Monday, February 17, 2014

A compassionate reading of the Agile Manifesto


The four points of the Agile Manifesto read
  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation 
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 
  • Responding to change over following a plan
which Agilists are at pains to point out does not mean: "no process, tools, contracts or plans", but -- as the manifesto goes on to say -- "while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more".

Now Olaf Lewitz has written a wonderful articulation of why the items on the left are more highly valued than those on the right:
Now, when I read the four statements from a compassionate point of view, having worked with hundreds of organisations where people cling to documentation, plans, contracts, processes and roles, I have a more holistic perspective.  
All of the things on the right are commonly used for three purposes:  
  1. To hide lies, to avoid trust, 
  2. To cover somebody’s ass (make sure it’s not my fault), and 
  3. To defer acknowledgement of uncertainty. 
 The basic emotion behind all of these strategies is fear.
In other words: the items on the right give protect against negative outcomes and the related fears, while those on the left emphasise freedom and fruitfulness.

Depending on the situation one may need to play some defence, but the ideal is to move forward positively.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Scrum Master characteristics: From Good to Great

A fantastic blog post from Geoff Watts (inspectandadapt.com) enumerated desirable characteristics of good Scrum Masters, and how to take them to the next level in Towards a Definition of a Great Scrum Master. He used elements of the list in his book: Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant-Leadership.

I've added categories and reformatted the original list for reference and readability:

Accountability
A good Scrum Master will hold team members to account if needed.
A great Scrum Master will hold the team to account for not holding team-mates to account.

Communication
A good Scrum Master encourages people to talk to each other.
A great Scrum Master encourages people to listen to each other.

A good Scrum Master says what needs to be said.
A great Scrum Master knows the power of silence.

Growth
A good Scrum Master helps every member of the team grow. 
A great Scrum Master encourages growth as a team. 

A good Scrum Master notices areas for improvement in the team. 
A great Scrum Master recognises & highlights strengths of the team for them to build on.

A good Scrum Master will coach the team to succeed. 
A great Scrum Master allows failure & encourages the team to learn from their mistakes (from Christina Ohanian).

A great Scrum Master is chosen by the team and Product Owner. 
When she's done all she can, it's time for another great Scrum Master (from Mike James).

Servant-Leadership
A good Scrum Master serves the team. 
A great Scrum Master fosters servant-leadership throughout the team. 

A good Scrum Master  is wary of influencing the team with what they say & do. 
A great Scrum Master can act normally and the team still make their own decisions.

A good Scrum Master will be indispensable to a team. 
A great Scrum Master will make themselves dispensable. And wanted.

A good Scrum Master asks to understand so they can serve. 
A great Scrum Master asks so the team understands and can serve itself.


Teamwork
A good Scrum Master helps teams use "yes, but" effectively. 
A great Scrum Master helps teams find more space for "yes, and".

A good Scrum Master facilitates co-operation between people. 
A great Scrum Master facilitates collaboration.

A good Scrum Master listens to what is said in the daily scrum. 
A great Scrum Master listens to what is not said in the daily scrum.

A good Scrum Master will help maintain team harmony. 
A great Scrum Master will guide a team through disharmony to reach a new level of teamwork.

Inspect and Adapt
A good Scrum Master helps a team meet their definition of done at the end of a sprint. 
A great Scrum Master helps a team extend their definition of done.

A good Scrum Master will help teams optimise their process. 
A great Scrum Master will help the team get past process.

A good Scrum Master helps the team hold a balanced retrospective. 
A great Scrum Master helps the team hold a focused retrospective.

Working with the Product Owner
A good Scrum Master facilitates the Sprint Review so the team gets to demo to the Product Owner . 
A great Scrum Master ensures that the PO is already aware so the demo can be for other stakeholders.

A good Scrum Master will be a bridge between the Product Owner and the team. 
A great Scrum Master will reduce the need for a bridge.

A good Scrum Master helps write stories so that the team is ready for sprint planning. 
A great Scrum Master helps the Product Owner make time before and during the Sprint to write and talk to the team.

Relationship to the larger organization
A good Scrum Master protects the team from distraction. 
A great Scrum Master finds the root cause of those distractions and eliminates them.

A good Scrum Master helps a Scrum team survive in an organisation's culture. 
A great Scrum Master helps change the culture so Scrum teams can thrive.