A week ago, I started a new job as a Scrum Master.
A SM is a servant leader who facilitates scrum ceremonies and practices, with the goal of leading the team to increased consistent performance. Basically.
By the book, a scrum team should:
-- Be cross functional, including everyone needed to push code
-- Be small, usually 6 +/- 2. Three is OK, so is nine, but these are outlyers.
-- Everyone should be 100%.
-- The Team should have the trust to do their work.
-- The Team should have a Product Owner and a Scrum Master.
-- No real hierarchies.
-- User stories are the requirements.
Here's what I've got instead:
-- Design is separated. They do the designs, and it flows from them to the dev team.
-- The team is huge, like 20 people.
-- No one is 100% except me.
-- The Team does not have the authority to push code. This goes through a manual process that is managed outside the team. To be clear: We do not have modern version control.
-- The PO is the client, and I have yet to hear from her.
-- Hierarchies abound! Each functional group (dev, integrations, design, BA, test, etc) has a hierarchy with a Team Lead. The contributors take marching order from their functional lead, instead of committing to work in the Spring Planning Session.
-- There are user stories linked to requirements, and this is kept up manually by a third party who is pissed about doing it.
I'm picking this team up from a scrum master who I had wanted to work wth. She put in notice, and next week is her last week.
So, here are some crazy ideas I've had so far:
-- Set up the codebase to have modern version control. This is priority number 1, and the folks who manually push the code have already said they are against it. Time to find out why.
-- Work against the hierarchies by engaging with the contributors. So far, two have admitted to playing D&D, so I am thinking about a Dungeon World (or something) night. I'll run the first, then hand it off. The real goal here is to give everyone a fucking voice. I am open to ideas for games.
-- If I do get a cross-functional group together to play games, I can think about this group acting as a Scrum Team. If I can get someone from each functional area, I'll be in good shape. Gosh, that's ambitious and crazy.
That's what I'm thinking. This is all subject to change, but after the first week I can already see the pain points.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ayup
ReplyDeleteWell if it was already working as intended they wouldn't have had to hire you. In six months time they'll be looking back and laughing at the ridiculous way they used to do things.
ReplyDeleteDungeon World wouldn't be my first choice for lapsed D&D players. If it was me I'd run either Into The Odd (super light, super fast) or Beyond The Wall (it's character gen will have even reluctant participants invested in ten minutes).
You can almost certainly implement modern version control and use a nightly script to give the manual release people what they need.
ReplyDeleteThis is my life right now. I am happy to talk shop about this at length.
ReplyDeleteNo version control system? FFS! What is this, the frickin 90s? Are there unit tests? I assume there's no continuous integration system either?
ReplyDeleteBrian Ashford Choice of game is, in this case, somewhat political. I want a game that picks apart and destroys the status quo, and invests players with narrative authority. That's pbta, which is also easier for me to run.
ReplyDeleteSean Leventhal I do hope so. For what we're using, there are some good third party programs that make it easier. I'm researching.
ReplyDeleteRabbit Stoddard Would love to talk success and challenges. How ya doing?
ReplyDeleteShane Liebling There's an entire integrations team. Plus the folks who control the manual code pushing. I don't understand it all yet, it's only been a week. I haven't even met everyone yet.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols OK, but I could also see the benefits of a game where players create a member of a community and they all work together to resolve the problems faced by their community.
ReplyDeleteAlso I would worry that any cautious participants would find pbta a bit much. Beyond the Wall would be a nice gentle introduction (or reintroduction).
Maybe one then the other?
Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI would be careful you're not setting up the new guys cabal with the game idea.
ReplyDeleteValid, Patty Kirsch. I want that group to be cross functional, cross length of employment, and cross gender. And some other things.
ReplyDelete