“An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different.”
Like many of us these days, I find myself cooking more than I ever have. For some people, that means opening Granny's recipe box, finding an old standard, and cooking it the same way they have for 20 years, probably in the same pan. I am not wired like that. For me, cooking is as much a journey of learning and experimentation as it is a task to prepare food. I have probably made scrambled eggs 17 different ways since March. Some are great, some are less than great, but I learn something each time. By being very narrowly focused on a single dish, I develop a level of proficiency I would not have otherwise. There is a nuance to scrambled eggs that you can only appreciate by turning off the Food Network and getting in front of a stove.
Click on the photo to skip ahead to choose your own adventure
It struck me that Agile is much the same. Narrow focus, repetition, and process improvement and are all concepts familiar to anyone who wants to develop mastery in a task. Learning to be a good Scrum Master or Product Owner is no different. The Hard Yards Accelerator acts much like a recipe box for people in those roles. It is training, but not in a traditional way. The Accelerator is composed of bite-sized (sorry, I had to) modules narrowly focused on specific challenges or new techniques. The group-based interactive exercises all but beg the learners to immediately leave the session and put the theory into practice. To go crack some eggs, if you will.
What separates the Hard Yards recipe box from your grandma's recipe is that ours never gets dusty. Each time we take a recipe card out, we make notes on what we did and how it could be improved before put it back in the box. With that in mind, we are sharing one of our recipe cards with you for some feedback. This is your chance to experience the type of learning we strive to achieve in our Accelerators.
Test your Agile IQ by navigating your way through our choose-your-own-adventure-style month in the life of a Scrum Master. It has a cast of characters you will grow to love, a few chuckles/groans, and a teaching point at every turn. In fact, it is likely that almost every Scrum Master has faced a similar problem to this one at some point in their careers. Start your own adventure.