Managing in a rapidly changing company like SharedBook is a constant challenge. As the world around us is changing, and we have to quickly adapt, we always have to ask ourselves questions, seek the right answer, and the right answer from yesterday may not be applicable today. That is what makes life here so interesting. J
Lately, I’ve been going through this question-asking process with our open API. We have a group of people, working on extending the open API core functionality, extending it into a platform, by introducing all types of wrappers (check our resources section for Java, PHP and Python wrappers to make lives easier), and writing all kinds of applications and POCs (more about my approach to POCs here) on top. All this action and activity is great, but getting everyone on the same page is challenging. We need another meeting, but I always hesitate before adding weekly meetings for a large group of people.
This is where good methodologies come in handy. I have mentioned before that here at SharedBook we have adopted agile methodologies, starting from familiar methodologies like extreme programming and Scrum, and slowly through an ongoing learning process, developing our own working processes. I decided it was time to get back to the basics, and specifically, to a very disciplined methodology: Scrum.
Scrum is an agile process that can be used to manage and control complex software and product development using iterative, incremental practices (see more about Scrum here and in Wikipedia). Scrum is very structured, and one of its fundamental tools is synchronization meetings with chicken and pigs.
There is an old joke that goes like this: A chicken and a pig were brainstorming...
Chicken:
Let's start a restaurant!
Pig:
What would we call it?
Chicken:
Ham n' Eggs!
Pig:
No thanks. I'd be committed, but you'd
only be involved!
(You’ll find a great cartoon of this classic
story here)
Following this methodology, we have started a weekly meeting of everyone involved in open API. Traditionally in Scrum synchronization meetings – only the committed team members (pigs in Scrum terminology) were to talk. Chickens (e.g. managers like me) were not allowed to talk, only listen.
Everyone updates on their status by answering 3 simple questions:
- What have I done on Open API till this meeting?
- What do I plan to do with Open API till the next meeting?
- What specific problems have I encountered?
The meeting was a success. Specifically, we identified two communication breaks, and did it in a timely manner, so that they were easily fixed without damaging the project. And, the meeting was done in exactly 30 minutes! Just the way we like it here at SharedBook: short and productive. J
