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After having completed a certification course at Citerus, I can now call myself a Certified Scrum Master. What is behind such a strange sounding title? It surely sounds mystical? But no, a Scrum Master is a project leader in software development according to the Scrum project model. They got inspiration from rugby when they chose the name Scrum. Luckily for a thin and lightweight guy like me, it is not about managing a project like a rugby game.

Scrum is about how to successfully manage projects in a complex and constantly changing world and challenges the present way of dealing with IT-projects. The project leader, the Scrum master, is more like a coach and does not control the details. The cross-functional development team has great freedom and responsibility and can decide how best to implement the specification. The product owner should be very involved in deciding and prioritizing the content of each increment. Development is done incrementally in short regular intervals, during which the specification is not allowed to change. This way, the developers can work undisturbed. The goal of the increment is to present a demo of the product with some real business value after the period.

As a preparation I read the books Agile Software Development With Scrum by Ken Schwaber/Mike Beedle and Agile Project Management With Scrum by Ken Schwaber. Both books describe Scrum theoretically and give a lot of examples. They are well worth reading.

The course was intensive, with many discussions and exercises. Many of the other participants were already applying Scrum, so I had many interesting discussions. I do believe in the foundational principles of the Scrum model and those days were very well invested time and money.

Here comes another two recommendations for real good jazz:

Les McCann/Eddie Harris – Swiss Movement, Live at Montreux Jazz Festival (1969)
I stumbled over this album a year ago and I have kept playing it at home. Now everybody in the house loves it, even my 13 year old daughter. It is said to be the peak of McCann’s career. I don’t know about that, but I do know that this recording is magic, total magic. It is infectiously joyful and so funky and the intermingling solos of saxophonist Eddie Harris and the trumpeter Benny Bailey have such great intensity. I want more of this, definitively.

Yellow Jackets – Time Squared (2003)
The albums Time Squared and Dreamland have been spinning in my car for the last month. Some parts remind me of Joe Zawinul and other of The Flecktones minus banjo. I especially like the drummer’s light and playful work on the cymbals. Bass player Jimmy Haslip is great of course. The melodies are gorgeous and weaved together, with intricate and subtle changes. This is an album that you typically can listen to again and again and find new interesting passages all the time. They have been going for a long time and yet they are not boring.