicken with full force.

Huh?

What does this mean in the real world?

One interpretation may be that the monsters — let’s possibly call them stakeholders — sometimes are not on the same page as the other Chickens in expectations. And, when it is time to do a Sprint Review, the Chickens may have to face some very difficult questions.

Like, “Who is your Product Owner?”

Like, “What the heck do you think you are doing?”

Like, “Wow. This is the most awesome thing I have ever seen in my entire career since I coded in COBOL in 1963 [expecting emails LOL].”

That last one would be a good monster for those that are paying any attention.

This happens in reality.

At some point, Chickens (and the other roles including ScrumMaster and Product Owner) will have to face down some big monsters.

Possibly, this is because the team has asked them to clear some impediments.

And some impediments are really stinky.

And.

Finally.

Maybe.

Just Maybe.

Someone else on the the team can stand up and help defeat a bad monster for the team. Together.

As a team.

We will cover that topic tomorrow night.

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

Interested in becoming a Certified Scrum Master?
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Tony had the weekend off (his wife / Product Owner took off with some friends) and my son Dominic was very psyched about doing a drawing this week for all of you.

As usual, I gave him a topic and this is his rendition. This comic strip will be given to you over the next three days, in black and white, with no text.

Why?

A few reasons… first…. Dominic was horribly sick this weekend and his daddy (me) is on the road a bit right now. He did an awesome drawing of the series on paper and I was able to bring it with me on the trip for the week. Using the iPhone camera, I took separate pictures of each of the three parts of this comic strip.

Is it perfect? Well… the drawings are. Dominic rocks. The pictures quality (or lower than I expected) is from me; I accept responsibility for that part. They are not optimized for speed of loading, so I also apologize for any “slower” than normal load times.

Is it good enough?

I think so. And that is the reason I wanted to actually use what Dominic and I produced for the week.

I think and hope you will get the message over the next three postings.

Remember. Agile and Scrum concentrates on delivering potentially shippable software.

It is something you and your team can build on.

And.

You should have a place where you and the team can look back (maybe during a retrospective [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]) in a safe environment.

And.

Not do the same mistakes again.

In this first segment, think back to when you were a kid. Yes, I know for some of us this may have been a loooong time ago. But think — and also start thinking of why I am trying to bring a child’s perspective into this series every once in a while.

The Chicken is looking into the mirror — the magic mirror — and asks that question which always gets asked in the story books.

Paraphrasing, it goes something like this: “Mirror Mirror on the wall…. Who is the fairest of them all?”

And.

Honestly.

The majority of times a Chicken never wants to hear the truth.

The “monsters” that get in the way are usually huge.

Really huge.

And ugly.

And, the Pigs and everyone else on the team knows that this is true.

Wow.

So part of the whole thing with Scrum is to talk about Transparency.

The Chicken tonight at the end of the first panel looks into the mirror.

And.

The Chicken does not like what it see’s in the mirror.

Do you?

Really?

More on this tomorrow.

Hang in there with me… and you may be shocked what we each learn.

Trust me.

I have looked long and hard into some of these mirrors.

Recently, in fact.

Sometimes it is easy to get lost in those mirrors. A fun and scary place to be all at once.

And sometimes.

You need to get out.

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

Hi all.

Well, I finally had the idea to try and see if posting any information or videos on YouTube.com would help us spread the word more about Scrum.

So, tonight I had my almost-eight-year-old son (Dominic) and I record a very low-tech version of the cartoon using some audio files and the “original” Chicken an Pig cartoon. Right now, it is mainly a test.

My son and I are willing to post a version of the cartoons with commentary by myself and him on an ongoing basis.

Is this worth our time? My son loves doing this and I think this can add some very new perspectives on Scrum and all we do.

Thoughts?

I’d love to hear your feedback. Please spread the word.

Here is the link to the video:

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

Ok.

OK.

I surrender.

Please.

Let’s stop the misquotes and fires about the virus-like position that has been taken by multiple people I quoted and see if we can come up with an answer that makes sense for all of us.

Especially you — the reader.

If you recall… two nights ago I presented a comic strip and blog entry about something I had seen over the weekend.

Wow.

I did not even come close to expecting the traffic and responses related to that one.

The first response (of many) came in yesterday morning:

Hi Mike,

I didn’t see Jason’s post, but as a preacher’s kid (make that double preacher’s kid) and Scrum Master (woof), I would take Jason’s comments as a complement. I DO think you are like a preacher - but like you said - not preachy, more like a spiritual leader. Scrum and spirituality are very much linked in my mind because of the emphasis on continuous improvement.

As Ghandi said – “Be the change you want in the world.” I believe that you do that by helping people question their beliefs, behaviors and discuss them. Like you, my pastor does not us what to think or how to think it, but ask those probing questions to help us come to our own core values. I find this to be generally true in the UCC – United Church of Christ.

Anyway – I read your site religiously (ha ha). I use your cartoons to prompt discussion and to keep the humor in the air when things get hard. Please continue to post.

Thanks,
Christy Zuzelo

Ohhhhhhhh K. Um….. Daughter of two preachers kids? Yikes. I will not even delve into THAT topic here (smile) but I am sure Christy is a well-adjusted adult who loves my comics.

[Christy thank you for the note — yours was one of many I wanted to post up here as a follow-up!]

So then,

Out of the blue I see this posting. Ashwin has been a great supporter (albeit it quiet up to his posting!) as most of you are.

Really?

You?

Quiet on this topic?

Why?

Plenty of others are joining into the fray..

HL Arlidge here.

And then someone named Ashwin (another long time reader of the blog) posts this entry.

Wow.

Jason Gorman got the guts (this is an Americanism) to put up his original posting with the cartoon, located here.

Phew. I do not need to post it here! I have permission to do so by the way… but go to his site to see what is happening!

Arlin fired more back here.

And then Jason more here.

Following all of this?

Wow.

Will it continue?

Probably.

is this a good thing?

What do you think? Post a comment or on your blog and let me know!

I do understand that getting stuff like this is important to everyone inside — and “outside” the Agile Software Development Community.

And, for the record, check out my posting on “ScrumMaster and Snake Oil.” A fun read. Or at least I think so.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

PS — I may have missed something here. But please post comments to this posting at the end!

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

Hi all.

Well, I was able to tell you a little about my first two days of this week. If you have not seen it, go here.

Upon arriving into Richmond (my home base) at about midnight, i got the opportunity to make the final preparations for the Certified ScrumMaster Workshop I would be delivering on Wednesday and Thursday.

It would be yet another great class where the attendees walked out of there with a new respect (as did I) for what Scrum can and cannot do.

I have done this course around the world and have trained on my own, with one other person, and with two other people.

Wow.

What a change this makes to both the overall presentation and the outcome to the attendees.

Is this bad?

The easy answer to this is, “No.”

Can every Certified Scrum Trainer co-teach with other people?

Nope.

When it works though….

It is like magic.

I have been lucky enough to work with multiple trainers around the would (and most are not CST’s).

Lucky?

Am I nuts?

Think about it.

If some initial ground rules are set between the two or three people training the class — it can be extremely more powerful at the end of the two days for the attendees.

The first sentence of this is important.

And.

This last one with another Certified Scrum Practitioner (who is looking to become a Certified Scrum Trainer) worked out very well. It was, to be 100% transparent, a surprise to me.

While I was initially looking for the art of the possible, I also knew our styles of coaching in the past has been wildly (sometimes) divergent in techniques.

I made a bad assumption.

Wow.

Like a lot of things in real life that we all live in.

The course got great feedback (sorry about the air conditioning versus the constant heater war going on with the HVAC system… we finally (at the end of day 2) were shown how to useeeeeee the system). Sigh.

So now there are about 11 new Certified ScrumMasters running around Virginia in one place or another.

I’d say it was one of my best classes (workshops) to date.

Why?

Well… let me know why you think this is so….

Gotta run….Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Forum to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!