Watching the changes roll by

Heraclitus would be pleased

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus has a special place in my heart.  He was one of the first thinkers to observe the importance of change, and he coined a slogan which business people use each day.  Heraclitus said, “The only constant in nature is change.” This maxim in philosophy and business got a bit of a work out this week as the Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org announced two new training programs.  This week, I would like to talk about these new programs.

Scrum.org announced a new class and certification called Professional Scrum with Kanban.  My initial reaction was skepticism.  Kanban is widely discussed among agile practitioners and understanding how to do it properly is part of learning Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprise (SAFe).  I was confused.  With this wealth of information, why would anyone want or need a class on Kanban and scrum?  It occurred to me people learn in different ways.  Some individuals can handle self-directed learning on Kanban.  Other people, will benefit from classroom training and the guidance of an experienced trainer.  So, a course on Scrum and Kanban is not so strange or confusing. 

The next big news in the agile world is the scrum alliance announcing the Advanced Certified Scrum Master and the Advanced Certified Product Owner credential.  I was much less skeptical about this news.   I worked as an agile developer for four years before becoming a certified scrum master.  The credential gave me instant credibility with hiring professionals and with executive leadership.  What the training did not provide me were some of the soft skills I would need to be a more successful scrum master.  Abilities like active listening and creating a dialog with stakeholders were skills I would discover by trial and error.  The advanced program from the scrum alliance provides a solid background in the basics and the skills required to spread the use of agile to other parts of the business outside of technology.   As someone who has been a CSP for the last four years, I wish I had this training during the early portion of my career.  Now the scrum alliance is offering it, and it is a positive development for those who know the basics but wish to be more successful.

Any training and development from the agile community is a good thing for the people out in the field.  The sharing of knowledge and information between the different licensing bodies also creates a cross-pollination of ideas.  It prevents the practice of technology and project management from getting stagnant.  I use approaches from SAFe and scaling scrum with scrum side by side. I have to deal with waterfall budget processes and graft them to scrum teams.  Finally, I deal with business partners who think everything I do is magic.  I need all the training I can get to be successful and deal with those challenges.

Heraclitus was a teacher.  This founding father of change spent his time educating others about it.  If agile is to continue to grow and spread; its practitioners need more opportunities to improve their skills and gain knowledge.  It means these new courses are good news about the health of the Agile reformation.

Until next time.