SCRUM Bag

I am a SCRUM bag which is an insult considering I was not trained in this role when I took the post. Being set up to fail to seem to be the norm in my case, perhaps because of my arrogant and know-it-all attitude that I get thrown into the deep end to fend for myself. No primrose path for me as my first boss told me. In fact, I was headed for disaster on day one when I came over and the current circumstances are just par for the course; back to surviving on my wits which really is the norm for any immigrant coming over to the new world.

Last week I learned that SCRUM is the methodology one uses to 'implement' Agile practices. I was familiar with the ceremonies and rituals as a squad member but not as a squad lead so I was winging it; copying the steps of my predecessor without knowledge of the underlying theory. Now I know better and my ignorance on the technical side of it makes it astounding that I lasted this long with my diminishing grit and experience. IBM network courses are a lifesaver for me and the other Coursera courses. In fact, I was only paying lip service to the theory.

Grooming the backlog is the crucial step we missed together with the product owner who also does not have a clue. The use of story points, pipelines, or swimlanes such as inbox and the cooler prior to the product backlog is an eye-opener for me. JIRA tool used in the office does away with this preliminary step; going directly to the Product Backlog though this is likely due to the old version of the tool. The Coursera courses utilize ZenHub and Gitlub which offers a fresh perspective on the SCRUM process.

Last night we watched Babylon - a 3-hour movie extravaganza of 1920-30 Hollywood which I thoroughly enjoyed. Waking early in the morning to read the biographies of silent-era movie stars who had trouble adjusting to the new Hollywood of sound in pictures. I had a brief inkling of being one of those fading movie stars who had trouble adjusting to the new reality. I am in the same situation of learning these new tools to survive in the modern workplace of interconnectivity, collaboration, and accelerated work in a lean and agile world.

It is easy to succumb to booze, drugs, and other distraction instead of learning new skills which some of the real-life silent stars tried to do. But I have done this shift many times before, such as writing this blog 20 years ago to learn the new technology.  I have to make another leap not only to learn new tools but in new ways of working; first as a squad member and then as a squad leader. It is a new world and the mind opens up so many avenues that one get gets lost in the different paths ahead. Don't be a SCRUM bag!