Management bulls**t phrases
Discussion
sebhaque said:
I'm not afraid to admit I was a bit overzealous with the scrum lambasting. Feel a bit hypocritical as I often have to explain what my role at work is and that it's not just writing manuals ( ILS if you're interested, and yes I'm aware of the irony of what I posted before).
At work we've adopted the IPT approach, in my uninformed opinion it sounds somewhat like Scrum/Agile in that we're teamed up to work on a certain project, rather than sitting in the tooling team or the repair team etc. The blame perhaps rests on me for not doing my homework but given none of us have had any agile training (I've only experienced a minor amount of six sigma in the month before I changed jobs) the term "scrum", for lack of knowledge, was met with some disdain.
My lesson has been learnt.
Scrum like any processes does use jargon and it cannot really be avoided but for the most part this is used in a way that is close to the original plain English meaning. One phrase we use a lot is the "simplest possible thing" (that will work). This is applies equally to the language we use. So a "blocker" for example is something that is blocking progress. A Timebox is the fixed period of time we put tasks in. Some language is simplified, so for example we use "continuous improvement" instead of 'Kaizen'. Scrum also encourages using the same language as the business/industry. There are a small number of exceptions so I'll let you find out about Scrum chickens and pigs fable yourself.
Scrum is not a panacea, it is most useful where the problem is not well understood either because it is new business, a new team, a new product, or subject to rapid change. In a well established business solving a well established need a traditional project management approach would likely be more appropriate.
I've had a brief look at ILS and it does seem to embrace some similar principles, particularly iterations and continuous improvement. I'll certainly be taking a closer look to see if I can steal any ideas. You might be able to do the same with this Scrum overview written plain language.
http://scrumreferencecard.com/scrum-reference-card...
Edited by Martin4x4 on Tuesday 13th January 22:39
Martin4x4 said:
Scrum chickens
I continue to love the way PH produces such a vast wealth of information. In the space of 24 hours I've gone from slagging off some funny-sounding meeting name to doing some in-depth reading and noting a few things down to mention to the ILS guys at work. Part of me thinks that a lot of threads on PH would offer up similarly useful information if people stopped just arguing with each other!I had a little dig through the scrum reference card and I almost instantly understood Martin's point regarding the similarities between ILS and Scrum. In the same way that ILS doesn't just focus on phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, phase 4 for a given application, it instead focuses on segments. Using a car as an example, we'll analyse potential failures, mitigation, technical instructions and other such stuff in stages - such as transmission, core engine, ancilliaries, cabin, airbags etc. I see the same holistic approach in Scrum.
While it's a little late in the evening to start foraying into performance techniques I've emailed myself a link to the reference card as it can't hurt to do a bit more research into the subject to stop the woeful ineffeciency we're privvy to in the industry. One wonders that if the Wright brothers had the same level of scrutiny that we do now in aerospace, they'd still be debating to this day whether to charge the materials to Wilbur or Orville.
Appreciate this is far too in-depth for this thread so I'll share one from my American colleagues. Last year we were working on a high-profile project that was very much in the US media. As a result we had to be nun's-
tight on our finances and mitigation plan. While in the UK we approached the subject as "if Mr X is away, we need to do Y", our American counterparts steadfastly stuck with their phrase "if Mr X gets hit by a beer truck, we need to do Y".After a few weeks of hearing the phrase repeated over and over again to the various "stakeholders" that were involved, I did fancy getting hit by a beer truck to get away from it. At least I'd get some free beer.
sebhaque said:
Jon - I seem to remember meeting you at a TR many moons ago, I can't have been older than 19. I was probably paxing with Donny back when he had his purple Cerb. Small world - and I'm sure you didn't have a Sag at the time!
Blimey. I remember that! I think it was at Thruxton and I was in the Corrado at the time. DonH was also there in his Boxster S. 
Have now read all of this thread and have nodded and smiled many times.
I am so glad I am now mostly retired and will never again have to sit in protracted meetings with endless chinless wonders and listen to any of this puerile drivel ever again.
Back in the early '70's I started work in a company building aircraft parts (civilian and military) and somehow we managed to make stuff, on time, that worked perfectly, for years. We had fun and the firm made a profit.
No management bullst acronyms, just skilled people who knew what they were doing - and got on with the job.
Time for a tablet now.
I am so glad I am now mostly retired and will never again have to sit in protracted meetings with endless chinless wonders and listen to any of this puerile drivel ever again.
Back in the early '70's I started work in a company building aircraft parts (civilian and military) and somehow we managed to make stuff, on time, that worked perfectly, for years. We had fun and the firm made a profit.
No management bulls
t acronyms, just skilled people who knew what they were doing - and got on with the job.Time for a tablet now.
Even as I post I know there is someone somewhere coming up with the next new lexicon of management bullst and business methodology, looking for feckless government department managers and clueless 23yo female HR department managers in the private sector, all gullible enough to buy £millions of pointless retraining.
t and business methodology, looking for feckless government department managers and clueless 23yo female HR department managers in the private sector, all gullible enough to buy £millions of pointless retraining.XMES RUS said:
"Sorry I'm busy been doing firedrills all day" which really means if you had done your job right in the 1st place you wouldnt need to panic and re-do everything again!.
Unless you are the safety manager in a Nuclear Plant, and in actual fact you have been doing evacuation drills all day. In which case if it was real, we all should panic. 
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff