Author: Gunther

independent (Scrum) Caretaker and Workplace Humanitarian. Free spirit and lightweight philosopher. Happy husband and father to 3 children. Loves literature, philosophy and poetry.
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Lentepoetsballonkunst(enaar)

Van AOp 27 april 2013 was het weer lentepoets in de Antwerpse wijken ondersteund door Opsinjoren van de stad. Vooraleer wij onze straten en straatkanten aanpakten, organiseerde ons Weegbree-buurtcomité eerst echter een brunch. Gelukkig genoeg was het mooi weer, dus konden we lekker in openlucht zitten.

Daarnaast was ook een ballonkunstenaar voorzien om de kinderen te entertainen, Wouter. En, wow, we waren onder de indruk. Iedereen kent de klassieke clown annex ballonknutselaar die een zwaard maakt, of een hoed, of een hondje van ballonnen. Maar Wouter maakte er net wat meer werk van.

Voor onze kleine zus Nienke maakte hij een evenbeeld en voor broer Jente een kabouter Kwebbel. Grote broer Ian vroeg een draak, een ‘uitdaging’ die Wouter heel ernstig nam, zoals je kan zien. Hij transformeerde Ian zowaar helemaal in een draak van ballonnen.

Nienke BallonnenevenbeeldJente BallonnenkwebbelIan Ballonnendraak

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Moving to the home of Scrum

Why I look forward to working with Ken Schwaber and being part of Scrum.org, the home of Scrum.

Less than a year ago I was wondering about rather surprising evolutions in my professional life of Scrum. I retrospected to find that some things take time, can’t be rushed, let alone be predicted. Ending up with the feeling of being carried to places one never imagined of entering.

That was June 2012. Now is April 2013.

Over the past years Ken Schwaber and I have developed, almost by accident, a great personal and working relationship. Beyond that, I have an awesome contact and understanding with the Scrum.org team. Both aspects contributed to my well-being, made me feel good, respected, cherished even at times. And that was just fine. It helped, it inspired me in my work, it gave me opportunities to bounce ideas off.

Very recently, my daily times and work got into turbulence, with my stress levels going red. I realized that few people understand, understand what drives and motivates me. Hmm, some would say it’s just frustration born out of stubbornness and impatience. Ken and I tightened the relationship. Until we decided to move it to a formal level. And in no more than 1 week we completely arranged for my move to the home of Scrum and become part of the Scrum.org team.

It wasn’t planned. It happened. It emerged from a chaotic situation of doubts, searching, thinking and many considerations.

Who would have guessed?

Being a bit of an anarchist myself, I consulted with knowledgeable dilettante people in that 1 week. Opinions were unanimous: it won’t be a picnic, it will be an adventure, highly challenging, but fascinating and brilliant. Hmm, Ken himself says it will be a walk in the park. But that’s probably because he knows of many past motions that I have gone through. And, despite some controversy and him being a mule, few people would doubt Ken is an honorable, intelligent and trustworthy person to work with.

Luckily we consider ourselves just about weird enough to work with each other. We are both impulsive, impatient. He’s a mule, I’m stubborn. We have much in common; above all we seem to share many views and values. We go for vision, focus and creativity. And I am proud to be creating a little room of the house of Scrum in Antwerp, Belgium, Europe. I’ll be joining a great team, and serve the communities of Scrum practitioners, promoters of Scrum and our Scrum.org Professional Scrum trainers; thriving on autonomy to work on my mastery in Scrum and Enterprise Scrum from the purpose of making this world a better place to live and work in.

Type I behavior: A way of thinking and an approach to life built around intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, motivators. It is powered by our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Ken and I made up a little news announcement to express our excitement. Find it here: News – Ken Schwaber and Gunther Verheyen tighten relationship.

Scrum.org Logo

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The Value of the Product Backlog

Grafx - Scrum Gameboard (non-branded)Scrum is a light-weight framework with a minimal set of rules. The rules help people to empirically make the most out of every single day of creating software products. Next to 3 roles and 5 events, Scrum requires no more than 3 artefacts:

  • Product Backlog
  • Sprint Backlog
  • Increment (Potentially Shippable –)

Product Backlog holds desirements

It is often said that the Product Backlog must capture all requirements. However, the Product Backlog is not a replacement for the old requirements list. This would limit it to a new name for an old habit. The value of the Product Backlog lies not in precision, in detail or in perfection, like the requirements lists pretended.

The Product Backlog is an ordered list of ideas, features and options to bring an envisioned software product to life or sustain and grow it. The list may include fixes, maintenance work, architectural work, or requirements for security, scalability, stability and performance. Each item on the Product Backlog seems at some point in time valuable for a customer. Every item on the Product Backlog holds just enough detail to make clear what it represents, but the item is also intentionally incomplete to invoke additional and explicit conversation over it. Even the definition of ‘just enough’ varies over time; items on the Product Backlog that are far away in time (ordered low) need even less detail than items that are nearby in time (ordered high).

Gradual Product Backlog Refinement

I like the term ‘desirement’ for a Product Backlog item. The level of description and detail of the item lies somewhere between what used to be a desire and what used to be a requirement; where a ‘desire’ is too fuzzy to work on and a requirement is over-specified and over-detailed. And over-specification impedes an optimal use of technology, blocks capitalizing on synergies between different functions and is a waste of money in situations of even minimal turbulence or change.

As life progresses and the earth keeps turning, Product Backlog in Scrum gets refined, adjusted and updated. The list is continuously sorted and re-sorted by the Product Owner, who thereby looks to balance the needs of all stakeholders. And by continuously keeping to ‘just enough’ descriptions and designs of the work, i.e. leaving out unnecessary details, no excessive money and time is wasted when the item in the end doesn’t get created or is implemented in a different fashion.

Product Backlog is all the plan you need

Desirements move upon their ordering from Product Backlog via Sprint Backlog into Increments of working software. To know their cost, each is assigned an idea of the effort to get it done. The cost is generally expressed as the relative size of the item. Based upon the empirical past that showed how much work on average could be transformed into a working Increment during a Sprint, an expectation can be created on when an item on the Product Backlog might become available in the evolving product. It gives predictability, yet not transgressing into predictions given that any such expectation is constrained by today’s knowledge and circumstances.

  • In a traditional plan all requirements are gathered, listed, described, analyzed, estimated and decomposed upfront. All tasks for all requirements are elaborated, sequenced and resource-wise assigned. This way the total time is determined it will take to build the plan, where ‘follow the plan’ determines the success. Dependencies are handled via the detailed tasks, their sequence and their mutual impact.
  • In the ‘just enough’ approach of Scrum however, there is no need to plan all tasks for all ‘requirements’ upfront. Desirements are gradually discovered and refined, and they are only converted into development work when included in a forecast for a particular Sprint. The forecast is based upon the relative size indication and the past progress.

Product Backlog is all the plan you need, its desirements hold all the information needed for predictability about scope and time (if that’s what you need).

There is value in value

Priorities in traditional approaches are, besides ease of work and loudmouths, mostly based upon effort and risk. This is a focus on the internal process.

An important principle of agile however is “to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” While the ordering of Product Backlog items happens upon a complex combination of factors like dependencies, priority, cohesion and consistency, most interesting is the required addition of a notion of (Business) Value. Without it, a Product Owner has no idea on how much value a feature, an idea or a feature set presumably brings to the customer whom he/she represents to the Scrum Team. The value can be indirect, in it that not picking up a Product Backlog item might undercut the value of the system or even the organization, or produce negative value.

The notion of (Business) Value also helps Product Owners and their stakeholders move away from the (false idea of) perfection of a total product that must be completely built before releasing. Focus shifts to a minimal marketable product release, the minimal work it takes to bring as much value as possible as soon as possible to the marketplace. Techniques like leveling up can be used to group Product Backlog items into cohesive feature sets.

The value of the Product Backlog

Above all, the value of the Product Backlog lies in transparency, in making clear what work needs to be done in order to create a minimally viable and valuable product (or product Increment). The Product Backlog brings out in the open all work, development, compliances, and constraints that the team has to deal with to create releasable software.

However, too often (and especially in traditional software development environments) the sequence of implementation is based upon priorities like MoSCoW, thus leading to opaque, large clusters of requirements, loss of focus and heavy releases. Therefore, to build valuable stuff, there is value in defining, considering and adding value to Product Backlog items. A Product Backlog item needs the right attributes to be ordered, more than just prioritized.

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Scrum Day Europe 2013

Scrum Day Europe

On 11 July 2012 the first edition of the Scrum Day Europe was organized. The theme of the day was “Software in 30 Days”, after the book that Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland published in April 2012. In line with the book, our objective was to address executive people of organizations interested in or already adopting Scrum. Over 130 attendants came and made out an uncommon audience for an agile conference, turning it into not your average agile conference but with tons of energy and enthusiasm.

On 4 July 2013 the second edition of the Scrum Day Europe will be organized. The 2013 theme is “Enterprise Scrum“, after the new C-Scrum framework for Continuous Improvement that Scrum.org has developed. I was so lucky to be deeply involved in this great evolutionary step in the existence of Scrum. Ken Schwaber will again open the day with a keynote. Yours truly will also do a session again. The program will be further developed soon.

Be quick, seats are limited so we can unlimit energy and interaction.

Scrum Day Europe Banner

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Scrum: Framework, not methodology

Scrum is not a methodology

Scrum has no exhaustive and formal prescriptions on how to design and plan the work, actions and behavior of all players involved in product development against time, let alone how such designs and plans would have to be documented, approved, stored, etc. Scrum has no rules for upfront predictions of document types and (intermediate) deliverables to be produced or the time at which they should be produced. Instead of installing and thriving on hand-overs, toll gates and control meetings like IT methodologies typically do, Scrum helps eliminating them as a major source of delays and waste.

Scrum has its roots in the world of software development. In that world, ‘methodologies’ are by design composed of stringent and mandatory sequences of steps, processes and procedures, implementing predefined algorithms and executors for each step, process or procedure. As such, methodologies tend to rule out the creativity, autonomy and thinking of people with components like phases, tasks, must-do practices, techniques and tools. As long as the methodology is being followed everyone feels safe, because they are formally covered, even in the absence of working results or proven progress. Methodologies depend on high degrees of predictability, otherwise the preset algorithms fail. Complex problems, for which Scrum was designed, are more unpredictable than they are predictable. Today’s world has more complex challenges than simple cases.

Scrum is not a methodology. Scrum is even the opposite of such big collections of interwoven mandatory components and instructions. Scrum implements the scientific method of empiricism, the process of inspecting in order to adapt at regular intervals, not aspiring to try to predict what the adaptations will be. Scrum replaces a programmed algorithmic approach with a heuristic one, with respect for people and thriving on the self-organizing capabilities of people to deal with unpredictability and address complex challenges.

Is Scrum a process?

If Scrum is a process, it is certainly not a repeatable process. That might be a challenge to explain, because the term ‘process’ typically invokes a sense of algorithmically predictable steps, repeatable actions and enforceable top-down control; the sort of expectations that in our world are typical for a… methodology.

Scrum is not a commanding process. If referred to as a ‘process’, then Scrum is a servant process. What works best for all involved players, their working process, emerges from the use of Scrum. The players discover the work required to close the gap between an inspected intermediate result and an envisioned outcome. Scrum is a process that helps surface the real (daily) process, structures and a way of working that are continuously adapted to the actual context and current circumstances. Therefore we call Scrum a… framework.

Scrum is a framework

Scrum describes the roles and rules upon given principles that help and facilitate people in a low-prescriptive way, that help people create a framework for regular inspections and adaptations. The Scrum Guide holds the definitive description of the base rules of the game. The prescriptions are minimal, but every single one of them addresses dysfunctions that were (and are) common in (software) product development.

Over the 2+ decades of Scrum, the rules of Scrum, as captured in the Scrum Guide, have gradually evolved, with small functional updates and releases. The prescriptions of Scrum, what needs to be in place to have the full benefits of Scrum, become more and more focused on emphasizing ‘what’ is expected in developing complex products over instructing ‘how’ to do it.

A good illustration of such an evolution is the elimination of burndown charts from the Scrum framework as mandatory (a ‘how’ of managing progress). This obligation however has been replaced by the explicit expectation that progress on the mandatory Scrum artefacts, the Product Backlog and the Sprint Backlog, is visualized (the ‘what’). The form or format of the visualization is no longer prescribed, thereby turning burndown charts into a non-mandatory, but still good practice; a good way to play the game and suitable in many situations.

Yes, it’s Scrum if Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog exist and if a visualization of their progress is available, accessible and clear. This may be a burn-down chart with open effort. It may also be a burn-up chart in value. It may be a Cumulative Flow Diagram. It may be as simple as a Scrum board.

The Scrum framework leaves options for different tactics to play the game, ways that can at any time be adopted to the context and circumstances. Scrum, as a framework, can wrap many practices. When applied well, the overall system will still be recognisably… Scrum.

The Scrum core values give direction to the actions, the behavior and the additions to the framework. Upon that core, in a ScrumAnd way of thinking many opportunities emerge. Have a look at some illustrations of ScrumAnd.

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Few People Understand

Many people spend their time, full-time, on elbowing a career, improving their personal position, aiming at a promotion, planning a next strategic move, working on political strategies, making more money, ripping off people, whatever it takes.

Few people understand what motivates me. Few people understand:

  • My drive to make our world a better place to live and work in;
  • My apathy for titles and hierarchy;
  • My respect for people as the core of my actions and being.

Few people understand that no promotion, no bonus, no pseudo-moral bribery, no threats have changed or will change these inner drives. Few people understand that no hierarchies keep me from addressing people’s issues, challenging the status-quo or experimenting with improvements.

Few people have the mental openness to understand that I care only about the content of my work, about working with people, about my autonomy (in team, time, tasks and tools, as described in Daniel Pink’s Drive). Don’t come to tell me what you want from me, or try to use me for power games or self-promotion. It only wears me out, and only causes me to respond emotional and unexpected (much to my own dismay). Come to work with me and great results may emerge.

I share this reluctantly. It is not a pose. Maybe this one-time notice helps. Maybe it helps you to see why we don’t get along or why you feel ignored. In the meantime I have the best work and personal life possible, the greatest career possible; by not minding my career.

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De dag van ‘t gedicht voorbij (gerijmd?)

La NOuvelle Cycluste231 Januari is (was) gedichtendag. Voorbijgehold door mezelf en de tijd wil ik alsnog mijn bijdrage leveren, met werk uit eigen werk, La NOuvelle Cycluste (ONgekelderd en NOg dicht). Helemaal ge-zelf-publiceerd is het ook nog steeds te koop op Unibook. Hmm, een liefhebber in de zaal?

Onderstaande is een leesbaar gedicht:

Geluk

Geluk
,zeggen ze,
hoort niet in een woord.
Geluk
,zeggen ze,
is
wat hoort.
Zeggen ze maar niet.
tJA,
die dichters toch.

Ik schrijf verder echter vooral meetlatpoëzie, gestructureerd, afgelijnd en letterlijk afgemeten. Aangezien dat zich moeilijk hier laat reproduceren, kan je hier het ondertitelgedicht van de bundel downloaden: ONgekelderd en NOg dicht.

Zoals ik eerder al meldde, zette Marc Swoon Bildos ook al gepaste beelden op mijn gedicht “Geheimpje van de Dichter”. Mooie gelegenheid om hier nog eens te tonen:

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A Servant King?

purple-badgeIn 2012 one of the communities at my employer found a fun way to reward people. The community handed out virtual badges for specific achievements. The top badge collectors became kings. The kings recently fought a ‘battle’ to determine who would be the conqueror.

The kings had to present themselves to the battle audience with a little movie. My movie was co-created with a terrific colleague and member of El Porco, who I hold accountable for the poetic expressions that might indicate how I’m perceived. Better than any spoken statement could be.

By the way, I gloriously and graciously failed to win the battle.

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Ways to play Scrum

Scrum.org-Logo-CirclesIn our Professional Scrum classes we also talk about the topics of User Stories, Planning Poker and (Daily) Stand-up meetings. Some attendants have never heard of it. Some have never practiced it. Some are convinced, or have been instructed, that Scrum says these are mandatory to do.

I have grown my own little pattern to work with a class whenever we run into one of these topics during my classes.

  1. I start by asking what Scrum actually says on the practice. In general, people don’t know or are not sure, and conclude that Scrum says nothing about it.
  2. I ask where the practice then does come from, if it’s not Scrum. Few people know that it is eXtreme Programming.
  3. I end up by saying that, despite the XP origins, we do support them in many cases as they represent good ways to play Scrum, they are good practices to chose from. And that this is the reason why we cover them in the course; to inspire people with different options to play Scrum.

But, they are not mandatory from the Scrum framework described in the Scrum Guide:

  • Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace C16614_fUser Stories, written on story cards, are the practice in Extreme Programming to hold and describe requirements from a user perspective. Bill Wake, author of ‘eXtreme Programming Explored’, suggested the ‘INVEST’ acronym as a simple way to remember and assess whether or not a User Story is well formed.
    A Scrum Product Backlog though serves to provide transparency to all work that a Scrum Team needs to do, which might be more than only functional requirements. The obligation, from Scrum, to use the User Story-format would endanger forgetting other important work to be undertaken, or it might force teams spending more time and energy on using the ‘right’ format, thus creating waste. However, for functional items on the Product Backlog, User Stories may be very good.
  • Planning Poker was invented by James Grenning during an eXtreme Programming project where he suffered from having to spend much, much time on producing estimates.
    In Scrum, estimates are to be created by the Development Team and, although not mandatory, Planning Poker is a good technique to do that. It leads to more honest estimates from a complete team. But don’t forget that the intention is to invoke an honest conversation over the estimates. Because that results in a good understanding of the work attached to implementing the discussed item.
  • Daily Stand-up are described in Extreme Programming, which recommended participants stand up to encourage keeping the meeting short.
    Scrum describes this meeting as the Daily Scrum, but doesn’t oblige to do it standing up. However, it is a good idea to do, especially to keep the time-box of 15 minutes.

That is often a relief to students, knowing that it is not mandatory. And I am glad I can help people. I am glad they see more opportunities to discover their own best way to play Scrum respecting the intentions and design of Scrum. They see better how Scrum can help teams and organizations emerge their own process. These ways to play Scrum in teams’ specific contexts turn the selected good practice into best practices.

Scrum, after all, can be called a ‘process’, but it’s a servant process, not a commanding process.

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Writing Scrum Writings

On top of managing the agile offering of Capgemini (Dutch description here) as a Product Owner and mentoring our Scrum coaches and Scrum trainers I also give Professional Scrum trainings.

Scrum.org-Logo_with_taglineAfter my classes I send out a thank you to the participants in which I include some guidelines to prepare for the online assessment they get access to. I also point people to some background readings. Over time I have created a small library of blog notes I’ve written from which I can select some to refer attendants to for additional information on top of the courseware:

I always pick some of following topics to add:

Fyi. have a look at the most beautiful location I have ever trained in.