© 2011 Don Gray The agile training class for a newly formed team was almost complete. We’d covered values, practices, roles, the product backlog, done simulations teaching the Scrum process and I could see the end of  training. A little team building activity, and we could start tomorrow with building the backlog, story sizing, then start the first sprint.  Forging ahead, the team selected a name, came up with a list of team norms, and they became a team with me as their ScrumMaster. Or did they? Over  the next few

© 2011 Don Gray It all started with a tweet I posted: “Why” questions trigger feelings bypassing data input and thinking. #dontdothat As this got retweeted, interesting questions started coming my way: What about the Five Whys? Do you have data? What is your context? All good questions. “Why” questions have the ability to both gather data and to probe for underlying thoughts and decisions that lead to action. Other interrogatives (what, when, where, how) provide a better way to gather data since they focus

©2007, 2009 Don Gray and Jerry Weinberg Engelbert watched Pam nervously chew on her knuckle as she stood in the door of his office, answering his call. “Come in and close the door.” He motioned her to a seat, then stood and pointed an accusing finger down at her. “We need to decide how you’re going to explain what happened with the UDCRM release”, he said. “You’ve managed to upset everyone. Sharkey told the CEO the customers are screaming because we can’t ship on time.

©2006 Don Gray and Jerry Weinberg Engelbert frowned, trying to understand why Pamela had been acting strangely. Her programming skills were among the best in the company. She had a way of getting things completed. That’s why he made her project lead for Uberdenke’s next UDCRM product release. With only two weeks left until the ship date, Pamela’s personality had shifted. Normally calm and composed, she had been seen crying after meetings. Occasionally he could hear her screaming at the programmers working for her. Something

Do you know about smokejumpers? They’re brave, self-sufficient firefighters who parachute into remote areas wearing eighty pounds of gear and ready to fight a forest fire. If the jump goes well, they land safely. After extinguishing the fire, they may have a ten-mile hike out. It’s not a job for the faint of heart, slow of mind, or weak of back.

Have you considered that you may be a smokejumper?

“Why doesn’t my manager listen when I explain the details?”
“Why doesn’t the developer just give me what I ask for?”

If you’ve ever heard these complaints—or made them–you’re not alone. Questions like these are a symptom of a communication disconnect.

Models are like kitchen utensils. You need a variety of them, and you should know when and how to use them. They should be useful for more than a single task. I recently started exploring the first explicit model I learned years ago.

My thoughts about the book … If you don’t have the book, get it. If you have the book and haven’t read it, do so now.

“Don, the software’s locked up again! Can you come up here tomorrow and fix it?” George was on the other end of the conversation. George and I had started working together when his employer moved a production line from Florida to Virginia.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt trapped. The more trapped he felt, the more he wanted out. The more he wanted out, the more he felt trapped. And around, and around his feelings traveled in a vicious circle of trapped and wanting out. But there wasn’t anyway out.