Finally had a few moments to write about my upcoming speaking engagement at the Orlando Scrum Gathering from March 8th to March 10th.  I am VERY excited about the chance to speak at a Scrum conference and I was lucky enough to be selected to provide two presentations in Orlando.

1. Prioritization with Pugh – this workshop is designed to provide Product Owners a new tool to help evaluate conflicting priorities and focus the discussion on factors that matter to the business by using a Pugh matrix.  Pugh matrices come from the Lean world and are an excellent collaboration tool to resolve conflicts from conflicting stakeholders.
2. Insights Into Scrum Illuminated by Lean – this Pecha Kucha will focus on how we can learn more about the essential elements of Scrum by looking at the Lean principles embedded natively in Scrum.

I am really passionate about Scrum – I see the Scrum framework as a powerful means for organizational transformation and reconnecting alienated people to their work and their peers.  IMO, Scrum works because of its simplicity of roles and rituals and is transformative because it engages the imagination and creativity of the people who participate.  Scrum is about self-organization, communication, visibility, accountability and what I call the Sprit of Scrum – the sense of camaraderie, common purpose and commitment – drives our actions on Teams.  Where some people see weakness or omission in the framework, I see strength because Scrum relies on individuals and interactions to fill in the gaps, not process and tools that may (or may not) come with the framework.

However, over the past couple of weeks, there has been a fair amount of criticism directed at Scrum (some deserved and others not so much).  There are a few specific examples that I could link to and write strongly-worded, emotional counter arguments, but that just continues the invective.  What irks me so much about many  Scrum critics is they want to take advantage of the large mindshare of Scrum to gain wider distribution of their ideas.

Some critics just go over-and-over-and-over-and-over again about how whatever it is they are doing is so superior to Scrum, how Scrum is so bad and how they are so right.    Really?  Who gave these critics the monopoly on right and wrong, better or worse?  If you have a different set of principles, that lead to different set of beliefs and actions, it does not mean the other people are wrong, stupid or even misguided.  Having separate ideas and principles exist side-by-side is called pluralism and is generally considered a strength.

So I ask the question of these Scrum, “Why do you even care?”  If Scrum is something you do not practice any more, find value from or you have tool that better suits you and your principles, why do you have to come and leave a big crap in my pool?  Why do you have to make things more difficult for the people who really care about this thing called Scrum, the people who really do care and are invested in the outcome?  Why don’t you just go to your side of the room and do your thing and leave us alone and let us do our thing?  It is not that I don’t like your ideas, but I’m focused on my goal and your not helping me, so I would prefer you just stay over there and do your thing.

Links to share with your friends and co-workers

1. Is an Agile PMO possible? – Curt Finch talks about the values of both Agile practices, PMI standards and how to marry the two.
2. Self-organization: the secret sauce for improving your Scrum team – In this 90-miute video for Google, Jeff Sutherland talks about the role of self-organization and other advanced Scrum techniques.
3. The Agile Flywheel – a short experience report describing how one company melded Scrum with their mature ITIL processes.
4. Just do it: a quick intro to Agile’s technical practices – a summary of the technical core of Agile software development by Abby Fichtner.
5. I love pair programming – Discussion on the effectiveness and the challenges of pair programming after a five month trial.

Excellent links for everyone to share.

1. Pollyanna Pixton on Agile Leadership – a 30-minute video talking about the factors corporate leaders can influence which support Agile teams.
2. How I Learned to Program Manage an Agile Team After 6 Years of Waterfall – Sara Ford describes in brutal candor her experience becoming an Agile PM while working on CodePlex at Microsoft.
3. Explaining Agile – Mike Cottmeyer neatly summarizes his understanding of Agile.
4. How to Compare Elephant Herds - Dave Nicolette finally (?) explains why comparing teams through velocity is meaningless.
5. What Does a ScrumMaster Do? – for those of  you who are curious and wanted to know.
6. Replacing the Iron Triangle of Project Management? – short discussion on reevaluating a well-accepted PM paradigm.
7. Adopting Agile Development – the Role of the CIO – how senior leaders in your organization can help promote Agile adoption.
8. Moving Beyond Scrum – a look at some reasons why one might want to take the next step.
9. Tragic Mistakes When Adopting Test-Driven Development (TDD) - Scott Ambler discussing some pitfalls & obstacles companies encounter when they begin the process of using TDD.
10. Comparison of Open Agile with Scrum – introduction of a domain-independent framework for delivering value while using Agile principles via a compare-and-contrast with Scrum

Here are two weeks worth of linkie goodness for everyone.

1. 4th Annual State of Agile Survey - VersionOne, an Agile project management tool, has published their annual survey on the adoption of Agile; a great source of industry statistics and window into how other companies are using Agile.
2. From Waterfall to Agile – in this 16-minute video Ian Culling, the CTO of VersionOne, talks about the Agile journey and common pitfalls he has observed.
3. Scrum for Managers – in this 90-minute talk Mitch Lacey, CST and (former) Microsoft PMP, gives an excellent overview of Scrum and the new role for managers.
4. Protect People - Jurgen Appelo discusses the role of managers in creating a safe interpersonal environment so self-organizing teams can form and flourish.
5. Tips for First-Time Scrummasters – pitfalls to look out for on that first Scrum project.
6. Top 10 Estimation Practices in Agile – excellent, excellent summary of current practice on Agile teams today.
7. Assessing Agile Readiness – a 20-minute video from Joshua Kerievsky discussing the process of kicking off Agile at your company.
8. Getting Better Agile Transitions - Mike Sutton describes some factors to consider when selecting a coach to help your company become more Agile.
9. 10 Rules for Better Management – a short checklist on ways to become a better manager; I like to item on control charts.

Continuing with links to the best of the blogs since last week.

1. Three things I wish I knew before jumping – PMP and Certified ScrumMaster, Pat Guariglia, shares some lessons learned after his first Scrum pilot project in 2007.
2. Mike Cottmeyer on the Agile PMP – InfoQ has a 78-minute video from Mike Cottmeyer’s Agile 2009 talk on how Agile’s approach to managing cost and time reduces project risk rather than the traditional approach of managing scope.
3. Determining how Agile you are comparatively – discussion on the Comparative Agility assessment for teams looking to understand how Agile they are doing in seven areas: teamwork, requirements, planning, technical practices, quality, culture and knowledge creation.
4. Demystifying the Product Owner role – Roman Pichler provides some truth about the Product Owner role and clears away some myths.
5. Self-discipline & self-organization – Cutter Consortium Fellow, Jim Highsmith, emphasizes the need for discipline and excellence on Agile teams.
6. Eight reasons why the estimates are low – some common reasons why software estimates are often too small.
7. How pair programming really works – the IEEE publishes an article sharing four mechanisms that can improve pair programming.

I am facilitating an Agile Playground session with June at XPSD tonight.  Stop by if you are interested in learning some Agile games and want to have some fun.  Here is the short write-up from the XPSD wiki:

“What is Agile software development? What are the essentials I need to know about this stuff? Why is my Agile team so dull and boring? Looking to get energized? Come to this introductory session hosted by Carlton Nettleton & June Clarke and they will demonstrate as many Agile principles and practices as they can in 75 minutes of fun through a variety of short simulations and participatory games. Walk away with the critical insights, the “ah-ha” moments, where the essential Agile concepts slip into place and make sense.”

Here are some links to the best of the blogs since the beginning of the year.

1. The Role of Leaders on a Self-Organizing Team - Mike Cohn talks about the important role management continues to play on Scrum teams.
2. Agile Scales, Waterfall Doesn’t – or so claims Vasco Duarte during this 48-minute video from the Agile Eastern Europe 2009 Conference.
3. Scrum, But – in this 10-minute video Scrum co-founder, Ken Schwaber, explains the negative impact on your business of “We use Scrum, but…”
4. Management 3.0: The Era of Complexity - Jurgen Appelo describes the new role of social networks as management dives into the 21st century.
5. Faster, Better, Cheaper! TDD wins in a simple experiment – a side-by-side comparison of two software developers working on the same project – one using Test-Driven Development (TDD), the other not; the developer who used TDD increased his productivity by 50%!
6. Agile Game Interview: Simplicity is Hard - Clinton Keith interviews Chris Ulm, CEO of Appy Entertainment, about why Agile is an essential factor in their successful launch of high quality, iPhone games.
7. Embedded Collaboration - Dave Rooney kicks off this post with a classic quote from “The Princess Bride” to explain the real meaning of collaboration.
8. Agile Office Space – the Motley Fool shows off their cool Agile workspace and describes the principles they used to create this space.
9. Wives of Rockstar San Diego Employees Have Collected Themselves – apparently some people are fed-up with yet another death march in the gaming industry and interesting from commentary from Clinton Keith that Scrum is not the solution, but provides visibility and a reality check to wishful thinking.

I was inspired by tweet I saw today from highligthing Peter Stevens post discussing the essence of Scrum.  Here is my description of Scrum without any of our jargon.

“Scrum is a framework for Teams to get work done.  Every activity, ritual and artifact found in Scrum enables the team to provide visibility, make commitments and focus on continuous improvement.  While there are two roles to help the Team remain concentrated on their objectives, the cross-functional, collaborative Team is the central hub of Scrum.  Scrum Teams work in fixed iterative cycles from a few weeks up to 30 days.  At the end of each increment, the Team discusses their progress to date, receives feedback from their sponsors, and makes any necessary adjustments to reach their goals.”

98 word – not bad.

Here are my submissions to PMI San Diego’s 7th Annual PM Conference scheduled for May 12th to 14th.  I am hoping that one of them gets accepted.

1. Leaping to Success with High Performing Teams: this is a one-day workshop on the importance of team building through SIMSOC.
2. Debunking Myths About Agile Software Development: this is a new presentation for me and I am really excited about the format.  Instead of your typical powerpoint presentation where I dissect each of the common myths I have and the the audience passively listens to me, I am going to engage the participants in collecting the myths and we’ll have a conversation about the myths they are interested in learning more about.
3. Agile Playground: another one-hour tutorial where we are going to play games to illustrate common Agile principles and concepts.  Hat tip to Tobias Mayer for the great name.