Cluck Cluck Cluck

Two female friends were chatting during a social visit.  One had better communication skills than other.  (Don't become too excited by that statement.)  Both were focused on talking about their own lives, though Female "C" did initiate the visit's vocal exchange by asking about Female "F"s life.  Female "F" interrupted almost half of the times that female "C" was speaking; female "C" interrupted only a handful of times, usually to ask a relevant question.  Female "F" changed topics unexpectedly, usually by interrupting, without any relation to the current topic.


* Letter codes are not name-based, but grading-based. :)  Distribution might be similar to a Bell Curve, but IME there are many more self-focused female conversationalists than highly effective ones.

 These types of female-female interactions are very common.  So what about a female-male interaction?  With societal norms changing, due to female dominated formative years and "mansplaining" & other degradating terms,  there are a decreasing number of "A" and "B" (and even "C") ability males.  Silence is safer and self-focused chatter is learned by example.

Controversial?  Yes.
That doesn't change reality.

No More Scrum

I liked the Scrum framework.  Once I found The Scrum Guide and digested it, I saw the beauty of the design and intent.  I've spent a lot of time and energy attempting to correct misconceptions and spread information of its benefits.  However I continue to see traditional, command-and-control, top-down, hierarchical, micromanagement everywhere: blogs, comments, articles, conversations, etc.

The more I call out ignorance the more I see in replies and likes.  Certified Scrum Masters (or ScrumMaster as they say) from Scrum Alliance were known issues.  I see it also comes from industry "experts" such as Mike Cohn.  Professional Scrum Trainers are also problematic.

I think I am done with this battle.  The agile philosophy has had over 20 years to become the norm.  People would rather remain in the comfort of repeating failure than actually learn a new way.

Scrum Guide Revisions 2017

The Scrum Guide revisions November 2017

• Highlighting that the framework can be applied beyond software is a nice addition.
• The additional information and rewording for the Scrum Master role will be helpful to some.
• Daily Scrum changes are a great step in a positive direction. Promoting a conversation over the three question format (3QF) or walking the board has been a challenging sell to many.
• The need to further reiterate the definition of a time-box highlights one of many symptoms exemplifying that Scrum, for many, is not "Simple to understand" as advertised. :-)
• The requirement to have "at least one high priority process improvement identified in the previous Retrospective meeting" on the Sprint Backlog creates some issues as it does not align with the definition of the Sprint Backlog.
• It is not a Product Backlog Item (PBI).
• It is not a part of the plan for delivering the Increment and realizing the Sprint Goal.
• It is not a forecast of functionality.
• The Sprint Backlog belongs solely to the Development Team therefore so does this process improvement item.
• Changes are inspected and adapted during the Daily Scrum (for Development Team only).
• Development Team works through the plan.
• Only the Development Team can change its Sprint Backlog during a Sprint.
• It is a highly visible, real-time picture of the work that the Development Team plans to accomplish during the Sprint.