Scrum Methodology

What Happens at Scrum Training?

Posted by admin under Agile and Scrum, Scrum Basics, Scrum Transitions

When organizations first transition to a new way of doing business—an agile method such as Scrum, for instance—the best way to ease the disruption and fear that often accompany such change is to educate your employees. Certainly, presenting the shift transparently will minimize undue anxiety, but, moreover, providing training can be an empowering process that equips employees with the knowledge to excel in their new work environment.

In the case of Scrum, many organizations engage Certified Scrum Trainers to train employees in a public course setting or to deal with specific organizational challenges as an on-site coach. And while there are many training options readily available, they aren’t cheap, nor is their instruction all of the same quality. When my company adopted Scrum, a portion of my team was sent to public ScrumMaster Certification (CSM) training with Danube Technologies. It was a great experience; all of us who attended felt that we’d learned a lot about Scrum and were armed with the kind of actionable knowledge we could take back to workplace and implement.

So what did training look like? I recently encountered a blog post written by William Roberts, the Chief Integration Engineer at Symbian Software Ltd., in which he discusses the CSM course he attended with Danube trainer Michael James. Much of his discussion compares and contrasts Scrum as it was presented in class and as it was actually lived out at his organization. You can take a look here: http://wtr1.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/wondering-what-on-earth-im-doing-here/

Coincidentally, Michael James recently recorded an interview for DZone, in which he discusses the value of Scrum and how Scrum practitioners can refine their skills as team members by observing the traits of highly performing teams in other disciplines. It’s a brief and very engaging video, which you can watch here: http://agile.dzone.com/videos/scrum-adoption-michael-james