HELP: loosing my job after proposing and leading agile transition?
I've proposed Agile to the software startup I helped to found technically (10people).
After almost a year I managed to gain support of CEO and CDA, and proper training for the whole team.
I started lead the implementation of Agile.
I proposed as Product Owner the most ambitious young girl, who has domain and technical competences .
I transferred technical decision fully to the dev team (I was up to this point the technical founder).
I invited at Agile events the CEO and other cofounders that were previously very far from the team.
I tried to put myself in SCRUM master role.
The enthusiasm is very high, but the result seems to be:
- one cofounder who is non-technical and was previously almost excluded from decisions, would like very much to be the SCRUM master and thinks he would be very suitable for the role as he holds even a degree in psychology
-the young dev team (few months into the company) wants to change completely the app architecture
- the Product Owner want to change completely many functionalities
All of this is actually very good. I really want dev people to use the technology they are more comfortable with.
And I want the PO to bring in new ideas. And I want the cofounders to be more in contact with the team...
BUT hem, hey? what is happening with myself?????
I could have been perfect as PO, but the young girl I proposed is now very motivated.
The SCRUM master role is lost, hey I wouldn't fight with a cofounder...,
Should I go back in the dev team? , My skills will be less and outdated because I won't master the chosen technology, plus I'll be a 40 year old guy asking for help to 20 y.o. programmers...
So basically, have I just screwed myself?
Hi Marco,
You're the Scrum Master. You have created this team, and it sounds that it's running smoothly. But be wary of 'ambitious' people... they might just be in it for their own glory and SCRUM is all about the team effort and accomplishments.
If I were you, I would stay in the team as the Scrum Master, regardless if someone else wants the job. You've done the hard yards, so why hand it over to someone else now that the dust has settled and there are points to score with a successful delivery. Would the guy be enthusiastic to take over if the project was in trouble and had no senior support? I doubt it.
If there are more projects in the pipeline that need start-up guidance and coaching and you're given that task then by all means, hand over the reigns for the current project and you move into the coaching role.
If not, then just be careful and don't handover anything yet..
Hi Marco,
Can I ask you a question? Imagine that you keep the role of SM. And you are so efficient/enthusiastic that your team has became fully self-organized, and mastering agile principles to deliver outstanding values. In this case, what would be your next challenges? Because, oftenly, Scrum Master is just a temporary (or part time) position.
Posted By Sedera Randria on 31 Oct 2016 08:46 PM
Hi Marco,
Can I ask you a question? Imagine that you keep the role of SM. And you are so efficient/enthusiastic that your team has became fully self-organized, and mastering agile principles to deliver outstanding values. In this case, what would be your next challenges? Because, oftenly, Scrum Master is just a temporary (or part time) position.
Hi Sedera,
Take into account that at the moment we have few resources and my original position was "only-developer-evolved-into-CTO". My technical work will probably be necessary for some time.
Maybe more concentrated on the infrastructure, enforcing quality standard, testing procedures, deployment workflow etc than on pure development.
I would expect in the future to hire more people or even start other projects in the company and repeat the SM coaching role for another group...
Otherwise I wouldn't mind going back into the dev team if needed
But yes...it's tricky...
Posted By Marco Berro Derri on 01 Nov 2016 10:02 PM
My technical work will probably be necessary for some time.
Maybe more concentrated on the infrastructure, enforcing quality standard, testing procedures, deployment workflow etc than on pure development.
Sure. As CTO, you probably have a great added value for these kinds of challenges. Improving automated tests, managing agile applications (JIRA, etc.), continuous integration processes, etc.
I would expect in the future to hire more people or even start other projects in the company and repeat the SM coaching role for another group...
As you learned SCRUM yourself, don't you think that anybody else can improve his agile skills? As practitioner, PM or SM. Probably, the co-founder can also be involved in multiple teams. But moreover while he's now really enthusiastic, don't you think he could be the right empowered person able to lead all the company/business into an agile transformation ?