"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools"
This is the first principle of the Agile Manifesto. And very justifiably so.
Every Agile adept will readily and undoubtedly quote this principle, even being woken up at the wee hours of the night.
This is our "2+2".
And yet... Somehow the industry fails to make the "4" out of it, or at least to call it by its name.
We're still bogged down in endless discussions on... yes, our tools and processes. Even though these tools are to support Scrum, and the processes are very Agile. And that is OK, these discussions are needed. But not only these discussions.
My point?
Management of Agile craftsmanship is neither about methodology, nor about - God forbid! - technology.
It is about psychology!
All (well, just for not to fall into the sin of generalization, most of) the Agile coaches, ScrumMasters et al come from the Software Engineering background; whether programming, or project management - not so important. The important thing being that they, naturally, possess a vast knowledge of tools; and processes too, of course, let's not forget the processes.
But one would ask: what background should they be coming from to be more knowledgeable about individuals and interactions?
Why, isn't this obvious? Psychology; social sciences. These are the disciplines that teach us how to understand and modify human behavior. And among the rest - touché! - individuals and interactions.
I would risk to suggest that the most successful and revered Agile coaches and gurus actually are spontaneous, elemental psychologists, with either inborn psychological abilities, or accumulated lifetime experience.
So, I wonder when we will see first ScrumMasters with PhD in psychology???
This is the first principle of the Agile Manifesto. And very justifiably so.
Every Agile adept will readily and undoubtedly quote this principle, even being woken up at the wee hours of the night.
This is our "2+2".
And yet... Somehow the industry fails to make the "4" out of it, or at least to call it by its name.
We're still bogged down in endless discussions on... yes, our tools and processes. Even though these tools are to support Scrum, and the processes are very Agile. And that is OK, these discussions are needed. But not only these discussions.
My point?
Management of Agile craftsmanship is neither about methodology, nor about - God forbid! - technology.
It is about psychology!
All (well, just for not to fall into the sin of generalization, most of) the Agile coaches, ScrumMasters et al come from the Software Engineering background; whether programming, or project management - not so important. The important thing being that they, naturally, possess a vast knowledge of tools; and processes too, of course, let's not forget the processes.
But one would ask: what background should they be coming from to be more knowledgeable about individuals and interactions?
Why, isn't this obvious? Psychology; social sciences. These are the disciplines that teach us how to understand and modify human behavior. And among the rest - touché! - individuals and interactions.
I would risk to suggest that the most successful and revered Agile coaches and gurus actually are spontaneous, elemental psychologists, with either inborn psychological abilities, or accumulated lifetime experience.
So, I wonder when we will see first ScrumMasters with PhD in psychology???
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