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SCRUM Master opening at NHQ

Started by Eclipse, April 12, 2017, 10:10:27 PM

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Eclipse

If you have to look it up, you're not qualified!

http://www.capmembers.com/employment/scrum-master/



FWIW, there's no reason this needs to be located at Maxwell, this could absolutely be a telecommute,
and doing that would open the field to the whole country instead of limiting it to people who live in Alabama.

"That Others May Zoom"

etodd

So what is the software coming down the pike?
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

NIN

Quote from: etodd on April 13, 2017, 03:07:12 AM
So what is the software coming down the pike?

eServices, WIMRS, etc.
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Larry Mangum

As a certified SCRUM Master, I would agree that it could be non co-located at Maxwell, it would make the job much harder. Since  a majority of the SCRUM Masters time is spent removing obstacles from the teams way and to facilitate the stand-up, being remote would make it a heck of a lot harder to remove the obstacles.
Larry Mangum, Lt Col CAP
DCS, Operations
SWR-SWR-001

chuckmilam

Is that salary in line with local market rates in Montgomery?  Seems low to me, but I'm in the Nashville job market. 

dwb

I would call that a reasonable salary in Montgomery.

And I'm with Larry -- the culture at NHQ is decidedly against remote work, and since the Scrum master is primarily a facilitator between people, they really need to be onsite.

Eclipse

Quote from: Larry Mangum on April 13, 2017, 11:11:34 AM
As a certified SCRUM Master, I would agree that it could be non co-located at Maxwell, it would make the job much harder. Since  a majority of the SCRUM Masters time is spent removing obstacles from the teams way and to facilitate the stand-up, being remote would make it a heck of a lot harder to remove the obstacles.

Are there actually enough IT people physically day-to-day in Abalama to have stands ups and similar?

I thought the majority were project-specific contractors.

"That Others May Zoom"

Eclipse

Quote from: dwb on April 13, 2017, 12:30:18 PM
I would call that a reasonable salary in Montgomery.

In general or for this specific role?  That number is at the low end of the scale, but they
aren't looking for the typical experience normally sought, either (6-10 years).  A BS with 3 years
is going to be the "new guy" at the SCRUM Master Thursday night meetings.

Quote from: dwb on April 13, 2017, 12:30:18 PM
And I'm with Larry -- the culture at NHQ is decidedly against remote work, and since the Scrum master is primarily a facilitator between people, they really need to be onsite.

That needs to change if CAP is going to survive.  There are literally thousands of IT professionals who could
manage many of these projects and systems on a volunteer basis if anyone would just ask (and not turn the
entire situation into more trouble then it's worth for the people working for free).

IT is actually a place where we do have a lot of internal expertise and experience, doesn't require physical presence
anymore, and is critical to all three missions, yet despite the rhetoric about "STEM" and "CYBER" IT and data
related issues are almost universally ignored at the volunteer level, starting with the IT Specialty.

Heck, NHQ is still officially on the fence about Windows 10.

"That Others May Zoom"

Eclipse

#8
The other question I'd be curious about is why Agile is involved at all in a situation like CAP which, again,
I understood to be primarily contractors who are project-focused, when Agile is more suited for larger corporate environments.

CAP has three missions and 1 primary personnel management system.

How many competing priorities can there actually be (at this level), and why do they exist in the first place?
It would seem the systems in place are either too complex for the task, too customized and lacking in standards to
allow for walk-up contractors to tweak things, or too remote from the customer need to allow natural priorities
to bubble up organically.

(For example it seems like the tools unit CCs need to easily manage their units fall well behind WMIRS updates
and similar that seem to be more NHQ-focused, but yet those updates take ages to roll out or are never
or only partially implemented, resulting in confusing systems that look like vintage computer museums).

UX and UI is basically ignored, yet UX and UI design is where a lot of Agile takes place.

Like any other management philosophy, there are arguments on both sides, but when you look at
what Agile really boils down to, it always strikes me as more adhering to what would be
normal best practices and natural project management, but since the corporate world always needs the
"next honey pot" Agile is just in line after ISO, 6σ, Five-9s, Choas, PCI-DSS, 360, etc., etc.

"That Others May Zoom"

Eclipse

This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PBln3dyaPs

is "WTH we're referring to...

Now, my coffee just kicked in, so I have to go have a healthy Kaizen Blitz.

"That Others May Zoom"

NIN

Quote from: Eclipse on April 13, 2017, 12:55:44 PM
The other question I'd be curious about is why Agile is involved at all in a situation like CAP which, again,
I understood to be primarily contractors who are project-focused, when Agile is more suited for larger corporate environments.

CAP has three missions and 1 primary personnel management system.

How many competing priorities can there actually be (at this level), and why do they exist in the first place?
It would seem the systems in place are either too complex for the task, too customized and lacking in standards to
allow for walk-up contractors to tweak things, or too remote from the customer need to allow natural priorities
to bubble up organically.

(For example it seems like the tools unit CCs need to easily manage their units fall well behind WMIRS updates
and similar that seem to be more NHQ-focused, but yet those updates take ages to roll out or are never
or only partially implemented, resulting in confusing systems that look like vintage computer museums).

UX and UI is basically ignored, yet UX and UI design is where a lot of Agile takes place.

Like any other management philosophy, there are arguments on both sides, but when you look at
what Agile really boils down to, it always strikes me as more adhering to what would be
normal best practices and natural project management, but since the corporate world always needs the
"next honey pot" Agile is just in line after ISO, 6σ, Five-9s, Choas, PCI-DSS, 360, etc., etc.

Oh, come on Bob. Agile is not "more suited for larger corporate environments."

It was originally a development methodology for software, but some of the concepts have applicability in IT operations (to a point... I don't need to wait for the next sprint to get my busted keyboard replaced, for example).

But that was part of the problem with development at NHQ: it was strictly a waterfall development model with poorly understood stakeholders. Imagine all the "requests for development" that come from inside the 4 walls of HQ, the volunteer HQ staff, the regions, wings and well meaning membership.  Now try to prioritize that in a manner that gets the mission critical stuff done without dividing and conquering your limited development staff.  Talk about ADD-inducing.

I may not agree with the Agile methodology (especially when my "next great ideas" are sitting in the backlog) , but I see why we did it.

BTW, do you know what our "1 primary personnel management system" actually is? I'm pretty sure you don't.

Its not eServices.



Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Eclipse

Quote from: NIN on April 13, 2017, 01:18:20 PM
BTW, do you know what our "1 primary personnel management system" actually is? I'm pretty sure you don't.

Its not eServices.

Fair enough, since eServices isn't actually a personnel management system anyway.

So for education purposes, how many people are on IT staff at NHQ? 

Full time vs. contractor?

And how long has Agile been in place?

And has it had a SCRUM Master from the start?

At the end of the day, the field isn't seeing much of value locally, so whether that's perception or reality is irrelevant to
the people who think they are supposed to be the focus of the organization.


"That Others May Zoom"

NIN

Quote from: Eclipse on April 13, 2017, 01:25:53 PM
Fair enough, since eServices isn't actually a personnel management system anyway.

Still didn't answer my question. Do you know what our "1 primary personnel management system" is?


QuoteSo for education purposes, how many people are on IT staff at NHQ? 

Full time vs. contractor?

I can't answer the FT/contractor question. And the listing of IT staff at NHQ is in the key personnel directory. Off the top of my head, prior to the arrival of Kathy Conyers, our CIO, we had 4-5 people in IT?  6? Now there are 11.

There are a LOT of reasons for the change in methodology, and like I said, I don't necessarily agree with the Agile methodology, but I think we needed something more than "Everybody and their brother raining down GoodIdeas™ on IT from 360 degrees."  Which is what we had.

QuoteAnd how long has Agile been in place?

And has it had a SCRUM Master from the start?

Since just after Kathy came on board, and I'm betting we've had someone serving as the scrum master but that wasn't their primary job.


QuoteAt the end of the day, the field isn't seeing much of value locally, so whether that's perception or reality is irrelevant to
the people who think they are supposed to be the focus of the organization.

The field may not be seeing it *yet*. But you know that IT is generally an iceberg: 2/3 of the goings on are occurring out of sight of everybody.  When IT is doing things right, you should never even *notice* that IT is there.   There are a lot of projects and things in the hopper, and as they pick off things in the development methodology, they move on to other things.  Stuff is prioritized not based on who is the most influential region commander or who has the ear of the person closest to IT, but what is considered by the business stakeholders and the IT steering committee (and thats comprised of folks from the volunteer as well as the paid side of the house) to be a priority for the organization as a whole. 

I think what we perceive as "no value to the field" is really a paradigm shift at HQ that hasn't been well explained to the field, and as such they're doing a lot of behind the scenes development to either bring a lot of existing apps into line with current development and UX/UI standards, redevelop back-end processes and data models, or prepare for requested apps and features down the road.  So there may be a ton of work actually going on, but we're not seeing it because there is no window into the workshop.

Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Eclipse

Quote from: NIN on April 13, 2017, 01:51:47 PM
I think what we perceive as "no value to the field" is really a paradigm shift at HQ that hasn't been well explained to the field, and as such they're doing a lot of behind the scenes development to either bring a lot of existing apps into line with current development and UX/UI standards, redevelop back-end processes and data models, or prepare for requested apps and features down the road.  So there may be a ton of work actually going on, but we're not seeing it because there is no window into the workshop.

Well, again fair enough, especially on the "if it works you don't know it", but that won't change the perception.

As to Q1, don't know, don't care, literally not my problem. My problem is the systems CC's and members are
supposed to use to perform mission-centric tasks and activities, while staying ahead of the moving target of
colono...SUIs.

The organization critically needs full end-to-end member career tracking, including attendance logging and empty-shirt vetting,
not to mention a mission and activity management system, missions being the key.    What we see are important programs being
delayed because no one can find a copy of Acrobat to change the doc numbers, new websites no one will ever check added to the
old ones no one checks, and a lot of emails that end with "planned but not implemented".

Until that actually changes, whining will continue.

"That Others May Zoom"

stillamarine

And here I thought we were starting a rugby team.  >:D
Tim Gardiner, 1st LT, CAP

USMC AD 1996-2001
USMCR    2001-2005  Admiral, Great State of Nebraska Navy  MS, MO, UDF
tim.gardiner@gmail.com

Larry Mangum

The whole point of going to Agile, is that it allows the organization and the development team to quickly modify software , through iterations. As part of SCRUM, at the end of each sprint, the code is suppose to be completely tested and ready for deployment and have been demonstrated. Which means if a module is demonstrated to the stake holder and product owners, they can quickly say, yes that is what we need or no, that does not meet our requirements, so we cannot use that module without additional work. Oh, and a sprint is normally only two to 4 weeks long.
Larry Mangum, Lt Col CAP
DCS, Operations
SWR-SWR-001

Storm Chaser

Quote from: chuckmilam on April 13, 2017, 12:08:32 PM
Is that salary in line with local market rates in Montgomery?  Seems low to me, but I'm in the Nashville job market.

In my area, which has a reasonable cost of living, a Scrum Master would make $100K+, so I'm surprised by the salary as well.

chuckmilam

Quote from: Storm Chaser on April 13, 2017, 06:32:43 PMIn my area, which has a reasonable cost of living, a Scrum Master would make $100K+, so I'm surprised by the salary as well.

Same expectation in my area, which is why I was somewhat incredulous.  Now, this could be aimed at a military retiree who's just looking for extra boat and motorcycle money beyond his retiree pay.  This is the explanation I've heard for lower-than-normal-market rates around military bases and in the DC area. 

Eclipse


"That Others May Zoom"

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