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Here's how I got there. Author doesn't like the way decisions are made so they think they should be the decision-maker. The team is supposed to make the decis

Here's how I got there. Author doesn't like the way decisions are made so they think they should be the decision-maker. The team is supposed to make the decisions in Scrum. So, I feared that in reality, they're just not a team player and feeling a little powerless in that dynamic given all the pushback they may be experiencing. The author's complaints about Scrum Master and Product Owner do not seem to be substantiated, just gripes. The Scrum Master is supposed to be the unblocker and master of ceremonies. In my opinion, the best SM arrangement is as a rotating role for analysts/developers on the team rather than a dedicated position. The Scrum Master needs to be involved with the actual work to understand what a blocker is. Rotating SM is actually becoming more common in the industry, as I understand it. The ideal Product Owner is the one neck to choke on the team for failure. The ideal PO is the keeper of the vision and the tastemaker and a buffer between the team and the business/politics and the subject matter expert when it comes to business requirements for the project. Obviously, there are less-than-ideal PO's, and we can lament and complain about that separately, but author needs to better understand what a PO is in Scrum. I wonder if they think a Project Manager is the same thing as a Product Owner.

ath3nd 2y ago
> The Scrum Master is supposed to be the unblocker and master of ceremonies. How about we throw the ceremonies AND the scrum master (and scrum along with it) out of the window and treat the developers like grown ups that can actually unblock themselves? How about we treat all the devs, all the time, like people who know how to say they are stuck, need help, or how to say NO? Why need to infantilize them? > The Scrum Master needs to be involved with the actual work to understand what a blocker is Wow, that means...literally every dev can be a scrum master. So, should the devs that are currently not the Scrum master suddenly lose their unblocking capability and sit around hopelessly while Scrum hero solves the bottleneck for them? > The ideal PO is the keeper of the vision and the tastemaker and a buffer between the team and the business/politics and the subject matter expert when it comes to business requirements for the project. Oh, poor devs, needing a buffer, and somebody to tell them what the Business (capital letter, like the Church, cause it's an institution) wants. It's not like they can go and ask, god forbid a developer talks to a Business person directly. The outrage! > The author's complaints about Scrum Master and Product Owner do not seem to be substantiated, just gripes. The author has a very substantiated gripes with both roles, as both the author and me (and many others) view these roles as useless management cruft. And the PO has to also be a subject matter expert, wow! They must have studied hard in the Subject Matter school (1 week online course) to acquire such skills! Wanna hear about my revolutionary idea? A development team consisting of...developers.
- dwoldrich 2y ago
  I don't understand your hostility. Are my opinions hostile to you? I'm sorry if they were. I'm just sharing what I've learned. > Wow, that means...literally every dev can be a scrum master. Yes. And that's why if you take the training as a developer, you get "Certified Scrum Master" training. If you would stop trying to gotcha me, you would see this is an potential area of agreement between us. I don't think you have a proper sense for what a 'blocker' is in the context of Scrum. In a normal workplace and well-functioning team, blockers are few and far between so the SM shouldn't need to engage all that often anyways. Not all problems we encounter in the workplace are in code. Scrum has roles to own and manage the different kinds of problems. Scrum is also a flat hierarchy, it's fairly minimal. You're supposed to make things as simple as possible, but no simpler. I think you're over-simplifying. The 'Business' is capitalized because of English, but feel free to read my words with business all lowercase. I don't worship any man, bad look. Product Owners need to be subject matter experts or at least SME's in training. In my experience lead developers who try to also wear the PO hat sometimes have trouble getting their heads out of the minutae. If you have seen the opposite in your experience, then lucky you. > Wanna hear about my revolutionary idea? A development team consisting of...developers. When you get to know types of folks other than coders, you get to appreciate how they make important contributions to the project. I think you were trying to smash home a point here, but the world is bigger and more interesting than what you wish it was.

ath3nd 2y ago

> The Scrum Master is supposed to be the unblocker and master of ceremonies. How about we throw the ceremonies AND the scrum master (and scrum along with it) out of the window and treat the developers like grown ups that can actually unblock themselves? How about we treat all the devs, all the time, like people who know how to say they are stuck, need help, or how to say NO? Why need to infantilize them? > The Scrum Master needs to be involved with the actual work to understand what a blocker is Wow, that means...literally every dev can be a scrum master. So, should the devs that are currently not the Scrum master suddenly lose their unblocking capability and sit around hopelessly while Scrum hero solves the bottleneck for them? > The ideal PO is the keeper of the vision and the tastemaker and a buffer between the team and the business/politics and the subject matter expert when it comes to business requirements for the project. Oh, poor devs, needing a buffer, and somebody to tell them what the Business (capital letter, like the Church, cause it's an institution) wants. It's not like they can go and ask, god forbid a developer talks to a Business person directly. The outrage! > The author's complaints about Scrum Master and Product Owner do not seem to be substantiated, just gripes. The author has a very substantiated gripes with both roles, as both the author and me (and many others) view these roles as useless management cruft. And the PO has to also be a subject matter expert, wow! They must have studied hard in the Subject Matter school (1 week online course) to acquire such skills! Wanna hear about my revolutionary idea? A development team consisting of...developers.

dwoldrich 2y ago
I don't understand your hostility. Are my opinions hostile to you? I'm sorry if they were. I'm just sharing what I've learned. > Wow, that means...literally every dev can be a scrum master. Yes. And that's why if you take the training as a developer, you get "Certified Scrum Master" training. If you would stop trying to gotcha me, you would see this is an potential area of agreement between us. I don't think you have a proper sense for what a 'blocker' is in the context of Scrum. In a normal workplace and well-functioning team, blockers are few and far between so the SM shouldn't need to engage all that often anyways. Not all problems we encounter in the workplace are in code. Scrum has roles to own and manage the different kinds of problems. Scrum is also a flat hierarchy, it's fairly minimal. You're supposed to make things as simple as possible, but no simpler. I think you're over-simplifying. The 'Business' is capitalized because of English, but feel free to read my words with business all lowercase. I don't worship any man, bad look. Product Owners need to be subject matter experts or at least SME's in training. In my experience lead developers who try to also wear the PO hat sometimes have trouble getting their heads out of the minutae. If you have seen the opposite in your experience, then lucky you. > Wanna hear about my revolutionary idea? A development team consisting of...developers. When you get to know types of folks other than coders, you get to appreciate how they make important contributions to the project. I think you were trying to smash home a point here, but the world is bigger and more interesting than what you wish it was.