program selection system

For over 10,000 years ritual has created effective Communities. A handshake is a ritual. Ritual reinforces the values; it creates the experience of living out values in the reality and appreciation for those values. Agile is a set of values and principles and the conscious application of ritual will help teams be more effective. An example: A team was not using paired programming effectively. The team created a ritual. When taking a task, announce, “Who can I pair with?”. The team became more effective in the practice of paired programming.

The objectives of this presentation is two fold. 1. Understand the power of ritual being used in Agile communities today. This will help us value and fine tune our process. 2. Identify other ritual that could be applied to Agile communities to improve process and team work.

Outline 1. Define Ritual - Ritual is an outward expression of an internal event which gives greater meaning, wieght and percieved efficacy to the event. Ritual plays a powerful psychological role in the lives of people.
2. The value of ritual. Applying the analogy of rituals of our society or past societies to the rituals performed by agile communites helps us understanding the psychological impact of those events. This allows us to fine tune these rituals, help us start them and helps us develop that ability in others.
3. The ScrumMaster as Shaman, proctector of the people from the evil spirits (management)
3.1 Feelings of impotency and powerlessness to achieve an outcome because of influence by powers greater than our selves can destroy morale and motivation. The Shaman was the protector who used his influence to allow the people to live and accomplish their goals. He gave the community hope.
4. The Iteration/Sprint as a Hunting party
4.1 Iteration planning as hunting party send off/ Military operation briefing.
4.2 Iteration review as Hunting party return / Military parade
4.3 Daily Stand-up as hand shaking.
5. The build as the Community Center / church
6. The build lava lamp as a Shame / Totem pole.
7. Open for discussion of other agile practices to ritual comparisons. Focus on how that comparison deepens our understanding of the practices and how it changes how we will use it or implement it on our projects.
8. Identify Key rituals in today’s world that could deepen the team work and improve productivity of agile projects. Tho goal is a set of new rituals that will improve our processes
8.1 Initiation phase, Military organization bootcamp, Religious institutions (confirmation or bar Mitzavah), Fraternities and soroties. How do we onboard Agile team members and how do we recognize it. What could we learn and how would this improve our teams.
8.2 Recoginition of success, Team versus person oriented recognition, The use of Clothing from head gear to modern day medals and team insignias. Coins, tatoos, awards, plagues, patches on jackets or clothes. tatoos.
8.3 Removing from Team, School graduation, honorable and dishonorable discharge.