They Shouldn’t Be
Ever sat in a Sprint Retro where your Scrum Master didn’t arrive for ten minutes?
I just did. We sat in silence.
Ever been in a Sprint Retro where almost nobody participates?
Are you thinking I just did?
You’re a great blog reader if you did! Well done you!
What’s going on? Everyone isn’t socially inept.
Although in my particular meeting, most people actually were
So, why is engagement so low in so many meetings for software developers?
Social pressure
The technical staff at our place never tend to talk in these meetings. That means there is social pressure not to.
Want to be part of the in-group with us developers?
Wear a hoodie, and keep your mouth shut
Introverts and forced fun
Many software developers like to think about the questions and queries we might get asked in any meeting.
Many Agile ceremonies still have unpredictable formats and concepts that stand in the way of participation.
Stand-up meetings that sometimes run through us in alphabetical order and sometimes in reverse alphabetical order
Neither of the two options makes this fun in any way
Sprint Retro with forced fun boards where we write comments on virtual Post-it notes.
I’m just going to write no blockers on mine
The mention of forced fun makes me think of Christmas parties I don’t want to go to.
How’s your vacation planning going?
None of us have any family or friends. Asking about our holiday plans makes us sad, as we’ll probably come to work that week anyway.
You know what I mean?