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Retro Scrum – coaching with metaphors

published October 24, 2010

“I am wearing multiple hats”, “hats off to the team”, “He was using black hat tactics”, metaphors – we all use them more than we realize. In addition, we have different ways of learning. My learning style is very much visual, so for me it is natural to draw things and learn by grasping big picture first before digging into details. Others learn by listening, but generally metaphors help people understanding new concepts and ideas.

According to wikipedia,

Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another

When coaching, pithy metaphor works like a charm. As people are naturally trying to understand new information by connecting it to previous knowledge, everyday related metaphor can be very effective. In addition, by presenting new information in multiple contexts you will make it easier for a learner to recall that data later. Below is an example of mapping Scrum into everyday cooking metaphor presented in retro theme (I also wanted to practice using Photoshop).

Scrum works like a big happy family (Scrum team) preparing to throw a dinner party (release new feature). Mom (product owner) has written down a menu (product backlog) and requests Dad and daughter (team) to prepare shopping list (sprint backlog), buy groceries and prepare platters (sprint). Family’s eldest son (Scrum master) will keep family’s small children (shields the team) out of kitchen (war room), makes sure that car works, and ensures that dad concentrates on preparing food rather than drinking beer. However, mom will want to check that correct menu is prepared, so she will check platters often (sprint review) and ensures that her party vision will happen. She will probably want to serve food shortly after it is ready, so that quests (users) won’t have to eat cold hamburgers (release often). Dad and daughter must keep kitchen clean (refactor) and try to avoid messy room (technical dept).

There :)

The image is available at Flickr and as A3 size with Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons license.

Samuli @ 18:37 (2 Comments)

tags: Coaching, Scrum, Social psychology

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