Well it's been about a month since we officially started managing our new development using the SCRUM methodology.  So far it's been a good experience and I think everybody is enjoying it.  Just today I was explaining the process to somebody who doesn't know anything about software development and they couldn't believe that people get to pick whatever they want to work on (from the team agreed upon bucket of work).

I would have to say that the hardest part of making the switch is the breaking of old habits.  People don't like change, it's just how we are.  We're like electricity, we take the path of least resistance, and that means sticking to what we know and what is comfortable.  That's where I come in, my job is to go around and make sure people are following the appropriate processes and not just sticking in their rut of old habits.  You can tell when people feel like they're under pressure because that's when they want to revert to their old habits the most.  It makes for some busy days.  I'm hoping that after 2 or 3 months it will just be second nature to the entire team to follow these new processes which will make my job a lot easier <g>.

One of the key changes we made that is allowing SCRUM to work was moving our business analysts and product owners in to offices in the immediate vicinity of the development team.  The benefits of this are 2 fold

1)  The developers don't have to go far to have a conversation with them
2)  Friendly conversations with the business team happen much more frequently which leads to a much higher level of understanding, trust, and respect between the business and dev teams.

I must say i've been blown away by how much it helps morale and productivity when the development and business teams are working well together.  When everybody is comfortable with each other and has a good level of respect for each other it's amazing to see the results.  I don't recall a previous time when a group of developers could be standing around a white board having a conversation and it didn't bother them at all to have a business person stop by to drop in on their conversation.  It's also great for everybody else in the company when they want to know what's going on with the development team and where the work is at.

SCRUM has been awsome but it wouldn't be possible without a high level of trust, respect, and collaboration between business and development.  I know our old rut was comfortable, but now that we've successfully jumped out of it, I would never want to see us fall back in.

I think this photo I found sums things up nicely:

Well we got our new SCRUM area set up recently and just started our first full scale sprint.  It's been a long bit of organizing and planning leading up to it and i'm excited to get our first sprint under our belts.  We've already learned a number of things and I can't wait to see how things shape up 3 to 6 months down the road. 

To complicate things further, not only are we moving to the the SCRUM project management methodology, but we're also simultaneously moving to Test Driven Development.  Figured we might as well do it all at once and get all the discomfort out of the way at once.  It's a big change in thinking to write tests first, a lot of old habits to break.  I have no doubt that it'll be second nature in no time.

I think some people need a reminder:

taken from wikipedia:

Hypocrisy (or being a hypocrite) is the act of pretending to support a belief or behaviour while holding the opposite beliefs or behaviours at the same time.

In psychology, hypocritical behavior is closely related to the fundamental attribution error: individuals are more likely to explain their own actions by their environment, yet they attribute the actions of others to 'innate characteristics', thus leading towards judging others while justifying ones' own actions.

Also, some people genuinely fail to recognize that they have character faults which they condemn in others. This is called Psychological projection. This is Self-deception rather than deliberate deception of other people.