Archive for April 13th, 2010

• Best Links of the Week – Mar 13th 2010

  Date: 2010.04.13 | Category: Agile, Coaching, Communication, Lean, PMI, Scrum, Transitions | Response: 1

  Sorry for the long delay – I’ve been swamped.  Now back to the great links.

  1. Large-Scale Agile - Jim Shore talks about the seven factors to consider when trying to make Agile large.
  2. What is the One Thing You Can Do to be More Agile? – various vendors at the Agile 2009 conference provide their answer to this question during this five-minute video.
  3. Intro to Scrum Video – Bob Hartman and Arif Gangji provide an eight-minute video overview of Scrum.
  4. In Praise of Middle Management – this article explains how leadership from middle managers is essential for driving change brought on by Scrum.
  5. The Role of Test Manager in an Agile Organization – Johanna Rothman talks about how Agile transforms the role of Test Manager from one that schedules resources to that of coaching, removing obstacles and building organizational capacity.
  6. 78 Things I have Learned in 6 Years of Agile Coaching – Jean Tabaka shares her accumulated wisdom about Agile and change.
  7. Top 10 Questions When Using Agile for Hardware Projects – In this interview, Larry Maccherone discusses how Agile is applied on software-hardware projects.
  8. You’re Just Going to Fail, So Don’t Bother – Scott Downey, Scrum Coach at myspace, discusses why Scrum is so difficult for many organizations and identifies the six hard truths you eventually confront when using Scrum.
  9. Agile Roots – A Personal History – Jim Highsmith, a signatory of the Agile Manifesto, discusses the origins of the Agile movement.
  10. The Wrong Lessons from Toyota’s Recalls – and the Truth - Jeffery Liker gives his take on the Toyota recalls and what they say about Toyota’s highly touted manufacturing process.

• Welfare CSM – June 7th & June 8th

  Date: 2010.04.13 | Category: Agile, Certified ScrumMaster, Personal, Scrum, Training | Response: 3

  I am pleased to announce a new and exciting Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) class I created with Tobias Mayer being held in San Diego on June 7th and 8th.  This class will be operating under the Welfare CSM model.  I am very honored to take part in this effort and help people who want to learn about Scrum but their organizations will not pay for the training, individuals who are unemployed and want to use this time to add to their skills or for people outside the software industry.

  For me, this CSM class is a significant departure from previous (uncertified) ScrumMaster classes I offered in 2007-2008.  At the time, I was not satisfied with the results, but could not put my finger on what was bothering me about the curriculum I was teaching.  The men and women I was training were competently trained on the pieces of Scrum, but were struggling with applying it to their environment.  In 2009, I came across this interview from Tobias and was both intrigued and inspired by Tobias’s model.  After reflecting on his interview and my experience, what was missing from my trainings became visible.

  In order to succeed with Scrum, one needs to know, understand and experience the essential principles of Scrum which are the foundation for all the practices, rituals and tools of the framework.  Unfortunately, the training I provided (which mirrored most of today’s commercial CSM offerings) focused on the mechanics of Scrum, excluding the essential conversation of why these principles are important and how each element infuses the day-to-day activities of Scrum teams.  As a result, most students were only able to mimic what I was teaching and were unable to improvise and adapt Scrum to the unique constraints of their environment.  Ultimately, they become frustrated by their inability to drive change in their organizations and Scrum was abandoned without producing any lasting effects.

  In this two-day CSM class, Tobias and I will examine, illustrate and play with the essential principles of Scrum – commitment, collaboration, visibility, respect, focus and accountability –  through a series of exercises, games and creative activities.  When you leave this course, you will come to know and understand the Spirit of Scrum and how this spirit of collaboration and change embodies each and every activity in Scrum.  Most importantly, you will have learned how to facilitate Scrum among your peers and be successful with this new way of working.

  Scrum is not a bag of programmer and management tricks to increase productivity, but it is a transformative re-imagining of our relationship with our work and our peers.  Come join us on the journey.  It is going to be a lot of fun!