Good day,
Yesterday I promised I would start a difficult conversation for someone out there.
If this one is for you, please use it.
If it is not applicable to you, bag it and save it for the future. And maybe hope it does not happen to you.
The original cartoon and blog entry on the topic of “Done” was one of the first I published on the site. It is something that has been slapping me in the face more and more lately.
Here is one of the difficult conversations you may be facing:
Let’s say you have completed a task on a user story. You are happy to be moving it from “Work in process” to “Done” on your story board.
It is indeed a happy event.
Pause.
Do me a favor.
Walk into a “Best Buy” right when it opens. On a weekday.
If you cannot do that, here is what happens….
Right when the doors open, you have about 15 people (all the staff) standing in the door opening CLAPPING THEIR HANDS as you walk in.
Managers are watching the employees like hawks to make sure they clap.
I am dead serious.
Do this.
And.
Notice something.
While they are clapping at you, they are chatting between themselves, some of them are actually texting their friends on the phone, blowing bubbles with bubble gum, or staring off into space.
And that is just the employees interested in you being there.
While I am sure this is meant to be a great welcoming gesture, it is extremely uncomfortable to both the people walking into the store to buy their headset (or other cool technical crap) and the employees who are being “forced” to do this.
Now.
Back to moving tasks from “Work in Process” to “Done.”
I have seen teams who have been told that “YOU WILL CLAP YOUR HANDS” when tasks are moved to “Done.”
Um.
Do you see a parallel here between Scrum Team Members and Best Buy Employees and their Customers?
If this “Ceremony” does not work for your Scrum Team…
Talk to your outside stakeholders about it.
If you are an outside stakeholder on a Scrum Team who thinks “forcing” people to clap when stories are moved to “Done” is a good thing…
Please please please stop by Best Buy at opening on a weekday and feel the experience.
Remember. Feelings?
They matter.
OK now.
Start talking :).
Let me know how it turns out via comments or email.
Thank you,
- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com
Welcome back to yet another week at www.implementingscrum.com.
I am a bit worried about some of the things I am seeing out there.
Um.
The night before a Sprint Review meeting, I am seeing people stay late.
Uh.
Really late.
Like into the morning before the Sprint Review meeting.
Sometimes, it is minutes before.
Ug.
Oh no.
What does this remind you of?
What is wrong with that picture?
And what is right with the picture above?
Seriously folks.
Don’t kill Scrum this way.
Just go back to whatever you used to call it.
Really.
Or.
Look at what you are really doing.
Remember the objective of Scrum?
Working Software.
On one machine.
Real working software.
Not vaporware or conference-ware or some scripted bla bla bla.
Please.
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!
May 20, 2008
Hi all.
Well I have done quite a bit of traveling around this great planet of ours, and a lot of time spent in the clouds (thinking of course while I fly to destinations afar).
So, tomorrow you are going to see something that I did not think I’d ever see.
We’ll start with the cartoon and try to turn a story around it related to Scrum — something you all know I am good at doing.
And the next night I will send you the inspiration for the cartoon this week.
Wow.
Inspirational?
I hope so LOL.
Thank you,
- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com
Hi all.
Today I’d like to issue you a challenge and follow-through tasks.
The “winners” get bragging rights.
Huh?
OK.
As you may (or may not know) there are a few regular characters in our comic strips. Each of the characters can be found by, “Meeting the Cast.”
Here is what I’d like you to do for me today — if not sooner.
Please.
Head on over to that page and read about what our characters are fleshing out to be (as “real” characters if we can take it that far).
People — it is OK if you do not understand what a “persona” is right now; basically, we want to have a little fun and see what the characters actually “look like” when they are not working in our comic strips. When they leave the office, what do they do? What are their hobbies? What are their dark secrets? Where do they vacation?
Those sort of questions should be addressed based on what we have already written about them today.
Or… if you totally disagree with what we have come up with — give us a better one!
Good or bad idea?
Who knows.
It will be a little fun. All rights remain ours to use in the future (although we will let people know who added what!).
And.
There will probably be a point to this little exercise.
Feel free to write me off-line or via the comment section underneath the original blog entry (or this one… I can be flexible).
Have fun.
Make it a team exercise.
See where it leads.
And get it done this week!
Thank you.
- mike vizdos
www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com
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!
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