Built another Scrum task board today for a team. I first described it on the whiteboard, and a bit about how it worked, how we could choose vertical story and status columns or horizontal - gave them the choice. We could start with the simplest thing that might work - 3 states (ToDo, In process, Done) and add states if needed (another choice).
I gave my standard disclaimer - the first version was going to be designed to be thrown away - so bad that they would have to re-do it to make it better. That's a trick I've learned to sell them ownership of their board. After a few mock examples on the whiteboard they were getting restless and wanted action. They bought it. Sold!
After 6 flip charts got pasted to the wall (3 h. x 2 v.) and a bit of labels and lines - we ran some examples of what it might look like with Story stickies and Task stickies. Then we played a simulation standup for a few simulated days. The simulation worked wonderfully. They got into the make-believe and started adding to the Improv. I was switching hats - Coach... ScrumMaster... Team Member with a really bad performance record on a task. They improv-ed some situations and one or two really great question later we had a team that was going to learn Scrum the old fassion way - by doing it. No powerpoints, no death by bullet points, just good old Polish hard work and positive attitude.
I did pull out one acronym and we talked about homonyms (I'm from the south so my dialect allows me to pronounce 'pen' == 'pin' - but they are Polish and it all sounds English to them).
T - those
A - awesome
S - stickies
K - keep
S - Sliding to DONE!
That's as close to a slide as we got.
Sorry Rally/VersionOne/etc. - that's a three person team that is not going to use your Information Cooler.
Video at 11.
Queen - Another One Bites the Dust.
 |
| The simplest thing that could possible work. A Scrum task board (ToDo, In Process, Done). Tasks flow down the page. |
I gave my standard disclaimer - the first version was going to be designed to be thrown away - so bad that they would have to re-do it to make it better. That's a trick I've learned to sell them ownership of their board. After a few mock examples on the whiteboard they were getting restless and wanted action. They bought it. Sold!
After 6 flip charts got pasted to the wall (3 h. x 2 v.) and a bit of labels and lines - we ran some examples of what it might look like with Story stickies and Task stickies. Then we played a simulation standup for a few simulated days. The simulation worked wonderfully. They got into the make-believe and started adding to the Improv. I was switching hats - Coach... ScrumMaster... Team Member with a really bad performance record on a task. They improv-ed some situations and one or two really great question later we had a team that was going to learn Scrum the old fassion way - by doing it. No powerpoints, no death by bullet points, just good old Polish hard work and positive attitude.
I did pull out one acronym and we talked about homonyms (I'm from the south so my dialect allows me to pronounce 'pen' == 'pin' - but they are Polish and it all sounds English to them).
T - those
A - awesome
S - stickies
K - keep
S - Sliding to DONE!
That's as close to a slide as we got.
Sorry Rally/VersionOne/etc. - that's a three person team that is not going to use your Information Cooler.
Video at 11.
Queen - Another One Bites the Dust.
 |
| Scrum Task board loaded and in action. A Polish Impediments list on the right wall. |
Comments
David - I wish you great vacations and hope you come back next year.