Certified ScrumMaster…

… ok now what? I guess that’s the biggest question I went away with from the CSM course I completed today. The course itself was extremely interesting and I think it served two purposes, the one was to reinforce my existing knowledge and the second to correct it, the latter being more prevelant. It was refreshing to discover that what I thought was being done incorrectly at my company was, in fact, being done incorrectly.

The course was also an eye-opener and sort of a wake up call. I have always liked the agile approach but have always been a fence sitter when it comes to implementation, trying a bit here, trying a bit there, never fully committing. I think what this course has given me is not a piece of paper to say I’m now somehow “qualified” to be a Scrum Master, but rather a direction, a sort of impetus to do something constructive with the knowledge I’ve gathered.

What am I going to do with it? I’m not sure, but I have a plan. I’m currently employed by a company that is attempting Scrum. I say attempting because I now know how horribly they’re failing. Yes, projects appear to be working and coming in with reasonable success, but not without monumentus effort at varing stages through the sprint(s). I think I’m now capable enough to fix this and that is my plan. I will draw up a draft proposal documenting what I believe to be the points in our process that need to be corrected. I’ll then present it to the IT manager and see what happens. Being a strong proponent of Scrum and the agile approach I’m hoping he likes it. From there, well, let’s learn to walk before we run…