Topic Teasers Vol. 34: Translating Agilespeak!

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  Agile  

Okay, I’ve just about mastered getting my team to understand and use Scrum terms so that we can follow the agile process we’ve customized for our purposes. Now some non-IT areas are trying to use more flexible means to do projects and they know none of our terminology. Plus, a lot of the vocabulary we use is not appropriate for their purposes. Help!

A. The Project Management Institute (PMI) has created its own terminology for non-IT teams. Find out what it is and use it instead of your own team’s jargon when working with them on cross-team projects.

B.  It is up to the other teams to learn the Scrum terminology. Then, since agile is about customizing processes, they can create their own terms for the activities they use to run their own projects.

C. The Scrum Alliance has a two-day certification in translating from IT to Waterfall; the CAT, or Certified Agile Translator. If you do not have a person in your organization with this designation, be sure to plan for the cost to bring in a consultant on hybrid process projects.

D. Software teams have no need to work with any other teams in the organization. Retain your separate vocabulary that works with your team. Other teams are on their own and not your responsibility.

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Answer: A…

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