Stepping out of the Office

New Orleans and it feels
so good.

The software developer and entrepreneur does not live in a vacuum.  They have to interact with customers and other organizations.  If you don’t get out of that comfort zone you will stagnate and fall behind the times.  This is why I attended the Scrum Alliance Gathering in New Orleans this last week.  It was a very healing event as I got to meet other like-minded people and mingle with others who are attempting to build their own organizations and products.  This week on the blog I want to talk about the experience and let you know what that means for the future of the organization.

The Scrum Alliance is the membership organization which charters the training and education of scrum professionals.  The certification for all the major branches of agile professionals flows through the organization.  My career prospects improved instantly once I became a Certified ScrumMaster and I felt that my four years of agile training and experience culminated in receiving the certification.  Little did I realize, that being an agile developer was not preparation for being a full time ScrumMaster.

What the conference did to reinforce what I have learned over the last five years as a developer and ScrumMaster.  I had a chance to meet people who had the same problems I did.  I got to share some knowledge that I gathered over the years and share it with others.  I especially want to give recognition to Arne Ahlander and his outstanding presentation “The Listening ScrumMaster”.  This session taught me that I needed to spend more time trying to listen to the people on my team rather than attempting to coach them. 

I also had an opportunity to learn a little bit more about values of Agile which are: commitment, courage, openness, respect and focus.  This was a very important course for me because I can see these values waning in my business and in my agile teams.  It takes a lot of energy to get people to work together so it was nice to see what it needs to be done to mold at team into a high energy outfit. 

I am going to take these values back to my organization and company and see if they work.  It is nice to get away from the office and go to a conference.  It is also nice to escape the vacuum of isolation and get a fresh perspective. 

Until next time.