Last week, along with certain other members of the Xebia team, I went on a Scrum Master certification training course given by Jeff Sutherland. Because of the coincidence of its timing, we didn't stop talking about rugby scrums during this session (yes, I know, this one is easy easy but I couldn't resist). For those who don't know him, Jeff is one of the founders of Scrum.

My role within Xebia organization is not to run projects and I was there only to do my job better as President of Xebia France (“What is well expressed is well understood”). So believe me, these two days have to be marked with a cross in my professional diary.
And, no doubt about it, it was a special experience. If I was lyrical, I would qualify this session as a breath of fresh air in terms of common sense, a pragmatic delight or even a well of clear sightedness.
Jeff has definitely influenced my way of approaching situations for ever. If I dared to, I would almost put Jeff on an equal footing with those Anglo-Saxon authors that any manager eager to learn should read, like Jim Collins and Jack Welch.
I'm not going address, even partially, the concepts delivered in the 200 training slides of the training nor even repeat the juicy anecdotes that Jeff was kind enough to share with us on the damaging effects of traditional project management: it would be a but a pale imitation, not to say clumsy, of course. But I do promise to write up a series of notes on “Agile Tips”.

For those reading these few lines and who, like us, are particularly fond of Agile Methods, Xebia is organising a “Scrum Master” certification training course with Jeff on 24 and 25 March 2008 in Paris (in English with the linguistic assistance of a French certified Scrum Master from Xebia).
We'll leave this news with the “Scrum sensitive” readers of this blog for two weeks before announcing the fact to the community on a large scale. If you want to enrol, send an e-mail to info@xebia.fr.

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Editor: Luc is the CEO of Xebia France. This is an english translation of one of Luc's posts on the French Xebia blog.

We have noted it once again, one time too many no doubt. One of our clients (as the people responsible for such a situation work in the same company as the person where our contact operates) has got himself into a lose/lose situation with his integrator in a project developed at a fixed price. What are the facts? We could, without even letting him speak, list all the difficulties he encounters one by one with our eyes closed, reeling them off like a rosary.

A Call for Tender was issued aimed at the principal integrators in the place, because, depending on the Purchasing Department, this is the only way to conduct an IT project (which we told you about in an earlier posting (in french): “Eloge de la qualité”). According to the same specialists, recognised for their IT skills, it's a way of controlling costs and lead times, of sharing the risk with the company selected and of creating leverage (because it goes without saying that some wonderful penalty clauses for late delivery were stipulated in the contract). Integrator X was chosen. In a large part because he made a tempting offer and was able to accept all of the principles of this “contract of confidence” without uttering a word. So the scene was set: a calm atmosphere, mutual trust, the involvement of the best profiles from company X, users' wishes taken into account…

As you might expect, the last phrase is ironic.

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