Team Members

Ronica Roth (facilitator): ronica@rallydev.com

John Hill: johnhillcsm@yahoo.com

Roger Brown: roger.w.brown@valley.net

Alan Atlas: Alanat@amazon.com

Peter Deemer: petedeemer@yahoo.com

Paul Comean: pcomean@ieee.org

Overview

The items within this section of the Mind Map centered on how CSMs can more easily find the information they need as they transition from certification/training to implementation/practice. The current problem is that the volume of information is large and difficult to sift through, especially for newbies.

Topics

We focused on three elements along our branch of the mind map.

Help You Train Your Own Team and Colleagues

Oftentimes a company sends a single person to CSM training, and then that person must train team and product owner and others about the new method they will all adopt. This training can be a challenge, especially for newly minted CSMs who don't normally perform any internal teaching.

• Solution: In a central location (Scrum Alliance Web site), provide BASIC curricular materials. Include agendas/guidelines for tailoring materials to audiences, PowerPoint slides, and the Scrum Alliance seal of approval.
• Challenges: Finding an agreed-upon "basic" curriculum
• Action: We already talked to Mike Cohn, who is leading the effort to redesign the Scrum Alliance web site. The team remains at his service to help follow through.

Case Studies/Experience-Sharing

Another group was focused on content; we focused on how to provide that content.

As we discussed the value of sharing experience reports and case studies in the community, we made an analogy to the learning-benefits in the scientific community. That is, a scientist or group of scientists publish a report, others try to improve upon the results, and then publish their results. We agreed that the key there is peer-review. Without peer review, we are left with something akin to the Internet itself--a vast and overwhelming array of information that many readers can't evaluate.

We also discussed the value of a centralized, preferably searchable, repository for at least the links to information.

• Solution: At a centralized, searchable site, provide links to case studies and experience reports and other information with a voting/rating system. A key to this system is that users cannot submit anonymous ratings.
• Challenges: Choosing technology?
• Action: We already talked to Mike Cohn, who is leading the effort to redesign the Scrum Alliance web site. The team remains at his service to help follow through.

Help Line

Newly minted CSMs in particular can feel a little lost a few weeks or months into implementation. They find challenges via retrospectives but then don't know what to do. The Scrum Development yahoo group is not considered an ideal source because it has become unsafe for the newbie.

• Solution: Moderated discussion list. Moderators are CSM/p's or higher. Is exclusively for helping people (not for arguing, debating, flaming). Sectioned into useful topics, with sticky notes for the most common.
• Challenges: Choosing technology? (maybe something along the lines of the Yahooanswers model?)
• Actions: Team needs to follow up.