Scrum User Group

We had a great ‘lunch and learn’ session today. Many thanks to BB&D for hosting the event and providing fantastic snacks.

Topics covered in the Open Spaces format included: ‘What is the role of the analyst on an agile team?’, ‘Is TDD a design activity?’, ‘How self-organising should a scrum team be?’ and many others. We ran a total of three sessions of fifteen minutes with between two and three topics being discussed.

Afterwards we had a brief retrospective where we discussed the session. SUGSA Cape Town is currently trying out a variety of formats and it’s useful for us to get the feedback that will help us inspect and adapt our offering.

What worked well

• It was felt that the sessions were better than being lectured
• Participants got to choose which topics interested them
• A change from the last event was that we had a second ‘market place’ for topics and that worked well
• The food (I did say the snacks were fantastic)

Could be improved

• A few people had difficulty with it being during office hours
• A two minute warning for the end of the session
• Name tags (This came up at our last session and I forgot about it, so thanks for the reminder)
• To vary the format and sometimes have a presentation format with a topic marketplace for that content of the presentation

So it seems we should ideally have a mix of:

• Locations (Northern & Southern suburbs and Town)
• Timeslots (breakfast, lunchtime and evening)
• Format (Open Spaces is working well but have some presentation format events as well)

Popularity: 45% [?]

Our next Cape Town event is a scrum lunch and learn. It will take place on 5 November 2009 at BB&D offices in Century City.

After the success of our last event which used the ‘Open Spaces Conference‘ format to organise the discussion, we’d like to try it again.

We will start promptly at 12:00 and end at 13:30

We welcome all roles (Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Scrum Team Members, and Stakeholders) and all levels of experience. So come prepared to bring your questions, issues, or barriers to Scrum.

Please sign up here.
Map to BBnD’s Offices

Popularity: 48% [?]

The long awaited videos from South Africa’s first Scrum Day are now finally available. We have created a channel on Vimeo which you can find here. Should you have any other questions, please email scrumday@scrum.org.za

Popularity: 37% [?]

Registration for the first South African Scrum day is now open. Click here for details of Business and Technical track.

Please note that space is very limited and seats are selling quickly. Register now to secure your place.

We are featuring a remote keynote from Ken Schwaber, a CxO panel which will discuss what benefits scrum has had for their organisations and a number of industry experts drawing on their experience to relate better ways of doing scrum. A special session has been added for any scrum newbies: Scrum 101. This will give anyone a basic introduction to all the terminology, practises and roles.

We’re aware that too often Business is not involved in Scrum beyond the decision to adopt it. But excluding managers and executives from the implementation process may lead to Scrum being adopted only in part, not across the entire organisation. We want to change that by giving Business an equal opportunity to share in Scrum Day SA 2009, to hear how other SA companies are already reaping the benefits of Scrum across their entire operations. And executives will have a chance to pose their questions to Ken Schwaber, a co-founder of Scrum, as well as to local business leaders during a dedicated panel discussion time.

We’re hoping to see you at Scrum Day SA, Tuesday 1st September 2009, BMW Pavilion, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town. Registration starts at 08h00.

Remember: space is limited. Register now to avoid disappointment.

Popularity: 14% [?]

We’re excited to tell you that the Scrum User Group of South Africa
(SUGSA) is planning the first ever South African Scrum Day, in Cape
Town on 01 September, 2009. Yes, the first of Spring!

More details…

Popularity: 5% [?]