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How do I stimulate the creative process in my team?

Last post 11:52 am May 8, 2018 by Ian Mitchell
2 replies
07:49 am May 4, 2018

Hi guys, 

I'm an intern at a webhosting company that is also working on a video game branche.  We've recently started using scrum and since I have some experience with scrum from school i'm scrummaster.   

For the most part things have been going really well, and the team is working doing better each sprint and we have a playable prototype with the core gameplay in place. Right now the project has been put on hold however as the costumer (our boss) wants to change the development platform.  Due to the fact he doesn't want to disturb everyones current workflow only one of my colleagues got the task to design new features for the game and translate it to the new platform.  This first of all comes directly from the costumer, since our product owner has been re-assigned temporarily and second of all the process feels very uncreative this way, which I think could be a detriment to the project. I want to bring this to attention, which I would normally do right away, but i'm curious about how some of you guys would handle this, and whether you think this is a big or a small issue?    


09:39 pm May 7, 2018

In my opinion, there should be a clear delineation between the "what" (business value) identified by the Product Owner (customer), and the "how" (solution) identified by the Development Team.

  • Why is your "boss" pulling a Development Team member away from current sprint work to work separately (silo) on what seems to be a technical initiative?
  • Does your boss realize that by pulling one team member away, he is in effect disturbing everyone's current workflow?
  • Why are tasks being introduced mid-sprint that the Development Team has not agreed to?

11:52 am May 8, 2018

he doesn't want to disturb everyones current workflow only one of my colleagues got the task to design new features for the game and translate it to the new platform.  This first of all comes directly from the costumer, since our product owner has been re-assigned temporarily

How does the team plan the work it will do during the Sprint, and self-organize around its planned tasks so the Sprint Goal can be met?

It sounds as though parties outside of the Scrum Team (e.g. your boss/customer) are deciding who-does-what, whether that person be a Dev Team member or the Product Owner. 


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