When the COVID-19 Pandemic emerged on our Planet, during the first quarter of 2020, little did we know that we were going to embrace many kinds of innovations! Not by choice, but by necessity! Well, as we all know, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.” We also know that “Time and Tide wait for no man,” so here we go, taking baby-steps towards the new-normal!
In 2019, I joined SVPM, but unfortunately my availability was limited. Then again rejoined in 2020, having time to reflect, I realized that it was surely time to learn something new, to help myself evolve professionally.
After completing my Scrum Master Certification from Scrum Alliance, I immediately realized the need to have hands-on experience, to be able to put into practice the theoretical knowledge, to become adept with the Scrum framework, and to get a feel for real-world challenges. Well, what can be a better place than SVPM, where the Leaders and Mentors are constantly reminding us that it’s a safe place to learn and grow. So here I am, sharing my part of the journey.
Apart from getting to learn the various tools, such as: Slack,Trello, Doodle, Jira – and I am sure many more to come, as Technology continues to evolve – I really enjoyed the Planning Poker technique used to estimate Story Points. I had no idea how a simple game of numbers could reflect one’s mind-set, and add clarity to the subject of work. It was so interesting, especially when one can clearly see the transition in minutes! It simply fascinated me! When a round of planning poker was initiated, and we all had revealed our estimate, we then moved on to explain why we chose our estimation number. Then again the process is repeated, where each team member (including myself) gets an opportunity to change their estimation number. This all happens just through discussing, and getting better clarity from one another. Initially not knowing how planning poker worked, I was indeed intrigued about the need of the technique, and wondered why it was being used. But having full faith in the SVPM leaders and mentors, I uncovered that it was a useful technique!! I’m glad I decided to participate and watch the purpose unfolding.
It was a learning process! I saw volunteers who joined the team, not knowing how the tools worked, eagerly asking questions, and gradually learning the tools , while laughing together, and enjoying the challenge. A great way not only understand one’s own knowledge and capacity of the work to be delivered, but also to get an idea about the knowledge of others on the team. At the end of the day, projects are all about teamwork, and can never be executed or delivered in isolation.
I very much agree with what this article says about the change that the pandemic produced for many of us.
For me it was the moment to stop along the way and take charge of my professional and personal life.
And after finding what really gave my life meaning, I also started looking for opportunities to apply my knowledge of agile methodologies, such as scrum in this case.
In that search I found asvpm.
Although at the moment I have only been in the team for a few weeks and I am in my first stprint, I agree with you about how much can be learned here about the tools, the processes and most importantly, the people.