It’s been more than a month since updating here. I have been very busy and the blog plays second fiddle to many other things. This is also a “lazy” blog post. So much has happened or is going on I’m going to do a “flash-back episode” to catch things up.
Certified Scrum Practitioner
The end of September my application for Certified Scrum Practitioner was approved! How I could have been quiet about that I don’t know. The process was interesting. My first submission draft resulted in some requests for additional information. The requests were spot on, pointing out weaknesses and missing information. I was very glad for the review and extra work.
Approval took around two months. I was disappointed and worried about this slow turn-around. Of course, this was also the time of the recent tumult when Ken Schwaber and Jim Cundiff left the Scrum Alliance. Maybe that had an effect on the processing time.
Gaining the level of CSP had been helpful with my work. A few skeptics who actually know little of Scrum or Agile have expressed some additional interest after learning of the new level. Some seem to take me a bit more seriously. I see this as a positive benefit, but a minor one. Continuing the learning is more important to me.
PhxSUG Topic Tables
October 21st the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group had our monthly meeting. This time we concentrated on drawing for ideas from each other. We declared the event “Topic Tables” to have multiple discussions at once around various topics.
After we wrote suggested topics, we voted on them as a group. The four highest vote winners were distributed teams, integration of Scrum and traditional project management, calculation and use of velocity measurement and measuring performance of team members. I found it to be a fun and interesting way to do the meeting. It allowed for both learning and getting to know new people.
Ignite Phoenix 5
I posted earlier about my involvement with the crew of volunteers working on Ignite Phoenix events. Last week Ignite Phoenix 5 went off so smoothly, I still can’t believe the lack of drama for us the organizers. I love the Phoenix area and the great people on the team and that attend our awesome events!
Local ScrumMaster Discussions
I have been enjoying more interaction with local ScrumMasters and Agile practitioners. In particular, I enjoyed a recent discussion with Chris Young, ScrumMaster at Integrum Technologies. He has some great ideas and questions around working with small teams and handling the Product Backlog. The contrast to the large teams I am currently working with was very interesting. I hope to do some story workshop study with him very soon.
Developer Ignite 2
While I have worked on organizing Ignite events, I have never presented at one. A few weeks ago I submitted a topic for Developer Ignite 2. Intel has a significant presence in the Phoenix area. They have taken up to sponsoring an Ignite event centered around software development topics. My submitted topic is “The True Measure of Agile,” which was accepted for presentation! The event will take place tomorrow, on the evening of November 11th. I have been practicing my presentation as much as possible. 20 slides in 5 minutes without stopping is not easy to work in! Certainly forces focus on the core message. We’ll see how I do tomorrow.
My desire is to reveal the need to work toward the values expressed in the Agile Manifesto. That whatever framework or practices you use, it’s not Agile unless these values are supported. I’ll find out if I can do that in only 5 minutes!
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