So it's the first day on the new team. There are already two teams sprinting under the other Scrum Master. I've worked with him before indirectly and he's got the right experience and talent so it's going to be a great partnership once my two teams are in flight. He's not a push over, not shy, and he's seasoned enough to know when he's hearing a bad idea but also open to hearing them before he says it's a bad idea. We're going through the resource plans for the other two scrum teams that I'll be taking on. I'm already planning for a Scrum training session for each of them but I'm going to play it by ear before i decide if both teams will be in the same session together. We have a few openings on each team that we need to settle first; some hires, some transfers between teams.
The first two teams have already taken on names for their teams. Their stand ups seem to be mature for a new team. The team is on their feet for at least 15 minutes. Everyone reports in the standard format; What did I accomplish since yesterday? What will I accomplish today? Do I have any roadblocks or impediments in my way? They even report if the Scrum tools are accurate for our burndown charts. They spend another 15 minutes or so (officially NOT part of the stand up) going through each story in a bit more detail to catch up on any detailed discussion that wasn't covered in the stand up. They currently use Rally for their backlog but I'm not sure if that's consistent across the department yet. I'll be looking into their backlog and tracking tools more this week.
My Product Owner is actually leaving the company in a few weeks so there will be some transition necessary if I dont' get someone by the end of the week. I also met two of the Delivery Leads (new role for me as well as the company) and the Dev Manager to discuss our working relationships and our goals. We're still getting to know each other but since we all came from the same company before this one we already have some "war stories" to reminisce over. My meeting with the PM that I will be replacing was much faster than I would have hoped but I'm sure it won't make much difference in the end. Since the teams aren't formed yet, the work is being done by random resources with SME experience based on their Non-Discretionary status until we have fully functional scrum teams to begin working on a backlog. This leads me to believe that as soon as we complete our first sprint, we'll already be outperforming what was done before! I'm going to spend some time in the morning detailing a plan and begin scheduling the meetings for each milestone.
Just a brainstorm in my next steps... I'll need to gather as much knowledge as I can about the architecture of the systems and the business to see the big picture more clearly. Even if I don't have a new Product Owner in place, I'll start pulling together a draft of the backlog and begin grooming the Business Leads that the Product Owner will interface with so I can brief them on how the scrum looks and feels. I may even do a quick Scrum session just for them. I'll be traveling to another site this week to confirm the team members and the openings. I'll be traveling with my Scrum Master partner, Delivery Lead, and Dev Manager so if there is any room for process improvement or efficiency opportunities we'll probably spend the train ride discussing those. So I've just built my own two week sprint!
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