Opening Communication Within a Scrum Team During the Daily Meeting - Part 3

Mike Vizdos, www.implementingscrum.com

A Quick Reflection

Here are a few questions for you and your team to discuss. Pass this around to your team members -- including both the Chickens and Pigs -- and decide what you as individual team members, the team as a whole, and the entire organization wants to do next.

If you are using Scrum today, which team looks like yours today -- Team X or Team Y?

Why?

If you are looking a lot like Team X, what is stopping you from becoming more like Team Y?

List the reasons and discuss them. As a group.

If you are not using Scrum today and are thinking about using it, which team do you want to be more like -- right from the beginning?

This will not happen overnight and takes a patient and effective ScrumMaster to help.

Next Steps

This article has given you a start regarding some of the tough conversations you have to discuss as a Scrum Team.

Talk about it with your Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the rest of your Scrum Team Members.

Why do I consider this so valuable? Because without communication people will shut down and start making assumptions.

And. As a member of a Scrum Team -- no matter what your role -- part of your job is to initiate these tough conversations so that you can become a high performing team. If you do not take personal responsibility and accountability, the rest of the organization around you will continue to try to push things back to the way they used to be.

So what if I told you I have seen teams transform from the hypothetical "Team X" into "Team Y" if the individuals, team members, and organizations supported this change.

You will always always always always (multiplied by infinity plus one) have a reason for not implementing a change within your organization. Change that wording "Yes... But" to "Yes... And" with your team and see what we mean by Scrum becoming the, "Art of the Possible."

Go to part 2   

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This article was originally published in the Fall 2008 issue of Methods & Tools