Who/when: This assignment is completed by all students, after the initial scrum description assignment.
Genre: Oral critique and group discussion.
Audience: Current Senior Project students.
Purpose: Observe the mechanics of other Scrum teams, by observing and reading; describe and critique the practices you observed in a course-wide forum.
Communication skills: listening, reading, speaking

There are many ways of doing Scrum. Since we have multiple teams engaged in Scrum, we have an opportunity to look at one another's work. This can help us identify ways in which we can improve our own Scrum process.

Outcomes. In this assignment you will get experience in the following skills:

1. identifying the situated aspects of a conversation (outside of the actual verbal content) that can affect the value of the conversation;
2. observing and reading critically;
3. giving an informative oral presentation to fellow students;
4. discussing software process alternatives critically but constructively as a group.

Part 1. Time: 30 minutes

Visit a daily scrum of another project team, and observe the activities of the scrum. Once again, we are interested in the situated details of the conversation, as well as the content - and we are particularly interested in ways in which the scrum differs from your own.

Be sure to inform the other team a week in advance, and coordinate with your own team members so that you don't all visit the same team at the same time. In this situation, you are the ultimate "chicken" - so be sure to stay out of the other team's way!

Part 2. Time: 20 minutes

Read the other team's "how we scrum" document, noting ways in which their scrum differs from your own.

Part 3. Time: 30 minutes

Prepare a description of the other team's scrum, using the same particle/wave/field heuristic you used to describe your own scrum - this time, concentrating on the differences between their conception of scrum and your own. For each difference, record your impressions: What are the effects of this difference, is it an effective feature of their scrum, and is it something worth considering for your own team? You will be sharing your description orally rather than in written form, so record your description in whatever way you prefer: written notes, electronic slides, etc.

Part 4. Time: 30 minutes

All the project teams will get together to discuss their findings. Be prepared to explain and demonstrate the differences you found, in a 2 minute report. You can use any visual aids you like (e.g. powerpoint, whiteboard). After the reports, we will open up the discussion to address aspects of the scrums that work well or not so well.

A challenge in this assignment is to report on differences with other teams in a cordial, constructive way. The goal here is not to compete for the title of "the best scrum", but to discuss alternative ways of conducting Scrum.

Grading criteria

1. Does your oral summary display an attention to all aspects of the scrum — both verbal and nonverbal?
2. Does your oral summary focus on the differences between the scrum you observed and your own conception of Scrum?
3. Is your summary clear and readily accessible to the listeners?
4. Did you participate actively and constructively in the discussion after the presentations?
5. During the presentations and subsequent discussion, was your tone appropriate: identifying differences without alienating your fellow students?

Grading rubric