After the move-around-the-desks project last week I now have a better view of everyone in the racing team. In a good way. And I’ve got more space now so I can spread my things (gloves, bags, moisturising hand cream, scarves, shoes, post it notes, framed photos of the kids, books, drawings etc) more. And still have enough rooom for people dropping by, having a chat, asking about the backlog, discuss story points or beg me to stop adding weird songs on our mutual Spotify playlists. (I’m actually considering placing a couple of visitors chairs in front of my desk to really achieve that teacher/headmaster vs. “ill behaving kid in school” feeling)

So, the office is in order, everyone’s got their desk where its’ supposed to be. The Scrummasters have been appointed, the whiteboards wiped and re-filled…and - we have new teams!

We’re doing some serious scrum experimenting at the moment, going against the very heart and soul of scrum. We’re actually abandoning the idea of cross functional teams. We’re doing it the opposite way, putting people into either the “client/c++team” or the “webteam” depending on their preferences and skills.

Complete anarchy and major heavy stuff, I know. But we want to give it a try and see how it goes. There will of course have to be plenty of communication between the two teams (who are both part of the racing team) to avoid unnecessary dependencies etc. No doubt, there will be some close encounters and tricky situation but we believe the pros outnumber the cons.

I sense a new era is dawning. One with functional teams, dedicated Scrum Masters (or Master Of Universe as they like to be referred to…), sensibel backlogs and a whole new (gu)es(s)timation process.

The week is rapidly coming to an end, there’s a soccer demo in a few minutes and after that Fredagsfika…

Everyone - have a brilliant weekend and I’ll see you on Monday. (I’ve prepared for my chill out Friday with chips and dip and popcorn and there will be a fire burning in the fireplace and I’m gonna watch Resident Evil.

Milla is my kind of hero)

// L

Completely forgot to tell you, we had our weekly demo yesterday (part of the sprint review: demo, retrospective and impediment backlog) where everyone (external stakeholders, other teams etc) gets to see what’s been worked on during the sprint. Or rather, what’s been worked on and finished = what stories are “done done”. Done done means, according to our definition of done, that the code is deployed to next release environment, comitted to sprint branch, tested and bug free and we’ve not added to the technical dept.

So, there’s been much sound work done lately. As you know we’re working with the Supernaturally Talented guys at Pole Position. Erik and Bernard are working hard to get the tools and program adjusted, tuned and just like Pole want them to be. And at yesterday’s demo  we could “show” some new sounds! Updated curbs, environment and transmission sounds if I’m not mistaking. And there are plenty more to come during the next couple of months.

One don’t always realize the importance of sound, until it’s removed. Sound has a magical impact on our perception of presence. Add that wind, vague noice from the gravel or curbs etc etc and suddenly you’re THERE. You’re actually in the car, on the track, going like a billion km per hour hopefully in the wrong direction (adds that extra sense of recklessness that is SO much fun)

Whether it’s environmental sounds or music, it’s superior when it comes to adding nerve, atmosphere and …well presence. Imagine that tear filled ending in any rom com without the violins, the stabbings in Psycho with the sound muted, Silent Hill with a mix-tape soundtrack consisting of all the greatest hits by Vanilla Ice, 2 Unlimited, Britney Spears and Ace of Base… it simply wouldn’t be the same.

Sound matters. And to sort of prove my point I activate the classic Powerslave album, anno 1984, now transformed into a spotify playlist. I couldn’t be happier if I was twins. 

When you look out through my window, by my desk, this is what you see

(no photoshopping done here, I swear, this is as damp grey dystopian sad it really looks!)

What can I say? Look up “dull” in the dictionary and there you have it! The back of our office building in early December.

But inside the office things are really cooking. Oh yeah. Per is being his usual creative self and suddenly I’m not the only one doing manual work, using scissors and scotch tape! Excellent! But what is he doing?

Any takers? Oh come on, just one guess? No? He’s rearranging the backlog of course! Like hello!? Just gotta love that out-of-the-computer-thinking. Why keep it in Excel if it doesn’t feel right for you? Free your backlog! Let’s do it old school.

And on my way back from the kitchen (with like the 8th cup of tea today, spiked with honey) I found Pow who’s wearing green today! That just had to be documented. Green is such a perky color.

And to the left of Pow, there are some clever people trying to get some work done (he just bugs them):

Stroll on, move on, keep going. Behind that 90’s shade of blue wall you find Per, now busy with more manual work. Very refreshing! But there’s a terrible story behind this picture. You wanna hear it? Well, Tomas U, the man ripping out the sensitive parts of Per’s computer, is up to his neck in some Very Important Stuff, like making inspirational material for Power Racing. The problem is, he needed more memory. Well, not him, his computer. So he simply hijacked Per’s. “The RAM or your Jolt” he said. Of course Per let him take the memory.

So there you have it, even the nice ones go a bit crazy when the computer runs slow.

Our very great executive producer and Scrum Officer, Richard, is holding 3 times 2 hour scrum sessions with everyone. Very good initiative! We all need to be on the same level with things, especially something as fundamental as our production/development method. Thank you Richard! (and look, aren’t the racing team just the cutest?)

// office blogger No 1

Our eminent Executive Producer Richard held a two hour “getting to know scrum”-session with the racing team today. It was partially based on some equally eminent slides by Henrik Kniberg, the number one God in the house of Scrum according to Richard

And I agree. Those two days of Scrum Mastering he took us through were filled with realistic, eye opening observations and examples from real life, all delivered with a great sense of humour and self-perception. Entertaining and educational.

So, we agree that Henrik is on the same level as Jesus. Minimum. Maybe he’s Jesus’ older brother. Anyway, what was interesting to see today, was that the developers themselves didn’t have a hard time getting the core values or principles of Scrum and Agile. They could relate. They nodded and smiled and remembered projects they’d been part of that were very similar to those presented on the slides.

And that’s the beauty of Scrum. It’s all about common sense. It’s not the magic bullet. It’s not (despite what I said about Henrik) a divine solution of all evil in the world. It’s just a matter of facing reality, accepting facts and STOP LYING!

A stakeholder (investor/publisher) want something. They ask someone (CEO/Project Manager/Sales Director) how long it will take to build and how much money it’s gonna cost. That someone wants to get the contract. In order to get it, they lie. Yes. They know they can’t make any promises, they know everything changes during the production cycle, they know software development isn’t predictable… still they make promises.

The traditional waterfall method isn’t based on mutual trust or the acceptance of change as a given factor. And that’s why most projects of that kind are destined to fail. (I know there are endless ways to define “fail” or “success”, but still…) Things change. People reconsider. Stuff happens. Nothing, ever, follows the plan.

And that whole trust/lie-issue is covered in this excellent presentation by Henrik (it’s in Swedish, sorry all you foreign people dying to know more about why scrummers don’t lie)

…and that’s where my focus just drops. Need coffe or water or something. I think it’s time to wrap this up and sign out. And also, it’s demo time in a few minutes. This sprint is over and we show the rest of the office, potential stakeholders etc what’s been done since last week.

I think the retrospective is gonna have to wait until tomorrow. My brain is really of no use to anyone right now. Excellent time to go through the product backlog.

See you later.

// Linda