I have been in the Software industry for over 20 years now and have served at all levels of an organization. I started out as a Database and Unix System Administrator then moved into Software Engineering (Associate through Senior Software Engineer titles). I have been a Development Manager, Project Manager, Vice President of Engineering and Chief Architect. I also spent several years either moonlighting or primarily employed as a C Instructor, was a Microsoft Certified Instructor of C++/MFC and Win32, and taught Unix Shell Script Programming and Unix for Users and System Administrators.
I have worked with some of the best, and with some of the worst. I have been in healthy organizations that were very happy, empowering, educational and sometimes even inspirational places. I have been in "bleeding edge" companies, high profile security, obscure infrastructure and once even accidentally stumbled into a position with a spammer (I quickly left).
I have also been in the pits of hell from death marches, survived micro managers, outlived absentee managers, endured ego-maniacal architects, suffered with dishonest Product and Marketing Executives, bolstered battered QA engineers and even coached some very senior engineers with diva complexes into better behavior. I won't say that I've "seen it all" but I will say that it's rare that I see something new.
Frankly, although I have worked in some high profile companies that most people would consider to be very exciting, it has been a long time since anything in the tech industry ignited my passions. But recently I stumbled upon something that has my creative and energetic juices flowing again. It's a process that can improve not only the efficacy of any team of people with a goal but, when properly applied, it simultaneously improves the lives of the team members and the satisfaction of their customers. As you may have guessed from the name of this account and the title of this blog entry, I am of course talking about Scrum.
I am currently serving as the Master Scrum Master for a large and growing company that is striving to make both the structural and cultural shifts toward Scrum. It's not a path without pitfalls, to be sure, but I wanted to start this blog to track our progress, address issues we encounter and share war stories to help others who may be similarly engaged through what can be some treacherous waters.
So welcome to my blog. I hope you find it informative and useful, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my musings, too.
Cheers,
Scott
