Professional Scrum Training is essential!

Some weeks of our Scrum@University adventure are over, and it feels like a good point to share some experiences with you. Since my last Post we built up the teams, get in touch with our Product Owners, and got an excellent Scurm training by Ralf, one of the coaches at agile42.

Our initial setup was 7 companies offering 7 projects. The students had a first and a second vote for a project. Based on these votes, I formed 5 groups (attention, groups, not teams!). 80% of the students got their first vote accepted, and 20% their second vote. That was a nice result. However, it took about a week to come to this result, and I think I can do better in future. For example, I could present the projects and say: "Hey, I will leave the room for 30 minutes. When I come back, you've found 5 groups with a minimum of 5 members". I am sure there are thousands of possibilities to form groups. Do you have additional ideas for me?

OK, so we had our groups. The next thing was to bring the 5 groups together with their 5 Product Owners. BUT WAIT, what is a Product Owner? Yes, before I could present the groups, I need to tell them what Scrum is. Nothing easier than that, because I was aware of Mike's Reusable Scrum Presentation. So I picked the slides, put my name on the first slide, and gave an enthusiastic talk about Scrum to my students.
And guess what, after that talk I had room full of 30 students with BIG question marks over their head.
 
What went wrong? Well, I told them what Scrum is (roles, artifacts, meetings), but I didn't told them why I told them! The question was, how can I do better? And now I was ready to understand the need for a professional Scrum training by Scrum experts. I invited Ralf from agile42 and he told us (no, he let us live) what Scum is. And he did a fantastic job! Here are some selected photos taken during the training:

The Ball Point Game

The Ball Point Game simulates the whole Scrum Iterations (including estimation, planning, sprinting, reviewing, and restrospecting)

One goes inside a circle and tells what he/she thinks is the reason for student projects fail in the past. Everyone who agrees goes inside the circle.

Metaphor for Scrum: Round Table

Metaphor for Scrum: Curricle

Metaphor for Scrum: Soccer

Metaphor for Scrum: Hill Climbing

Mataphor for Scum: Voltage Delta