Scrum, where exactly do the managers go?

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Martin Harris

Two friends helping with a load of dried fish.

Goa State, India, Lifting the load: Martin Harris

Project Management Offices really serve no purpose in scrum. You are either a product owner, (not a manager), scrum master (not a manager either) or your in the team, (no technical leaders here either). So what about all that useful controlling and reporting stuff they used to do?

Program management functions should be moved into the team.
Team support comes from Agile coaches, or scrum masters. They are not managers, they guide and do not tell the team what to do.
Responsibilities of release, budget, tracking reporting etc, are the Product Owners domain, once again the Product Owner is not a manager.

Its a bad idea to keep the PMO and attempt to re-brand it under Scrum. Keeping the unit and asking people to be scrum masters is a recipe for disaster. Its hard to change team culture over to scrum. Teams find it a big challenge to throw off the old and become self directed. If you have your old manager coming to your team the roles stay right where they were. So if you want to keep members of the PMO and they are technical, make them part of the team or remove them from the process.

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When Change is hard

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Martin Harris

Just found out about Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard – Chip and Dan Heath,
from some of the Lab49 consultants. I can’t wait to read it. Take a look at this clip:

Clip from Switch Change book

The experiment in the hospital, reminds me of what happens when I am pair coding. When you are working in a pair, people are less likely to interrupt you. I think it contributes to the extra throughput for pairs. This book is going on my reading list.

Estimates are not commitments!

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Martin Harris

Cambodia, Phnom Penn, the water festival: Martin Harris

Probably one of the most common mistakes in Software Development is to allow Estimates to become Commitments. I am sure you know the following scenario all too well. The development team is called into a meeting room and asked the following question. We (the management team) have had a look at the estimates, and your tasks on average are taking longer. The insinuation is that the development team is, stupid or perhaps lazy. Worse still, an individual is called in because the stats show their work is “Behind Schedule” as judged by the estimates. The problem is none of this though, the problem is believing that estimates are anything other than an educated guess.

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Of Groundswell and Product Owners

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Martin Harris

I have just finished reading Groundswell by Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. The book has been around for awhile but its concepts are worth understanding. Its a great book about how Social Technologies have changed the way companies relate to their customers. Not only that but how companies can benefit from Social Technologies within their own organisation. Its a good read, get hold of a copy. The book is rich with Internet law, marketing tips, research and good practice. It gave me some ideas on how Groundswell could be used to provide a product owner with some powerful tooling.

Groundswell shows a way to tool up your Product Owner?

One of the most important scrum principles is to assign a Product Owner.

Vietnam, man takes a call in the temple.

Tool me up, Temple, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Martin Harris

This person should have a very good understanding of the business. At first glance is seems like a good idea for that person to be an active part of the business. For a single dealer platform it looks like a good idea to recruit someone who actively deals or for a legal application a senior member of the law staff. The problem with this is a dealer is likely to be too busy looking after money, and the Lawyer is in and out of court. Active members of the business have better things to do, so we have to look elsewhere for our product owners.
read on for the tooled up idea

Transient Technology

Next time you look it might be gone

Tag Archives: book

Scrum, where exactly do the managers go?

When Change is hard

Estimates are not commitments!