SCRUM Q&A – learning how to communicate in IT
Last week Thursday I was invited by a good friend of mine to my first SCRUM Q&A. It was held at the 24.com offices in Cape Town. From what he had told me I figured it was a bunch of programmers talking about boring tech stuff. I was 100% on the button…
What I understood of that meeting told me that SCRUM is a new type of project management style designed for software developers, web developers and all other types of coding in between. It is designed to get projects completed in a smaller time frame.
My experience with project management tells me that good management means good leadership skills. This means managing people and delegating roles, together with effective communication throughout the team, no matter how big or small the team is. I’ve seen it in the building industry, steel industry and the plastics industry; if there is no communication all projects fail… simple isn’t it!
The problem I see with the software and web programming industry is poor communication; people relying on only email (I point fingers at myself… I am one of those culprits who rely too much on email) and not enough face time with team members and clients. Emails can become too ambiguous, problems don’t get solved quickly enough and people get frustrated and impatient.
If we (people in the IT industry) could have weekly or monthly face to face meetings, depending on the complexity of the project, then problems would be overcome and solutions provided in a more timeous fashion.
The major problem with people in the IT industry is that a good portion of programmers are introverts (I don’t mean to offend anyone), the extroverted programmers are the one’s who become industry leaders and company owners because they are not afraid to consult.
IT programmers/developers need to communicate better in meetings and must not become so reliant on email. Don’t get me wrong, emails are wonderful – they provide a much needed clarity and a quick way to get one’s point across. However it is not the only means of communication. Face to face meetings are still #1.
We are still humans but sometimes I think we are being molded into organic computers…
The largest vehicle manufacturer, Toyota, seems to have married humans and machinery perfectly together. They call it lean manufacturing. Other car manufacturers opted for the predominantly machine route in the 80′s and 90′s but failed and now are trying to play catch up with Toyota.
IT companies need to take a leaf out of Toyota’s cap and follow their methods. If it means a fancy word like SCRUM to do it then I am in full support. For now, I prefer the word COMMUNICATE, I think it’s far more understandable.
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neil@webgrowth.co.za • 27216856083
Neil Pursey 
Wiehan Britz 
Margot Knight 
Jean-Michel 
Shu-aib Benjamin 
tsholo
having a team that’s distributed between Stellenbosch and the Netherlands, face to face meetings are not so easy to organize…Skype has been very handy in this regard. In our IT department we have short scrum meetings at the beginning of each day over Skype and just to get everyone caught up and on the same page…and it’s worked very well so far.
But I do agree that if it’s possible, you should rather opt for face-to-face meetings.
Hi Tsholo
Do you use skype chat, voice or video? If you use video conferencing are there any delays? I’d be interested to hear what is the most effective form of communication via Skype (long distance), especially during a conference call.
Cheers
Neil
tsholo
we mostly use chat for the everyday check ins and then once a week we have an hour long video conference meeting.
the chat works fine for 10 – 15 minute updates especially for our small team (4 people) but we do need the video conferencing for the major stuff, like design sessions for example. the video quality is fine mostly but if the call goes longer than an hour or so, especially in the afternoons (heavier traffic I suppose), you get a lot of feedback and it disconnects a lot…but it works well most of the time – well better than msn messenger.