Thread regarding Fidelity Investments layoffs

yo @bemc+1uaiqgjh

PPMC was SUCH a hot mess... at least Jira integrates with Git
Moving from clearcase to Git was such a blessing as release mgmt became so trivial that scrum teams could do it on their own.

Using Git + GitLab in my new gig and GitLab is way easier than Jira b.t.w.

It is still funny to me after finally getting rid of the waste of time PPMC was, then decided to then start forcing Jira as a replacement system.

iloveconnectweek
You lost me at “I personally implement agile into my day to day life” 😄

Their role makes sense if they actually DO the work.

Connecting teams with dependencies, studying and planning against potential risks, clearing work blockages. Problem is a lot of "agile coaches" and "scrum masters" don't do these tasks because they don't really understand technology in the least bit, don't seem to want to increase their understanding, and so sit around and literally do nothing except look bored during meetings (I get that one...). And they face zero pushback apparently.

Ugh... As a former developer, developer/project manager, project manager to scrum master... I will take Agile and being a Scrum master any day of the week! 1) NO DEVELOPER WANTS TO MANAGE ANY OTHER PARTS OF A PROJECT. Things will be dropped and missed. They want to code and solve coding problems. I was forced at another company to be a PM and a Dev, it was ridiculous! I couldn't get coding work done being is mindless meetings all day. Devs prefer to give that stuff to Scrum master to do. 2) Yes, being an Scrum master can be an 8+ hour job a day, DEPENDING on the team and area. I manage Scrum masters and in their space they do dang near everything because the squad leaders are fairly useless. They don't want to prioritize work, just throw it over a wall as say its all priority. Ifs its all priority, NONE OF IT IS. So they wear multiple hats as needed. But not all areas are the same. 3) The mass hiring of Scrum masters a few years ago was completely stupid. I do not know why everyone thought they could do the role. YOU NEED TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE. I'm sorry, those are the facts. I had a Music teacher ask me about it as if they could just come in and 'facilitate' cause they wanted to learn. I asked them if they knew what and API is? AWS? Work through a complex process work flow? They looked at me like a deer in headlights. The role has just been flooded with foolishness. Reminds me of the late 90s when everyone wanted to be a MCSE because it paid big money and IT departments were flooded with clueless clowns.

I agree with both viewpoints here. Scrum as a framework is very helpful if implemented correctly, but you just need the good ones, and that's the problem. I personally implement Agile into my day to day life as something that helps me get things done as well as work, and let me tell ya, it's much easier to implement when you're alone and jut using your phone to take notes on your tasks rather than coordinating hundreds of people in a huge company on a Jira board. I was told I'd be an "amazing SM", and I entertained the thought for a while because I was tired of doing software engineer work for a bit. Luckily, I revived my passion for technology, and realized to myself that I don't need to be an SM to implement scrum.

I remember this one Fidelity Scrum Master at an out of office work event have a conversation with someone that asked what sn SM is. He said, and I quote: "it's just a made up job, I don't do anything all day." with a casual smile. Getting laid off is an inhumane experience that I wish on nobody, but in my eyes, those people are clearly more deserving to get laid off than many of others were back in March.

Try it sometime. It's harder than you think.

Look, I agree that most of the SMs are just thrown into teams with just two days of sitting in some mo--nic certification class.

Most of our SMs aren't doing that great a job, but, yeah, that's more than an 8+ hour job with the multiple teams and the kinds of squad leaders we're working with.

There's a lot to cr-p all over with how this company has sc--wed up agile, but cut the SMs a break.

If Fid wants to save $, they should get rid or repurpose scrum masters to do other roles like analysts or product managers. These scrum masters supporting 2+ teams is a complete waste.

I'm not surprised at everyone's comments about Scrum Masters at Fidelity. Fidelity's Scrum Masters are poorly trained neophytes with little education, experience, and entry-level certifications (CSM), resulting in Zombie Scrum Teams, JIRA Admins, and note-takers.

The better Scrum Masters at other companies have deep experience, bring leadership, coaching, systems thinking, team building, and work across teams and throughout the organization to bring value.

It’s a joke of a role. Its not needed at all

I mean that’s why a bunch of sm’s were laid off. I support 3 teams now and some days are 8+ hours of solid work others are 2 hours. The biggest problems are our leadership and how they defined, define, and are defining the role which is a non stop cluster fock of changes. They also give us no access to tools to help unblock impediments without setting up a bunch of meetings. There are also a ton of diversity hires in this space who have no place being in the role.

One of my worst managers at Fido was a career scrum master before becoming my manager.

Happiest day of my life was when he went back to being a scrum master.

I think that good software (JIRA ain't it) could replace scrum masters fairly easily.

If you think that a scrum master can't fill an 8 hour day, your experience with scrum masters and their function and abilities, is unfortunately, not in line with what should be happening. The removal of impediments is a big part of their job, if done correctly. I've seen developers waste time with access issues, questions on requirements and distractions who would not speak up. As a result, the work the team committed for the sprint is not completed. I say this as a SM who was a former developer and worked in the domain for the team I supported. I understand that is not always the case. Please don't paint your teammates with a broad brush

even if all the scrum masters disappeared overnight literally nothing would change

It is not. They work 10 hours a week at most and their tasks can be performed by anyone in the squad. The squad leads should be ideally performing their task but they decided to create this bs role

Agile is a grift, as is the Scrum Master role. The people in the role are hucksters and would be school bus drivers or Walmart greeters if not for this made up methodology that was sold by consultants a decade ago by managers who have likely been fired or retired by now. You become a scrum master because it's easy and you have little talent. The "good ones" operate outside the scrum master role and find ways to bring value to the work and team. These are few and far in between. The normal ones have no idea or care of what is even trying to be built let alone the skills the actual people doing the work have.

I cannot.
+ it is so refreshing to NOT be working w/Agile anymore.

All of the points mentioned is already handled by Squad lead and developers so yes SM can work for couple hours and log off for the day ( ofcourse they stay online to get the paycheck ). I have also seen some SMs who actually contribute meaningfully but they are very few at Fidelity.

They should be responsible for daily sc-ms, gathering and disseminating metrics, team morale events, removing obstacles on blocking issues. I prefer technical scrum masters, but that is typically not the case. They lean on squad leads for technical items.
All of the above could be handled by the squad lead.