The nominating committee has selected the following individuals for the 2010 ballot to fill the two vacant SCM Director Seats:
Nigel Baker
Lance Dacy
Scott Duncan
Mitch Lacey
Giora Morein
Laszlo Szalvay
Ballots are being mailed to all members via email beginning now and continuing over the next several days. Daily email limits prohibit us from sending all 90,000+ emails at once, so it may be several days before you receive your ballot. Everyone will have 14 days to vote prior to their ballot closing.
Each nominee has been given an opportunity to submit a statement. You will find those statements below.
Nigel Baker writes, "I believe in Quality. I believe in Scrum. I believe in good people working together. I believe that we as an organization have not sufficiently practiced what we preach. I’d like to see us as using the Scrum Values to be exemplars to the Agile world and beyond. I truly believe in the value of a certification programme in our Agile movement and I would offer a strong defence of the integrity of our certification programme - which has often been the victim of a variety of accusations - and in the integrity of the Scrum Alliance to provide it. I would also defend the integrity of Scrum - I believe it is crucial to prevent forking of Scrum. This could lead to the downfall of all the good we are trying to do. We must communicate more frequently and reach out to the world. I believe we should provide Scrum Alliance stands at every conference (agile and otherwise) telling people why Scrum, the Scrum Alliance and certification are good for our industry and good for them. We must be aware that we are not perfect - We should make some improvements to Certified ScrumMaster most notably re-visiting the post-CSM exam concept and installing a high-level curriculum similar to that which was devised for Certified Scrum Product Owner Training. We have to improve the engagement with the Certified Scrum Trainer community. Tobias Mayer has done GREAT work on this front. I believe more can be done and I will look to help him achieve this. We must continue to improve the Certified Scrum Professional certification in addition to advertising the CSP and Certified Scrum Coach credentials heavily. I have most definitely practiced what I preach as both Scrum Team Member and ScrumMaster. Working with companies such as BT, BBC, Experian, Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson helping them do Scrum as well as having many inputs into the European CST and wider Scrum community giving me a strong and effective sounding board for both my thinking and for the thinking of the Scrum Alliance as a whole if needed. I give a lot of my free time as a contributor to the Scrum forums and have been a regular Scrum Gathering presenter as well as a constant evangelist for quality and integrity of our community. I believe I will ask the tough questions and help find and deliver the tough solutions to our problems at what I believe is a critical time in the history, and future, of the Scrum Alliance. Finally, A traditional non executive director looks to offer advice, constructively challenge and contribute to strategy. Scrutinize performance and risk within the organization and think about such aspects as succession planning – something we in the Scrum Alliance are now feeling the pain of. I would look to be a contributing voice on those aspects."
Lance Dacy stands for the betterment of the Scrum Community. He has installed and currently leads the Scrum efforts at the product company Fellowship Technologies (www.fellowshiptech.com). While not a consultant or trainer in the Scrum Community, he is the leader and founder of DFW Scrum (www.dfwscrum.com) which has commanded the attention of many thought leaders in the Agile Community due to its successful growth. Lance's view point is not from that of a trainer or consultant, but of the practical struggles a real company faces from the start through constant improvement of their Scrum implementation. He also assists the community through his Scrum Exchange Program in which companies are allowed to sit-in on his Scrum meetings and learn the logistics. The user group (DFW Scrum) focuses on assisting all roles in Scrum to help drive participation and input from all parties.
His main drive will be to help the Scrum Alliance be a larger player out in the real world as the first point of reference for people trying to implement and learn about Scrum. In addition, helping the web site serve is a community portal for all the user groups which extends the resources of the Scrum Alliance and its impact throughout the world. Lance believes the Scrum Alliance not only needs the expert trainers and consultants, but those who do not have a tie to the fees and money that the Scrum Alliance generates for them. The view point of product companies has and will serve the Scrum Community well in the future with Lance's experience.
Scott Duncan writes, "All of my professional career in software (some 38 years), I have ultimately tried to work from within, especially with professional organizations. This past year, after some 8 years of Agile practice, coaching and training with the last 3 being as a CSP, I have decided I can now try to take this same approach with the various Agile organizations to which I belong. From a Scrum Alliance perspective, I would like to focus on training and more robustness in certification, including examining what other professions expect from, and how they achieve, both. I would also like to see greater effort to clarify to the industry what being a CSP, compared to a CSM, means. I am particularly interested in what specific training expectations should exist, how knowledge is assessed, and how experience is verified/judged for each certification offered by SA. These seem to be done in different/varying ways for each certification. My second interest is in seeing how more local activities. workshops, "conferences," etc. can be supported and encouraged to build a broader face-to-face community so we can practice Agile values and principles and Scrum concepts as a community, not just in formal work/project situations. I believe this could also mean going beyond the software community to show how these could positively affect a broader 'world of work.'"
Mitch Lacey writes, "The Scrum Alliance provides its members a place to learn, share and expand their knowledge of Scrum through conferences, resources and articles, and certifications. With over 90,000 Certified ScrumMasters worldwide, over 90 Scrum User Groups and competitive market pressures, there has never been a more critical time to expand the role of the Scrum Alliance in the agile community. This can be accomplished through a variety of programs, some of which are already under way and some of which have not been thought of yet, with the goal to make the Scrum Alliance the standard against which other agile organizations and programs are measured. To accomplish this, the Scrum Alliance must grow, protect its brands and create offerings that last for years to come. As we do this, we need to continue to connect with the community.
Over the last year, I have seen the Scrum Alliance struggle with the departure of Ken Schwaber, the rollout of the CSM exam and technical issues on the website. The Scrum Alliance image has been negatively impacted by these events. I want to help the Scrum Alliance move forward, while continuing to connect with the community, by contributing to the strategic direction of the organization. Specifically,
* I will continue to deepen my understanding of our community and its needs and bring ideas to the board to enable our vision.
* I have a very strong passion for our cause.
* I am willing to commit time for board meetings, committee meetings, planning sessions, events and whatever else is need of me.
* I am a team player and prefer group environments versus individual success. As the Scrum Alliance board, everything we do should be as a team.
* I am someone who listens well and is thoughtful in considering issues.
You can read more about my vision for the Scrum Alliance on my blog."
Giora Morein writes, "I first became involved in the Scrum Alliance when I received my CSM in 2005. I have been a scrum coach, trainer and advocate ever since. As co-founder of BigVisible Solutions, I am passionate in my efforts to build a company that focuses on transforming individuals, teams and entire organizations. If elected to the board I would bring that same passion and focus to serving the needs of current and new Scrum Alliance members. I believe the best way to do this is to establish the Scrum Alliance and its certified members as leaders in the Agile community. The Scrum Alliance has the opportunity to strengthen and expand its role in the Agile community – not only in numbers but more importantly in community leadership. In order to achieve the mission of “Transforming the world of work”, there are new areas - complementary to scrum - that need exploration: organizational transformation, technical practices, lean and kanban, and more. Rather than try to separate ourselves from these ideas and the communities that surround them, I will strive to work with other board members to embrace them and make them more accessible to Scrum Alliance members. I also believe strongly in the need to strengthen the current certification brands. The certification path should represent a path to becoming the “best-of-the-best” coaches, trainers and scrum professionals. It is important to elevate these 2nd and 3rd level certifications so practitioners, employers and customers recognize them as both valuable and sought-after. By doing so, we will ensure that the Scrum Alliance continues to be a torchbearer in a rapidly expanding, changing and maturing Agile community."
Laszlo Szalvay's writes, "As a founder of Danube (ScrumWorks) and now as an executive at CollabNet I have been involved with the Scrum community since late 2003.
Part of any board’s job is to drive the strategic vision of an organization while supporting the executives in the achievement of that vision. Over the years, it’s been interesting to watch as the Scrum Alliance has grown up from a one man (Ken Schwaber) certifying committee to a vibrant non-profit.
I believe the challenges currently facing the Scrum Alliance are the following (in priority order):
(a) Reengaging Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland with the Alliance will be important to the continued success of Scrum around the world. With new board members and a new managing director we can again move to restore this relationship.
(b) We need to move in front of the “C” word. Certification has polarized the agile community like a religious war. We need to show in a demonstrable way that certification is a learning vehicle. We need to move to focus the debate away from how the early founders used certification as their Go-To Market strategy vernacular and refocus on the quality of our trainer and coaching community.
(c) We need to expand our partnerships that will allow us to grow. Especially I think that the PMI, IEEE, and other non-software and non-project management focused communities would be valuable partners. This will encourage wider adoption of Scrum and give us the opportunity to reconcile some of the conflicts between traditional and agile approaches, while maintaining our integrity.
(d) I have some ideas around taking a risk together on some new business development and growth initiatives but would want to reserve those for a formal phone screening. We need to stop reinventing the wheel on CSM à CSP/CSC à CST tracks. This is time consuming for all the trainers and takes their energy away from the teaching and thought leadership we need them to focus on to stay ahead of the curve as premier agile experts. Instead we should re-focus on the quality of delivery and the scaling problems we are/will have as Scrum continues to grow within and outside of the software / project management community.
I understand that this is a commitment that will require time, energy, and possibly money and I am willing to make that commitment to the board and the executive team now. "
posted by Unknown anonymous (17 Jun 10)