Good day.
This is another version of the “UnScripted” blog entry on the site implementingscrum.com.
Today I’d actually like to post a question from one of my readers that I’d like to get feedback from you — the community — via answers in the comments of this blog. I’ll plan on doing a follow-up to this but as usual, I want to show the community we can all learn from each other…
I have an opinion. Of course!
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Hello Mike,
I took your class last year and I am a CSM now. I have not had the chance to be Scrum Master on a project yet, but it is in the near future.
Currently I am on a project that has 2 week sprints and on a team of 8.
The question came up yesterday during our Retrospective that during out last sprint there were a lot of chickens on the scrum calls.
How do we handle this?
I know that if you don’t have any tasks to complete or you have completed your tasks you should be reporting yourself as “chicken”, but with stakeholders on the call everyday hearing 2 people report tasks and the rest of the team reporting “chicken” every day for almost 2 weeks…doesn’t that appear to the stakeholders that only 2 people are working?
IS there another way to still follow the Pig/Chicken rule without appearing to the stakeholders that there are a lot of people not working?
Please advise.
This was a discussion that was placed on the action item list due to too many conflicts between team members.
Have you seen this before?
How was it handled in other teams/projects?
Comments Please!
- mike vizdos
www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com
Thanks for reading the latest blog entry at www.implementingscrum.com.
One of the things I hear a lot about (both inside and outside of our little industry in the world) is the differences between coaches, consultants, and mentors.
Which brought me back to a discussion I had a few years ago with John Snuggs (shout out!) who used to poke me about wearing my “Captain Obvious” hat.
Which then lead to the super-hero-wearing-ScrumMaster in the comic strip above.
And.
Then the elephant.
Huh?
What does that elephant represent?
In America, we talk about this thing called, “An elephant in the room” which is something reallllllllllly uncomfortable that everyone knows is there but is afraid to bring it up. Make sense?
Sooo… besides being the elephant in the room… what does Captain Obvious need to teach us about Scrum “Coaches” versus “Consultants” versus “Mentors”?
This could be one of those epic postings with me talking about the ins-and-outs of the three words and how they not only sound different — but in the real world ARE different.
So.
Question to you… and I will talk and post more about this… in the comments section write more about the good, the bad, and the ugly about the differences you see in either the people you hire, work with, or ARE.
Elephant recognized.
Let’s hear more about what this means to you. And your teams. And your organizations.
And of course… this is leading somewhere. It always does.
And it usually surprises even me (heh).
Time for Captain Obvious. Pointing out the elephant in the room.
- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com
One of the things I stories I have recently started talking about in my Certified ScrumMaster Workhops is about how Scrum really amplifies both the functional and dysfunctional aspects of an organization.
And the story I tell is that of an older movie called, “Spinal Tap.”
Ever hear of it?
If not, it is a “Rock-U-Mentary” about a fake band who gets followed around by a camera crew.
Ask anyone in your office about the “11″ line and have them do it in their best accent (they will know what you are talking about if they have seen the movie).
The main gist of that line is that during an interview, one of the band members asks why their amplifiers have an “11″ on them, instead of just the normal “10.”
Blank stare.
Then…. the band member says, “Because 11 is louder.”
And then the interviewer basically asks, “Why not just make 10 louder?”
Blank stare.
Band member, “Well, because this one’s got an eleven.”
So I may have screwed it up since it has been almost 25+ years since seeing the movie (I think… yikes!).
I have heard it is best watched in some kind of altered state; however, I would not condone or recommend that to anyone reading this article.
So what does an amplifier with an “11″ have to do with Scrum and introducing it into an organization?
Comments here are welcome again, as it seemed to spark some great discussions last week (scroll down to the bottom to see all the comments people have left… wow!) …. (of which I really need to go back and answer if appropriate)!
Here are my questions, but you can answer them (or your own) any way you’d like (It’s almost like being a moderator for the US Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates this year sigh):
1) What are the top five GREAT things that have been amplified in your organization when introducing Scrum?
2) What are the top five INSANE things (read: Dysfunctions) that have been amplified when introducing Scrum?
3) Was Scrum the cause of them?
4) Did Scrum force a change one way or the other?
Let’s see where it leads.
If anything, go watch the movie if you’ve got some time to kill 
.
Of course, that is AFTER you respond to the questions via comments back to the site!
Hi.
I am working with a lot of teams and hearing about this problem coming up again.
Kind of like a cough that will not go away (that is for another day).
Ah… Kids back in school. Spreading knowledge.
And.
Lots of other stuff.
Germ mines that bring new germs home to their parents, who have not seen most of the stuff out there in the past.. and so on and so on.
Then.
Those parents go to collocated team rooms.
With people who do not have kids.
Germ-o-phobe-hilarity-ensues.
The original blog entry is located at http://www.implementingscrum.com/2007/01/08/sick-stay-home/.
Read it.
Post it on your team room walls.
Send it home to people on your teams who are still calling in (or ask them to call in and GO home!).
Good luck out there.
- mike vizdos
Hi all,
Happy start of the new week!
Scott Ambler and I have put together a survey that will collect some additional data that he will present at the Agile 2008 conference next month. Please take the survey and pass it on to any local lists or contacts you have.
The cool thing about the outcome of this — and other data we collect — is that it is shared for all to use and analyze as you want.
Here is more info:
====
We have put together a survey exploring the adoption rate of various Agile
practices and of the 12 agile principles. The survey is posted at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=4FN_2bty_2bYE0Mhb7yQPZKWtg_3d_3d
and will take 5 minutes to complete.
It will run until August 2 2008.
As with other surveys the results will be posted online at
www.ambysoft.com/surveys/. We’re taking an open approach to this survey in that the source data, with the exception of identifying information to protect people’s privacy, will be posted online. We’re sharing the data with the community so that everyone may analyze it for their own purposes — you won’t have to rely on us to analyze it for you. We’ll also post the original questions as they were asked as well as a slide deck summarizing our analysis. All of these assets can be used free of charge. Scott will also be sharing the results at the forthcoming Agile 2008 conference, www.agile2008.org, here in his home town of Toronto the first week of August.
We’re not going to bribe you with promises to win a book or a gift certificate. Instead, we’re asking you to give back to the community by spending a few minutes to share your agile experiences with the IT community. The results of this survey will be a shared asset that we can all take advantage of.
Thank you very much for your attention, and we sincerely hope that you will choose to take a few minutes of your valuable time to fill out this survey. Our apologies if you have received several copies of this email.
- Scott Ambler and Mike Vizdos
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