Hi.

Eesh. Time really does fly, huh?

First, I’d like to welcome all the new subscribers to the blog in the past six weeks — thank you.

And of course, thanks to the “old” followers too. You all ROCK.

I have been doing a lot of work lately around the world — both in training and gaining new skills in coaching both teams and individuals. You can follow a lot of my daily escapades more on twitter (I am mvizdos there)… the community there is even a lot more relaxed than what happens here (if you can imagine that!).

As much as that is a great thing, yes, I know you want comic strips about Scrum.

There are a few already in the pipeline.

And.

Many many many many new ideas.

Including the almost 100 cartoons that are out on the site that I actually should go back and do some polishing on — nothing is ever static in our world and I need to keep showing you this by example (as bad as it has been lately).

I do not want to use “work” as an excuse, but look at the time invested in sharpening what I do to be able to provide everyone with new and interesting content so that we can all learn together.

There are more translations ready to be posted too.

This idea that I thought of almost four years ago has really grown into a sustainable community — and I want to make sure you are continuing to get what you want out of me.

I learn as you do too. Please remember that!

And in the true spirit of inspecting and adapting… let’s see where we all go next.

I appreciate your continued following, feedback, and yes, even business.

Most of all, I am totally blown away by the personal relationships I am building with so many of you.

I see an opportunity to bring those of us personally together to improve what we do on a daily basis — and I’ll be sharing more of that soon too.

Thank you so much.

- mike vizdos

Hi,

Many people continue to ask me, “What does it take to become a CST (Certified Scrum Trainer)?”

I have been a CST for many years now and have had the incredible opportunity to travel the world, meet awesome new people, and help train (and mentor) new people in the possibilities of what Scrum can deliver for teams.

For the past few months, the Scrum Alliance has been looking for input on a new CST process. I have included input early on (both in person at some face-to-face meetings and via some of the discussion groups).

The decision of the new CST process will be completed by the Board of Directors of the Scrum Alliance, the non-profit organization that certifies people as Scrum Masters in a variety of programs — including the creation of new Certified Scrum Trainers.

The note below was sent to the various lists of people who have been coming up with many competing ideas for what the “new” CST process should look like.

This is no way reflects any point of view other than my own, and I wanted to put some transparency on this topic out to the Scrum community because there are some good observations we can all take and move forward with as our community continues to grow.

Comments are welcome, as usual. Please tweet about this and send it to your friends and enemies who may be interested in what is happening within this community.

I have no inside information about “what” will happen. I am not involved in the decision process.

I *will* support whatever decision comes from the Board of Directors at the Scrum Alliance.

Here is the e-mail I sent (it is a bit long!) to the current CSTs and some of the lists of teams that are creating competing processes….

========

Please note: I have cross posted this note to a few groups discussing
the new CST process… this is a long posting and I am mainly doing it
to get some thoughts out of my head. I am not asking you to agree or
disagree (smile)].

Hi all,

I’d like to just pipe in for a few moments to express some reasons for
me being relatively silent to the various “camps” coming up with new
ideas for a CST process. I’ll relate this (good or bad) using the
framework I and others teach about facilitating great retrospectives.

[tangent on]

I have the courage to state this because I think many others who have
been silent on this topic may feel the same way (based on feedback
over the years of being with this group).

Being an introvert (as many people are in this community [we found out
recently by meeting face-to-face in Orlando]), I work very hard — by
example — to try and show others how we must step out of our comfort
zones to get better (and in the case of Orlando, I thank Jean for
stepping in and help us all keep it a positive and successful event as
Jim had to bow out at the last minute for personal life reasons!). I
highly recommend someone else step out of their comfort zone and
facilitate the next meeting face-to-face.

[tangent off]

I am a current CST and have been for a while. As many people know, I
am extremely passionate about this topic and love teaching others the
possible benefits for them in their organizations. Over the years of
doing this (both coaching and training teams internationally), I have
personally mentored and been mentored by many of the people both
within and outside of the CST group. I am continually humbled by the
incredible experiences and passion of the people in this group and
amazed at how we *somehow* continually move forward.

When the stage was set for this new introduction of a CST process, I
understood the message from Tobias of the basic rules of this and we
were able to all have input, with a decision to be made by the Board
of Directors on March 28.

Then, I watched as we started gathering data. In this phase, I
observed that the various groups got into the serious phases of trying
to setup norms for the goal and then rapidly enter into the storming
phase.

When people are not involved in this storming phase face-to-face, our
non-verbal communications (90% +) are *lost* in just pure emails. The
groups continually went back to forming and into storming as new
people came into the different and various conversations. Some new
ideas came out of meeting face-to-face in both Orlando and other
places.

Many insights were being generated.

Then, various ideas and sub-teams split off so people could get out of
both the forming and storming phases into the norming phase. This is
now where a lot of the sub-teams are in today. Feedback within each
of these teams now has been much different as I watch from the outside
as an observer. There are at least four proposals for the Board of
Directors to decide upon.

We are coming soon to the point where the Board of Directors will have
to complete the next phase — deciding what to do. This is an
incredibly important decision for both current and future CSTs.

A decision WILL be made. It has to be done. It is part of the
process that must be DONE in order to move forward.

When the decision is made, we will close the decision process.

Then.

As a group, we will then go back to the forming stages and figure out
how to inspect and adapt this updated CST process.

It will change over time as we attempt to implement it. It will not
be perfect. It never is.

And this is OK.

As we scale the CST group even more, we will actually see this pattern
continue. I say this because this has been a problem facing CSTs
since the “early days” when we were a very small group. Now, all the
issues continue to be required to scale. And this will continue.

I have personally made the decision to stay [relatively] quiet
throughout this process because of a statement I interpreted early on
as being, “Shut up.”

So, I did.

Why?

I understood that the process I described above would eventually
unfold. It was a personal decision on my part, and I applaud all the
people who have been involved on the various proposals. Thank you all
for doing that.

And.

As of March 28th, a decision will be made.

I have personally decided to work with and embrace any changes that
will be required as we move forward — even if I do not agree with it
100% (as with the many contracts I have had to sign with the Scrum
Alliance in the past as a CST). I know it will not be something that
I reject 100% (and if for some reason it is, I will decide to leave
and do something else — remember, we all have a choice to do this or
go and do something else).

As a group, we need to move forward and perform on our ideas.

It will not be easy.

I hope others will join me, and encourage you to do this. If you
decide not to embrace the continual changes, leave. Really. Maybe
start something competitive (as we have seen some key founders of the
Scrum Alliance do in the past). It is OK!

This is the only way we will be able to move forward and inspect and adapt.

Let’s see what happens. Let’s also keep doing what we have committed
to do as CSTs — keep doing the best we can as the professionals we
are.

And.

Keep learning with the people who are willing to do this with us. We
all have a choice to do this.

I hope this expresses some of the reasons I have been [relatively]
silent during this process, and some of the observations I have made
[correctly or incorrectly, I accept that responsibility].

It is not that I do not care.

I am extremely passionate about what I do and will continue to learn
how to get better with each new person I work with around the world.

Thanks for reading this long thought process.

- mike vizdos

Hi,

Well I am still in India and I hear your feedback that you want more cartoons.

So… withouth further ado this week, you will see a brand new one.

It focuses on a really cool Bear, and how you can do estimation and planning.

That’s it for the teaser…. Coming soon!

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

Hi.

In case you did not hear, I am currently in India working with offshore teams here through the end of the month.

I have worked with many offshore teams (from Costa Rica to Kyiv and Moscow and other places around the world) and I have been trying to get on-site in India for years.

And.

It required I get on a plane to meet them all.

Face to face. In person.

So.

Here I am.

On the ground. In India.

Really!

I am seeing a lot of similarities between other offshore teams trying to implement Scrum and other agile techniques.

There are also some differences. Which may or may not be news to some people.

I am going to still wait to draw some conclusions.

However, if you have any questions about working with offshore teams in India — hey — now is the time to use *me* as your voice here.

Ask me. You know I’ll ask people on the ground here!

You can ask via comments below, on twitter or any way that is easiest for you!

I’ll report back what I find here.

And maybe even post some videos . Some that may not have anything to do with IT and Scrum .

Have an awesome day and let me know what questions you have for the Indian Offshore Teams! Commenting at the end of this post will help me collect all the questions in one place — and twitter also works.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

Hi.

Sorry I went “dark” here for a week. Eeek… I am in India through the end of this month (and yeah.. I’ll blog about the experience so far WOW!).

Just wanted to let you know I am getting great comments about the latest Scrum Challenge #2 regarding “An Awesome Product Owner on a Scrum Team will…”

So.

Today.

Go and talk to your Product Owner or Scrum Team Members about this.

Start some conversations!

Please use twitter to complete this statement or contact me or comment here (or on the original blog entry). [heh... no excuse for you NOT to answer!]

Thank you!

- mike vizdos

Hi.

Wow, the responses last week from my first “Random Thought Scrum Challenge” were awesome.

Thank you for all who participated. Let’s try another one for the week.

Same rules: You’ll have just about 24 hours to respond, so please post this on twitter and anywhere else (your own blog?) where you think interest may be around this one.

I’ll then post a synopsis of the results like I did for the first Scrum Challenge — Scrum Is…

So… this weeks Random Thought Scrum Challenge #2 is:

“An awesome Product Owner on a Scrum Team will…”

OK… finish that statement via Twitter (@mvizdos) or below in the comments.

Thank you!

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

This is a guest posting by a great Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Practitioner Alan Dayley who also has a blog called Dayley Agile.

It reflects on a comic strip and blog entry I did a few years ago entitled, “Scrum = Scrum“.

So without further introduction… here is another awesome great Guest Posting… Comments are welcome — and encouraged — to be shared at the end of the posting.

===========

Scrum = Scrum (It Still Is)

Ah, the smooth flavor of plain vanilla Scrum. Simple. Easy to understand. There’s even a little book that explains it in five minutes! Why is it so hard for some people to swallow?

This cartoon was originally published in August, 2007. It and Mike’s text addressed a hot topic of the time, a debate about different “types” of Scrum. Many in the Scrum community were discussing how different teams or companies could adapt Scrum in different ways according their maturity or capabilities. If you go search the email list archives around that time, you will see some debate was had about the concept of Scrum “types.” Is the concept valid? If there are types, what are they? Just A, B and C or other variations? And so on.

In my view, the discussion has since broadened in scope and intensity.

Instead of talking just about types of Scrum, some of the community are now talking about adding or subtracting parts and pieces of Scrum. We talk of “Scrum But” and using Scrum inside waterfall.

The term “Scrumdamentalists” has been coined and seven supposed weaknesses of Scrum exposed.

Scrum usage is growing and changing.

Change is hard. Even Scrum and Agile practitioners are not immune to the difficulty of change. The discussion is not about types of Scrum but what Scrum is and is not.

Plain vanilla is under attack.

Don’t get me wrong, discussion and debate are necessary for innovation and growth. As long as we harness the passion toward good outcomes, even the more strident views being espoused can be valuable. Weakness and variations should be looked at for their contributions to our knowledge and improvement.

And, just because you like a chocolate and nuts swirled in your vanilla does not mean another person is silly for promoting plain vanilla.

There is great value in plain vanilla Scrum. Huge value, in fact.

Scrum is a simple framework, the basic definition can be understood in less than a day.

Scrum does not try to give all the answers or be one size fits all.

It is enough to get started and rapidly learn what you need to improve.

There is a balance in Scrum between prescriptive and freedom, strongly demanding certain, few practices and leaving the business to self-organize the rest.

A team in chaos or in a micro-management pit will find a much better world even if all they do is start with the Scrum practices.

It is easy to start and see improvements in just weeks, even days.

Yes, Scrum does not contain directives around engineering practices such as continuous integration or pair programming. Yes, Scrum lacks a mandate for what a Product Backlog must contain and how the items should be described. And some would say other things are also lacking or wrong. These are things that make Scrum easy to start using.

And once started down the Agile path of continuous improvement, Scrum provides a framework on which to build the practices that match each team’s situation. Want to add eXtreme Programming practices, go ahead! Need to add a Product Backlog Priority Adjustment Conference (I just made that up) with upper management, do it! Want to run your team board with a Kanban flow, that’s fine! All of that can be done within the Scrum framework.

I have no doubt that some teams and enterprises really do need more than just Scrum. Or some pieces and combination of Scrum, XP or some other thing. Asking them to choose what combination is right, from all the many choices, may result in no choice, more confusion and getting no closer to Agile.

And that is not good.

With all due respect to proponents of all Agile frameworks, methodologies and combinations there of, I remind you that plain vanilla Scrum is very powerful, highly adaptable and simply useful.

Don’t forget to try no more and no less than plain vanilla Scrum before dismissing it for some fancy combination. It could be just the taste you are looking for!

======

As usual, comments are welcome and encouraged.

I’d like to sincerely Alan Dayley for taking the time to write this guest blog posting about Scrum.

Want to do a Guest Posting on www.implementingscrum.com? Contact me about writing about your views on any of the existing comic strips at this site!

Than you.

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

Hi all.

Update for the week:

I’ll be posting a guest entry tomorrow night that is a pretty different point of view I originally took on a comic strip I did a while ago. It is from someone I have been coaching (and being coached right back at) for over a few years now. This guy knows his stuff.

Then, I’ll post a new comic. Really!

Then I’ll finish off the week with another Scrum Challenge question. It was extremely well received last week so I’ll try it again and see where it goes.

And hint hint for my readers near New Delhi — I’ll be there SOON. Like VERY soon. For a while. I *want* to meet you, so I’ll get more out to you soon about this and hopefully we can meet face-to-face. I am extremely excited about this opportunity and also for everyone else, I’ll write blog entries from the point of view of “The Traveling Scrum Dude.” Usually in all its glory (if you remember back to Kyiv, Costa Rica, Russia, and other places.

Now all I need is my Visa from the Embassy. Sounds like yesterday was a major holiday over in India, so the Embassy was closed. They are processing my application as I am writing this. So cross your fingers, eyes, and toes that it gets here (with my passport) by the end of the week!

Things are heating back up at www.implementingscrum.com and welcome both new and my “old” readers — you are dear and near to me in ways you can never imagine. Welcome back (for me).

Thank you!

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com