Does this sound familiar?
VP of sales: Can I get
Tech lead: Sure! We'll get right on that.
Tech lead, to worker bees: Do that thing!
Worker bees, drop everything, does the thing: Here's the thing.
Tech lead, to VP: Here's the thing!
--- a day later ---
Worker bee: where was I with the long term project I was working on? Huh, guess I'll start over.
Tech Lead: Why are we behind?!?
In my experience, that is both altogether common and complete chaos. The big items don't get done, because we understate the cost of task switching.
Within Scrum, this might look like:
VP of sales: Can I get
Any member of the dev team: That sounds really important. I'll have a talk with the product owner. We'll scope it out, and see if we can do it in this sprint, or if it'll need to wait.
Scrum Scenario 1
Product Owner to VP:
VP: No. No way. I need
Product Owner: Cool. Then we'll do it next sprint. It sounds real important, so I'll put it top of the list. For now, let's scope it out more....
Worker: work work work. I know what I'm doing. Each day, I have a brief chat and know what to take on.
Scrum Scenario 2
Product Owner to VP:
VP: Yes. I need this within 2 days. Nothing in the sprint is as important as this. Product Owner: well dyamn. Abnormal sprint termination it is.
Tech lead, to worker bees: Do that thing!
Worker bees, drop everything, does the thing: Here's the thing.
Tech lead, to VP: Here's the thing!
I think this is right. I think it suggests a much lower level of chaos, where technical workers can continue to, ya know, focus on the hard technical problems.
Did I get this wrong? Does one seem better or worse to you?
Real Life Scenario 3:
ReplyDeleteProduct Owner to VP: is going to take about a day, and will cause us to be in jeopardy of not completing the sprint. You are the client. Is more important than ?
VP: I want both
Product owner: Well, you can't have them.
VP: I don't care I'm the VP, figure it out.
Product owner: Uh... okay...
Tech lead: Uh... we'll see what happens.
Work bees: FUCK I HAVE TO DO ALL THE THINGS OR LOSE MY JOB.
Yeah, that's a failure. The PO just fucked up. Here's what should happen next.
ReplyDeleteScrum Master: Excuse me, product owner? You just fucked over the team.
Product Owner: And?
SM: And I won't let you.
SM, to VP: You have to choose. The team cannot do both.
VP: I don't want to.
SM: I don't care. You pay me to tell you this hard truth.
I'm curious, if in your experience, the SM actually has had that power in the real world. I've admittedly never been above a worker bee in this situation, but I've also never seen the worker bee side of things win in these sorts of situations.
ReplyDeleteMatt Johnson Yes, and I've done so!
ReplyDeleteMy first sprint, I screwed up and sent the request to the devs, who promptly did it. I told my boss that I realized I'd screwed up, and he said to take it as a learning experience and not do it again. We made it, but only because the dev team worked extra hours. Because I screwed up.
That is: my boss told me to tell the VP no in the future.
Second sprint, the VP asked for something. I did it myself, and the dev team didn't need to know about it. It screwed up my day, but it left the sprint alone. We made the sprint.
Just today, an important stakeholder asked for something. At 4:30, a half hour before he goes home. I said no, because it'd screw up everything else.
So, yes. Not only that, but this is fundamentally the product owner's job. The SM should only do it if the PO as screwed up already. And if nobody will, then you (probably) aren't doing scrum.
This scenario is why I am out of a job today.
ReplyDeleteAre you a CSM, Stephanie Bryant? What part of the world are you in? Would you like me to look at your resume? Are you up in the Linkedin/etc?
ReplyDeleteI am a CSP, in Las Vegas. Here's my LinkedIn profile. Basically, I pushed back on overly ambitious commitments and was deemed "not a good fit" for the company I've been working for for just over 3 months.
ReplyDeleteI'm stung, but I feel like I did the right thing.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mortaine/
Yeah, sounds like you probably did.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any good contacts in LV, unfortunately. And we're in different industries (I'm in ... travel management, i guess).
If you're open to relocation, Arlington, VA is always looking for scrum masters. And we have a 2% unemployment rate.
I can't relocate at this time, but if you hear of anything in my neck of the desert, ping me! :)
ReplyDelete