Webgate

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Training Schedule
  • Courses
    • CSM | Certified ScrumMaster
    • PSM | Professional Scrum Master Course
    • PSPO | Professional Scrum Product Owner Course
    • PAL-E | Professional Agile Leadership Essentials
    • PSM II | Professional Scrum Master II (Advanced)
    • PSPO-A | Professional Scrum Product Owner Advanced
    • SPS | Scaled Professional Scrum
    • PSF | Professional Scrum Foundations Course
    • PSK | Professional Scrum with Kanban
    • PSD | Professional Scrum Developer Course
    • ASF | Agile in Audit Scrum Fundamentals
  • Testimonials
loading...

Meetings – What Are They Good For?

Do a quick search on Google for how to conduct effective meetings and you’ll be deluged with links. Some of them contain great advice. Others, not so much. But almost all of them miss the most important advice of all.

I was browsing through LinkedIn today and came across this graphic:

On the face of it, sounds good! Lots of great advice in there. But if, like me, you’ve ever had to attend meetings that involve the Government, or Military or, worst of all, the Civil Service, you know that there’s a much more important rule that you should be applying: Is Your Meeting Really Necessary?

Is Your Meeting Necessary?In the early part of my career as a scrum master, I was working at an organisation that had decided not to use product owners. They wanted to keep on using project managers instead. Needless to say, I was working to convince the organisation of the case for using product owners as described in the scrum guide.

One morning I received an email from the programme manager. Frustrated by the lack of control he was experiencing, he had decided to call regular meetings with all of the scrum teams so he could get a handle on things. I quickly realized that this was a pivotal moment. I asked the scrum team not to respond and went in search of the programme manager.

I explained that the meeting he was calling would deliver no value and it would pull the scrum team away from doing the important work of the sprint. He was unsympathetic. I tried explaining that the work he was doing would normally be handled by the product owner. He was unmoved. I wasn’t getting through. I needed to speak his language.

So, I went away and calculated how much the meeting would cost the organization. Turns out that the annual cost would pay for the salary of three and a quarter product owners. Finally, I had his attention, if only to avoid the embarrassment of the organization finding out how much this was costing!

Meetings Are Expensive. Ensure They Deliver Value

Each and every day, in organizations up and down the country, people are calling meetings. From CEO’s downwards, people are playing fast and loose with the organizations money. Meetings can be eye-wateringly expensive (and I’m not talking about the cost of the chocolate biscuits, here). Are you truly getting value from that meeting?

Is YOUR meeting really necessary?

Filed Under: Scrum Events

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog Updates

Join us and get your FREE copy of the Scrum Cheat Sheet

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Getting Forensic on the Daily Scrum (2020)
  • The Fixed-Price Contract and Agility
  • Face to Face Communications
  • How Much Planning is Needed Prior to Sprinting?
  • The One Impediment that will Kill Agile Transformation

What Does Scrum Mean?

What is the meaning of scrum? (Sounds like a variation on a Monty Python film). What does scrum mean? Is it an acronym? Here are the facts.

How to Pass the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) Assessment

21 Mar 12 By webgate 167 Comments

In March 2012, I sat the Professional Scrum Master I assessment provided by Scrum.org.  I did not attend any formal training beforehand and relied only on my experience and exam preparation.  In this article, I tell you how I prepared for, and passed, the Professional Scrum Master I assessment.

Recent Posts

  • Getting Forensic on the Daily Scrum (2020)
  • The Fixed-Price Contract and Agility
  • Face to Face Communications
  • How Much Planning is Needed Prior to Sprinting?
  • The One Impediment that will Kill Agile Transformation
  • Scrum Overview

Tags

certified scrum master certified scrum professional csm csp csp scrum professional scrum master psm psm i scrum scrum.org scrum alliance scrum burndown chart scrum cheat sheet scrum estimation scrum master scrum master certificate scrum master salary scrum master vs project manager scrum sprint scrum story points scrum user story tfs scrum

Copyright © 2021 Webgate Ltd · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions