TBSMG

LEGO play date

Sam Falco

At last night’s Tampa Bay Scrum Master’s Guild, we did a simulation of a scaled Scrum project. We used LEGO bricks to build the components of a zombie defense system. It was fun, of course. How can LEGOS be anything but fun?

At one point, when several members of my team were off coordinating with other teams, my friend Jessica and I remained at our table. As we caught each other up on what we’ve been doing since we last saw each other, we idly assembled pieces of our teams design. It was very relaxing to be engaged in what amounts to children’s play while we talked of the challenges of adult life. Maybe, the next time we arrange to get together for coffee, we should bring a bucket of LEGO bricks to play with, too!

TBSMG, August 2016

Sam Falco

This month at the Tampa Bay Scrum Masters Guild, we followed up on the vision for the Guild that we decided on at last month’s meeting:

To take an active role in building up Tampa Bay as a major technology hub.

That’s a pretty tall order! Before we can decide how to make it a reality, we needed to decide how to recognize when we achieve it. We used a variation of brain storming called “Brain Writing” to generate a list of ideas, then used dot voting to select the five best indicators of success:

  • Increase in startup funding for tech companies/actual tech startups on par with major cities like San Francisco or NYC
  • Major technology conferences are hosted in Tampa
  • National media start to report on “Tampa Tech”
  • Increase in tech-related degrees awarded at area colleges/universities
  • IT salaries increase to be competitive with existing tech hubs, i.e., the Research Triangle or Austin

The next step will be to decide what steps to take to make those indicators happen. It’s a topic on the Trello board; vote for it if you want to see more progress on turning vision into reality.

We closed the meeting with a report on the Agile Alliance conference in Atlanta. Sam Falco (that’s me!) talked about two themes that cropped up in several Agile 2016 sessions: making work a safe space for experimentation and innovation, and the future of Agile. Both topics fed into a group discussion of “Modern Agile” and how its four principles map to the values in the Manifesto.

Next month’s guild meeting will be held at Grow Financial on September 7. Don’t miss it!

TBSMG, July 2016

Sam Falco

I missed the last few Tampa Bay Scrum Masters Guild meetings, but I was on hand for the July meeting at the offices of Mad Mobile last week. I’m glad I attended, and not just because of the food supplied by Clearly Agile. At this meeting, Adam led us in exercises to refine and clarify the Guild’s purpose, vision, and values.

Why do we meet? What is the purpose of having the Guild? We split into four groups to brainstorm the Guild’s purpose. Each group presented its list. Dot-voting selected a list that forms the peculiar acronym, SLRPN:

  • Share
  • Learn
  • Reassure
  • Practice
  • Network

Guild purpose - dot voting

The third exercise re-visited the Guild’s list of values, created in one of its first meetings. We kept some of the original values, and added more. Look for Adam to post the new list on the Guild’s Trello board soon.

In between those exercises, we generated a vision for the Guild. This exercise aimed to give us a wider goal than the Guild’s purpose: not just “why do we come here,” but “what do we want to be known for.” Once again, each group brainstormed and then put its best vision forward for a vote. The clear favorite was:

To take an active role in building up Tampa Bay as a major technology hub.

Guild vision

To close the meeting, Adam asked for suggestions for topics for future meetings; one of the suggestions was to start figuring out how to turn our new vision into reality. That topic, and a few others are on the Trello board. If you have other suggestions, please add them!

The next Guild meeting will be August 3. Don’t miss it!

Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild March 2016

Sam Falco

With our captain, Adam Ulery, out sick, Julee Belomo and Christy Erbeck took the wheel and kept us on course for this month’s meeting topic: Fostering Strong Teams. We also had delicious food and dessert courtesy of Clearly Agile.

Helping teams learn to work together can be the most challenging part of a ScrumMaster’s job. In this month’s exercise, we gathered in groups of four or five and considered how to help the team in one of three scenarios.

  • A “cowboy” developer who does what he thinks is best, without consulting the team.
  • A team that limps along, mediocre but unwilling to use retrospectives for continuous improvement.
  • A development team member who, after being promoted to manager, remains part of the team but runs roughshod over them.

All three scenarios reflected real world problems that many ScrumMaster grapple with, and each group generated a lot of food for thought as to how to handle them, and situations like them.

Each scenario also each hinted at something awry at the core of the organization’s Agile practices–it might be worth revisiting them to go beyond, “How do we help the team,” to, “How do we guide the organization to improve its agility?”

We closed out the meeting by soliciting suggestions for the May meeting topic and asking everyone to vote.

At next month’s meeting, on April 6, we will celebrate the Guild’s one year anniversary. Don’t miss it!

Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild February 2016

Sam Falco

At the February Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild, David Corbin, President and Chief Architect of Dynamic Concepts Development Corporation, presented “A Comprehensive Approach to Testing.”

David started by introducing his Axioms of Testing:

  • In a perfect world, testing is a complete waste of time—but we do not exist in a perfect world, so testing is crucial.
  • 100% testing of any non-trivial system would require an infinite amount of resources. You can’t prove a system is defect free.

These foundations served as a launching point to discuss a variety of factors that go into creating a comprehensive testing infrastructure. Topics included:

  • Forces that drive testing
  • What do we test
  • When do we test
  • Guiding principles of testing

David will present “A Comprehensive Approach to Testing” at the South Florida Code Camp on February 20th.

The next Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild meeting is March 2.

Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild January 2016

Sam Falco

If you didn’t attend the first Tampa Bay ScrumMasters Guild meeting of 2016 last Wednesday, you missed out on several new faces, announcements about Bay Area job opportunities, and a thought-provoking presentation about “Holacracy,” by Ingrid Bredenberg. Ms. Bredenberg is an organizational development expert and a self-described Holacracy evangelist. Spirited questions and discussion punctuated the presentation, and many Guild members left eager to learn more.

Holacracy distributes authority away from a management hierarchy, across teams and roles “energized” by individuals who execute their work autonomously. Holacracy provides a clear set of rules for how teams break up their work, and defines clear expectations and responsibilities for each role. The rules apply equally to every member of the organization, and provide methods for resolving tensions about what must be done as those tensions arise.

Information about Holacracy is available at holacracy.org.

Ms. Bredenberg stated that her presentation would not make us better ScrumMasters, but I disagree. Learning about different ways of organizing and thinking about work stimulates our critical and creative thinking in ways we can use as we guide our organizations toward greater agility.

The next meeting is February 3. Mark your calendars. You won’t want to miss it!