Scrum of scrums/Retrospective-2013-11-12

Notes from the first Scrum of Srums retrospective. The original Etherpad can be found http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Scrum-of-Scrums-Retrospective

What's been working well?

 * Faidon happy with the meeting
 * 1x/week seems to work well (faidon) +1
 * Arthur as Scrum master (faidon)
 * dependency wall +1+
 * it's good, because it helps the meeting master follow the continuity
 * good overview
 * Honest and open dialogue that is still collegial
 * Wall good
 * great having overview of what all the teams are wrking on, doesn't feel like we'er working in a vacuum anymore (jon)
 * Brevity +++
 * Prevents unpleasant surprises
 * Emphasizes big issues that might be hidden to others
 * Ops has a lot going on and probably has the most interactions with other teams - greater visibility? Current status report feels about right

What hasn't?
-> Which teams are missing? Multimedia, Fundraising, Growth intermittent
 * Sometimes not representatives of other teams which is a pain when you need to talk to them * make attendance mandatory from all teams?+++++ ++++++-+ <-- vote fraud

-> Could also help to shorten the meeting
 * Could do updates in writing to focus the meeting more on coordination(I'm ok with faceless peices of text ;)) (I wouldn't read them :/ ) ++++++


 * People not updating the wall until the meeting, so prior review ("homework") pointless +++


 * Time. 10:25 AM PST a challenge. (weird that it's scheduled for 1025 but starts at 1030)
 * Too often - maybe it should be every 2 weeks ++
 * Should we include design?
 * Need to use Mingle / teams not using it not represented there (? your team doesn' have to be on Mingle to contribute to Scrum of Scrum wall) (would be nice to use bugzilla ;) +
 * Hard for one person to everything about what's going on with their team (particularly on huge teams like ops) +

What still puzzles us?

 * Still not sure what "Scrum" has to do with this :-) (+1)
 * http://guide.agilealliance.org/guide/scrumofscrums.html
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_development)#Meetings ?
 * Are we supposed to update status in Mingle cards or in Etherpad?++
 * I think we should update etherpad, and let scrummaster deal with updating mingle :) +;)
 * Do people read the notes? - I do, especially when I didn't attend
 * Yes

Action items discussion
Team attendance: Unclear exactly what's a "team", e.g. Search, QA/betalabs, Labs fill out status update and dependencies in etherpad before / at beginning of meeting <- which? mail out notes after meeting make it easy to search for dependencies (prefix with team name) Is the Wall something we groom before the meeting, or something that's updated in the meeting? Wall as reminder. Meeting identifies interactions
 * Talk to growth, multimedia, VE and tell them they've been missed?
 * Make it easier for asynchronicity - split status updates/dependencies in notes
 * Make appeals to missing teams (Arthur, everyone)
 * Rule of engagement for SoS: if you want to participate and you have to miss, make sure your updates/blockers are mailed out (Arthur)

Action items

 * Make appeals to missing teams (Arthur, everyone)
 * Rule of engagement for SoS: if you want to participate and you have to miss, make sure your updates/blockers are mailed out (Arthur)
 * Rule of engagement for SoS: Come prepared - review the wall and have your updates/dependencies prepared beforehand. (Arthur)