Lynn Twiss

UPDATE: I wanted to note that I am not endorsing SCRUM as the end-all-beat-all process for software development. I just wanted to illustrate that I like the “chicken and pig” story. SCRUM does has it’s downside as I clarify down below in the comments. No process is as productive as conversation which is something that SCRUM tries to minimize and mitigate.

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately into agile project development process. I found it interesting that while at opus:creative (Opus Creative Group), on one major project of mine, I was actually utilizing SCRUM as an active process. I had adapted into this process naturally based upon the constraints of the particular project. Essentially it boiled down that the client needed to see a working model each week in order to publish the build internally. Typical Opus process wouldn’t have allowed this and so I adapted. Come to find out: it was an agile development process called: SCRUM.

In my research into agile/SCRUM, I found the delineation of roles to be superb and comically accurate. There are only two types of roles in SCRUM: Pigs and Chickens. Pigs (such a Nine Inch Nails term!) are the developers, IA, UX, designers etc… while Chicken are account executives, strategists, project managers. Why would they possibly be named this? Here’s why:

A pig and a chicken are walking down a road. The chicken looks at the pig and says, “Hey, why don’t we open a restaurant?” The pig looks back at the chicken and says, “Good idea, what do you want to call it?” The chicken thinks about it and says, “Why don’t we call it ‘Ham and Eggs’?” “I don’t think so,” says the pig, “I’d be committed but you’d only be involved.”

Scrum was developed to cut out overhead on large software projects. Essentially, the issue of developers that would come into presentations with no deliverable completed because of communication meetings with uninvolved personnel (account executives, project managers etc.). Scrum removes the Chickens from the equation by allowing them into the development cycle ONLY at the end of the sprint. If they require additional information, they can look -themselves- at the backlog document which is updated organically, daily, but the Chicken can’t influence the sprint until the end of the week cycle.

Brilliant.

This puppy has nothing to do with the article except that she's sleeping with a pig. Photo by J.

Recently David Lowe-Rogstad of Substance forwarded me an email pointing me in the direction of a presentation at FlashForward. The presentation was titled: Project Management from the Developer’s Perspective. By: Stacey Mulcahy of BitchWhoCodes.com. With my experience being a project manager and having been a developer as well, I was eager to dive into it.

The presentation itself is very light-hearted and comedically points out the truth to many facets of miscommunication between management and implementation teams. (An unfortunate product of compartmentalized, bucketed, need-to-know and traditional process coupled with project managers that simply are working for a paycheck and not the passion for all things web) I’ve seen these styles of PMs. They are everything she pokes fun at and worse. There are a lot of them in Portland, which is sad and holds back many teams and work.

Here is an excerpt from the presentation that I found particularly humorous:

Project managers all think of themselves like this guy:

Whereas, most developers think of you as this guy:

It’s true. I’ll also back it up that I’ve worked right next to a Lumbergh or two in Portland. Now, I have my faults as a producer, I’ll admit. But, I wanted to personalize this a bit.

I think of myself as a bald amalgamation of these two guys:

You see, I think that I’m the cynical semi-calm Spade, but outwardly I’m pretty sure that at times I come across as a ham-handed Chris Farley. In all cases, I am truly trying to help.

However, what I really strive to be is this guy:

(insert_allegory)

Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred. There are qualities in him that I strive to attain and here are a couple reasons:

Alfred is an adviser, mentor and assistant. He’s completely content with taking care of the crappy shit that gets in the way of being a superhero. He’ll give you advise and solid reasoning why he is dishing it out, but he plans to mitigate the damage when the client or (in some cases) you don’t listen; because frankly speaking: why would the superhero listen, when Alfred himself has never been one? Alfred is also master of knowing what you need before you have to ask. So, when the times comes, you are empowered with everything needed to succeed.

At the end of the day, he’ll do anything for you. Anything…

…like in absence of superhero gadgets – grab a golf club and come to your rescue if you need it – maybe possibly even lift a flaming beam off you even though he’s physically old-and-busted:

Alfred didn’t walk into the flaming mansion and say: “Hold on Bruce, I’ll call Lucius Fox and see if he has anything that can help here!” He makes do with what he has because: deep down he loves what you do and knows that sometimes action is needed over words. And because – goddamn it – he loves you and wants to live in the world that you are changing for the better.

Maybe it’s just the developer in me talking and not the producer, but I agree with thebitchwhocodes and want to make change for her and the teams I’m involved with.