Virtual Scrum? Well, Maybe

This article is an update to Virtual Scrum? No Thanks written three months ago.

After five months of lockdown, physical distancing and closed venues, with no end in obvious sight I find a need to evaluate my bold assertion: "Others are welcome to the online CSM space. It does not beckon me." With encouragement from close colleagues I have been experimenting in the online space (not "virtual space" as my friend Charles Louis wisely corrected me) and finding some joy therein, not least the opportunity to interact with people spread across the globe, people who otherwise would probably not have met at all, let alone interacted with wisdom and humour in a mutual learning environment. You can read about my early online experiments here and here. The picture above is from the second of these pilots.

And now I am considering a CSM workshop, a punctuated experience extending across four weeks. Here's an opportunity to create small cohort study groups, widely dispersed across the world, for members to learn with and from one another, checking in periodically with me, and perhaps a close colleague or two, advanced practitioners themselves. I imagine a self-learning environment, vocally and emotionally interactive, if not physically. Distributed teamwork is a reality today—at this time—and rather than continue to accept the obvious losses it's time to discover what its benefits are, for both facilitator and participants.

Truth is, I miss the conversations, I miss the wake-up moments, I miss the kindness of strangers fast becoming friends, colleagues, comrades-in-arms. Scrum connects people. I'm not sure how, or why, but I see that it does. And right now I'm part of the problem of disconnection. I'd like instead to be part of the solution.

Also, I'm broke, having had almost zero income since the start of this financial year. For me, CSM is not the money-making machine it has become for others, but CSM pays my bills, no point pretending otherwise. I do it for the money. I do it for the money, yes, and I do it also for love of community and a passion for confronting the corporate madness. The challenge today, online, is to find a way to make CSM as engaging as possible, and to make the learning more than a superficial "training". I don't know what it will look like yet, but such unknownness is part of the enjoyment of the creation process. In the end it won't be me that makes my online CSM, it will be the participants themselves. And it won't be "my" CSM, it will be theirs.

If my vision of CSM appeals to you—four in-person facilitated sessions, one per week for four weeks, with small study groups meeting between times to go through the Scrum Alliance learning objectives together—then please get in touch, and/or pass this post on to colleagues who may benefit. Tailored prices will be offered to support those struggling with the downturn. The cost will be low, but the investment of time will be far greater than is required on other CSMs, so not for the faint-hearted.

Meanwhile I am offering short online workshops and dialogs on Scrum, organisational change, and related topics. The portfolio is slowly building and you can read about the current offers on my events page, tobiasmayer.uk/events.

Thanks for reading, and please share this article with aspiring scrum masters you may know.