I think we can. I know we can.

 

There's something to be said for the power of positive thinking. It goes to the very heart of any notable achievement, from declaring war against an unsurmountable enemy, to simply embarking on a new Scrum project to deliver a product or service to the market. Without it, it's hard to imagine how anything can be achieved.

In the 1930 epic book "The Little Engine That Could", Watty Piper (really Arnold Munk) told the story of a little blue train that despite the odds and detractors, kept forging up that hill while always chanting its own Sprint Goal: "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can."



The Scrum Team, coached by the Scrum Master, is the little engine that could. They are responsible for keeping each other on track, positive, working to the best of their ability not only for the product/service delivered by the project, but as a team by always improving themselves. The Scrum Master ensures that the engine is well oiled, all the parts are operational, and that there are no rocks sitting on the railway line ahead that could derail the project.

The Scrum ceremonies provide a great opportunity to reinforce this positiveness. At the Sprint Planning meeting, we create our Sprint Goal that hovers above our Sprint like a guiding safety flare. During the Daily Scrum we have the opportunity to list the achievements we just accomplished for the previous day and what we will achieve during the next day, which is a good way to spur the team on to continue up that hill. At the Backlog Refinement meeting (my pseudo Scrum ceremony), we get a chance to make the Product Backlog reflect the current state of play by deleting items that are no longer relevant, adding items that are, splitting them into smaller stories, reordering their priority, and refueling the Product Backlog based on value and risk prioritization. The Scrum Review helps us to get positive reinforcement from the customer and the Product Owner that what we are producing is right on the money. Finally, the Scrum Retrospective is all about making a positive change to people and processes through our continuous improvement initiatives. In fact, the Scrum Team should always leave the Retrospective feeling very positive, confident and energized.

If any of these ceremonies and meetings are put off or not done effectively, the Scrum Team can get negative really fast because things can seem overwhelming and not optimized for the engine. In other words, the engine will need to work twice as hard to get up that same hill, and we don't want that right?

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." - Henry Ford.

Thank you for your interest in the Scrumptious blog. If you have any ideas for Scrum topics, please message me here. Until next time, remember, projects can be Scrumptious!