Previously on Let’s Make Some of Them Video Games…
Presentation, Good.
Comfortably Scrum
Ah, yes. Scrum. My good friend. My agile friend. I do not know what to say about you. Exercising is not really my thing. So sprinting, or even just standing up, is generally not something I enjoy. I have never watched rugby. Anyway, I do appreciate a flexible and iterative work structure. Behind the corporate jargon and ironic formal structuring for being less structured and formal is a good framework for conducting many projects. Of course, for this shoot ’em up project we are using our own version of the course’s version of scrum.
2.B.A. Master
As I am a “producer”, my role in scrum is more or less the Scrum Master. Which means I facilitate things. Meetings… decisions… that sort of thing. A scrum team is supposed to be self-organizing. Would I call our own team that? Well… I do most of the organizing, but I do not make those decisions on my own. I suppose I also do a lot of the functions of a Product Owner, which one could argue makes me cross-functional, which is very scrum. I keep people up to date and deal with both the product backlog and deadlines.
One nice thing I have noticed in my role, is that scrum allows me to worry so much. We establish what we are going to do in a sprint, and then the daily scrums allow for me to know whether we are on track to complete what we had set out. It also means that we are all held more accountable for our work. Which generally helps. There have been a few sprints where I maybe did not get around to my other duties as sound designer.
A place where my team could improve is in the face-to-face emphasis of scrum. We typically do our work on our own. That is more convenient for us. Of course, it has also cost us time at points. It is good to get feedback in realtime, before too much needs to be corrected. Also, it promotes greater work efficiency. When others are working around you, you work as well. Even now, writing this, I am motivated to do work because my teammates around me are doing so as well. Of course, I had said I would be making sound effects and instead I am writing this. Would I prefer to be home alone? Yes. I would say yes to that question 95% of the time. I have work to do, and a scrum team to do some scrumming with, so I cannot do that all the time. I have a terrible work ethic, so I benefit greatly from this sort of interaction. Well, at least in my output. Maybe not mentally.
I’m Scrumming Up, So You Better Get This Meeting Started
How has scrum affected our development? Hmm…
It has dictated our work structure. It has determined many of our responsibilities. Or at least it is a major factor. It has made me groan. It has made me spend 30 minutes walking for a 5 minute meeting. It is hard to describe its affects in many areas because I am not sure what it would be like without scrum. It has maybe given me opportunities to do tasks that feel less like work as part of the Master and Owner roles. Although, I would be doing managerial roles presumably if not, and then that might be the same.
What is making a game non-iteratively feel like? I do not know. I guess we would just be having meetings less often? So…no sprints? And we have changed the scope and design of the game several times based on how sprints have gone, so I supposed that would change. Would that mean that we would not make those changes if we were not using scrum? That would be stupid.
I don’t know.
How are you doing?
About Anders Kemppainen
2017 Project Management
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