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Welcome back to yet another week at www.implementingscrum.com.
Remember about a month ago our ScrumMaster got “whacked” and disappeared for a while. Last week he reappeared in the hospital.
Today, he is back at work.
And.
He did not die.
Assuming positive intent, he really wanted to just help the guy in the SUV with directions.
He never got there, as we can see. And is seems like the guy in the SUV made a run for it, not liking what he saw on the ground (what would you do if you saw a fashion forward guy wearing a blue thingee on the ground; wait…. hold that thought…. we also use talking pigs and chickens in this cartoon… never mind).
So what does this have to do with Scrum?
As a consultant, I am constantly working with both prospects (those who have not engaged me for any services yet) and current / past clients. I have a strong relationship with people in the industry, and consider myself a person who is not afraid to speak up and give the honest truth.
Not a lot of people like doing that.
Sometimes, as we saw, clients do not like to hear the truth. They want to keep doing waterfall, and make the conscious decision that in the end they will succumb to what is known as the, “Iterative and Incremental Death March.”
They will then go find someone who will say, “Yes” to anything they ask of them.
And this occurs with most organizations trying to use Scrum on more than one project in an organization.
It is a choice.
What about the small minority of organizations that succeed with implementing Scrum in their organization?
Wow.
Incredible things happen.
To the people as individuals, as team members, and the organization as a whole.
These are the organizations I enjoy working with; however, as you can see, they are a small minority in the world.
You know what I have started doing more and more lately (which uggg is hard for me!)?
Saying “No.”
And working only with organizations and teams and people who sincerely want this Scrum thing to work.
Sometimes I get conned into thinking an organization is truly interested, and get burned. Life happens.
We all learn and move on.
This is not the majority of time though, and yes, even I need to assume positive intent.
Why am I telling you all of this?
First and foremost… think about where you are today on your team and within your organization.
Are you constantly saying, “Yes” even when you know it makes no sense?
Do you need help saying, “No” sometimes?
Where can you go for that help?
And remember… a dead ScrumMaster is a useless one.
DO NOT commit career suicide.
But remember… you DO have a choice.
Always.
Gotta run! Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.
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April 15, 2008
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April 15th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
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