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SCRUM
- Thread starter doodab
- Start date
A client of mine a few years ago was into all of this stuff. Programme and project managers were "encouraged" to have morning hour long stand-up sessions even if they had nothing new to talk about, the sessions always lasted the whole hour because people used them as whining sessions. The management staff who attended played an ego game of seeing who could be the latest to attend then disrupt the meeting with pointless socialisation or other disruption to show their status.
It took two weeks for my rebellion to start paying off, I'd book a half-hour morning slot for my programme team. It was a sit down meeting, started 9:30 sharp, no socialising, no politics, just a round-table update with a 5 minute Q&A bit at the end. If you were late then tough, we weren't going back for you. I always had a 10am meeting in my calendar, even if it were just "go make yourself tea" so that the meeting could never extend longer. I had one manager complain to the CIO that he didn't know what was going on because I refused to wait for him in meetings when he was late, he really didn't think that one through before complaining! The trick payed off and the requirement to have the stand-ups went away, one other contractor took it a bit further and locked the meeting room door at 9:30 stopping late managers from coming in entirely, that really didn't go down well!
I had an interview yesterday where the IT director asked me to explain how I worked "agilely". I asked him to be more specific about which part of "agile" he'd like me to cover, he went a bit cross-eyed at that point and blustered incoherently for a minute or so with the COO looking at him as if he were a cretin. Somehow I don't think I'm getting that bit of work...
It took two weeks for my rebellion to start paying off, I'd book a half-hour morning slot for my programme team. It was a sit down meeting, started 9:30 sharp, no socialising, no politics, just a round-table update with a 5 minute Q&A bit at the end. If you were late then tough, we weren't going back for you. I always had a 10am meeting in my calendar, even if it were just "go make yourself tea" so that the meeting could never extend longer. I had one manager complain to the CIO that he didn't know what was going on because I refused to wait for him in meetings when he was late, he really didn't think that one through before complaining! The trick payed off and the requirement to have the stand-ups went away, one other contractor took it a bit further and locked the meeting room door at 9:30 stopping late managers from coming in entirely, that really didn't go down well!
I had an interview yesterday where the IT director asked me to explain how I worked "agilely". I asked him to be more specific about which part of "agile" he'd like me to cover, he went a bit cross-eyed at that point and blustered incoherently for a minute or so with the COO looking at him as if he were a cretin. Somehow I don't think I'm getting that bit of work...
Totally agree! The stand ups should not last longer than 15mins unless necessary!
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That was a thread resurrection of epic proportions...........in more ways than one.
