What does agile methodology have to do with a beloved magical nanny anyway? Zone scrum master Kay Smith explains all…
I love my job. Describing to others what I do, however, requires imagination and the occasional use of metaphor. Sometimes I tell people I’m like the Mary Poppins of the agile world: I turn up in times of crisis and affect change, I teach teams cool things from my bag of tricks (when they don’t think they need them) and sporadically break into song.
Other times I say I’m like a project manager but cooler. I focus on people, not the project.
For some, agile and/or scrum is a dirty word. I have been told — to my face — that scrum doesn’t work. For others it’s just a buzzword — a magical term that can transform any tech team for the better. It conjures images of unicorns, ping-pong, bean bags, drinks and pizza.
I personally believe that it promotes collaboration and enhances communication, all while fostering creativity and innovation. It is my job to embody these values and lead by example. My success is the success of the team.
The agile community at Zone was created to ‘spread the good word’ and take advantage of the experience we have in the office, share thoughts, tips and ask some pretty solid questions. Some of these questions motivated me to present a lunch and learn session recently, because I’m a strong supporter of fostering a work environment in which people feel safe to fail and learn from mistakes, get creative, problem solve, challenge, collaborate and laugh. We spend most of our lives at work, so we might as well enjoy it.
So what do I actually do? Ultimately, my goal is to put myself out of a job. I help teams that are in the formative stages, acting as their guide on the journey to becoming super-high-level-extraordinary-amazing teams. And yes, that is a technical term.
To optimise the work they produce, teams need to embrace certain values. These include:
Openness: the team do not hold information from each other regarding the creation of a product.
Focus: the team must have clear focus, not just in meetings, but in everything they do.
Commitment: team members should be committed to the team, the product and the vision. If a team makes a commitment, they keep it. And they hold each other accountable.
Respect: everyone is doing their best. When suggestions are offered they need to be treated with respect.
Courage: it’s okay to say no. You have to be open and honest with your team.
Visibility: make the current state of work visible.
Humour: “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun,” said the great Mary Poppins. You work hard, so it’s important to enjoy what you do.
When a team can learn to work as a cohesive unit instead of being driven by traditional roles they become motivated by trust as opposed to fear. Self-organising teams provide astonishing results and often deliver above and beyond expectations. This is because they have the confidence to tackle any challenge and are open to learning new things.
It is vital for teams to reflect (what is working, what isn’t working and why) and adapt (what changes do we need to make to improve) through the iterative process that is the scrum framework. However, scrum is a guideline, and can be adapted to suit the team’s purpose. For one of our major clients, our teams have introduced a Many Amigos process (also known as image mapping) to help identify dependencies early on in the refinement process.
Having the right people in the team is also important. Establishing clear responsibilities means there is no duplication of work. Imagine if you were driving. The product owner would be the steering wheel guiding the team and the scrum master would out in the traffic, ensuring the way is clear. Without one of those roles, the car would lose control or lack direction. If we don’t have a full cross-functional team then our car would be without a wheel. Progress — if it happened at all — would be incredibly slow.
Changing the mindset in a business institution certainly isn’t easy. It requires a lot of repetition, nagging, leading by example, introducing and enforcing consequences, hand-holding, gentle persuasion and a healthy dose of abandoning caution. But it’s all worth it when you deliver the perfect product to an absolutely delighted customer. Now where’s my umbrella? I think I feel a west wind blowing…
