Scrum Alliance Board of Directors

16 June 2010

I am pleased to annouce that I am one of six candidates that will be put out to public vote for one of two seats on the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors.  If you are a Scrum Alliance Member (CSM or CSPO), you are eligable to vote. The vote is important, even if you don't vote for me. Please be sure to have your voice heard.

Position Statement

The Scrum Alliance provides its members a place to learn, share and expand their knowledge of Scrum through conferences, resources and articles, and certifications. With over 90,000 Certified ScrumMasters worldwide, over 90 Scrum User Groups and competitive market pressures, there has never been a more critical time to expand the role of the Scrum Alliance in the agile community. This can be accomplished through a variety of programs, some of which are already under way and some of which have not been thought of yet, with the goal to make the Scrum Alliance the standard against which other agile organizations and programs are measured. To accomplish this, the Scrum Alliance must grow, protect its brands and create offerings that last for years to come. As we do this, we need to continue to connect with the community.

Why Do I Want to be on the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors?

Over the last year, I have seen the Scrum Alliance struggle with the departure of Ken Schwaber, the rollout of the CSM exam and technical issues on the website. The Scrum Alliance image has been negatively impacted by these events. I want to help the Scrum Alliance move forward, while continuing to connect with the community, by contributing to the strategic direction of the organization.
Specifically,

• I will continue to deepen my understanding of our community and its needs and bring ideas to the board to enable our vision.
• I have a very strong passion for our cause.
• I am willing to commit time for board meetings, committee meetings, planning sessions, events and whatever else is need of me.
• I am a team player and prefer group environments versus individual success. As the Scrum Alliance board, everything we do should be as a team.
• I am someone who listens well and is thoughtful in considering issues.

My Views on the Role of the Board of Directors

I believe the Board of Directors is responsible for providing the vision to the organization, so that the managing director and the staff can execute that vision. The board should be in touch with the community, acting as a product owner team to capture, create and deliver programs that enable it to transform the world of work. The person leading the product owner team is the Chairman of the Board, whose leadership, project management and character allow the board to work as a highly functional team.

In my opinion, individual board members, regardless of the type of organization, should have certain fundamental characteristics:

• Vision and Leadership: The ability to see the big picture, and to help create and, if necessary, re-set strategy and policy to help the organization achieve its mission.
• Advocacy, Stewardship and Integrity: The ability to serve and promote the interests and goals of the organization without forgetting the interests of the public and the organization's intended beneficiaries.
• Knowledge: The willingness to become thoroughly familiar with the mission and how the organization actually carries out the mission day-to-day through its organizational structure and operations.
• Personal Commitment and Diligence: The willingness to take the necessary time and make the necessary effort to fulfill director responsibilities, including understanding strategic, financial and operational issues facing the organization, asking questions and following up as needed, engaging personally with the organization, whether through financial support, advocacy, networking, personal service, or other personal support activities, and staying current on sound governance principles and working to apply them to the organization.
• Collegiality: The ability to work well with others and to show respect for the ideas and views of fellow board members and staff; the understanding that boards operate as a body.
• The changes I would bring to the board would be to make it less tactical and more strategic by working with board members to define a vision for the next two to three years and outline some high level programs to help achieve it.

What I Bring to the Table

Those that know me will say I have strong leadership characteristics, am honest and truthful, am pragmatic and down to earth, am a driver and motivator but most importantly, am a team player and someone who is not afraid to speak his mind. Those same people will also say that I can be a bit abrasive at times and that my energy and passion on a subject may be construed as steam-rolling. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. I am aware of mine and work actively to correct them by seeking feedback on how to approach situations or how I could have handled situations to achieve a better outcome. I follow the Scrum principles of focus, respect, commitment, courage and openness – sometimes to a fault.

I have been a CST since 2005 and was part of the organization from the beginning, being one of just under 30 trainers at the time. I have watched the organization grow to what it is today and now feel, given my personal growth and experience over the last five years, that I am ready to assist the Scrum Alliance in a more formal role. I have an international perspective and value the importance of expansion of Scrum beyond the US and Western European countries.

Further, I am very active in both the Scrum community and the agile community at large. I have been a keynote speaker at a Scrum Gathering and presented multiple times at the Agile Alliance conference as well as the SQE Agile conference. In my quest to further promote Scrum and agile, I helped create the University of Washington Agile Certificate program in 2008 and continue to teach and advise University program managers on how to build on the programs successes.

About Mitch Lacey

Mitch Lacey is an agile practitioner and trainer. Mitch has been managing projects for over fourteen years and has numerous plan-driven and agile projects under his belt.

Mitch honed his agile skills at Microsoft Corporation, where he successfully released core enterprise services for Windows Live. Mitch's first agile team at Microsoft was coached by Ward Cunningham (creator of the wiki and co-creator of Extreme Programming), Jim Newkirk (creator of nUnit) and David Anderson (Kanban advocate).

While at Microsoft, he transitioned from Program Manager to Agile Coach, working hand-in-hand with groups throughout their transition to Agile practices. After Microsoft, Mitch was the Agile Practice Manager at Ascentium Corporation where he practiced agility on the projects he ran every day while coaching customers on  agile  practices and lessons on agile adoption worldwide.

As a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and a registered Project Management Professional (PMP), Mitch shares his experience in project and client management through Certified ScrumMaster courses, Agile coaching engagements, conference presentations, blogs and white papers.

He is the author of “Adventures in Promiscuous Pairing” presented and published at the Agile 2006 conference, “Transitioning to Agile: Key Lessons Learned in the Field” presented and published at the Fall 2007 PMI Global Congress in Atlanta, Georgia and "The Impacts of Poor Estimating - and How to Fix It" presented and published at the winter 2007 SQE Agile development conference in Orlando, Florida.

He has presented at Agile Alliance Agile 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 conferences, the 2008 Better Software Conference and the 2008 and 2009 SQE Agile Development Practices conferences. He was the stage producer for the Organization and Culture stage for Agile 2009 and is continuing that trend by producing the Leadership and Organizations stage for Agile 2010. I was requested by the Scrum Alliance to be a keynote speaker at the China Scrum Gathering in 2010.

Mitch is currently authoring a book targeting new Scrum teams on how to survive the first year of Scrum. The book will be published by Addison Wesley and is scheduled for publication in 2010.

To read more about Mitch’s experience, please see his LinkedIn page at http://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchlacey