Yes, Scrum does have a secret handshake, you can find out about it if you take one of the CSM courses. It’s a little bit of fun nothing all that serious. It also involves ‘woofing’ like a sheepdog. Apparently it’s ruffled the feathers of some ‘serious’ Agile practitioners, to the tune of 30+ messages on the Scrum Yahoo group. After seeing some of the debate Ken posted his thoughts:
You know, I think I’m really glad that I added something light such as a secret, encrypted handshake. It really seems to be a good way of weeding out people who don’t have a sense of humor and are, maybe, too serious about everything. Or, maybe, I expect too much from CSM’s. I think that the work we are undertaking is so serious and so hard that any way that we can inject levity is well worth the effort. I always thought that “woof” created some sense of camaraderie, but maybe I’m wrong.
If you’re not having fun at work, at least some of the time, it’s time to find a new job. It’s an ‘Agile’ lightweight process not a high ceremony, formal, always serious process.
I like Ken’s approach to making of aspects of Scrum non-enterprisey (like the name and the handshake). The term “agile” is getting co-opted and watered down considerably as it gains popularity while Scrum at least has some built-in protection against this.
Ken often seems to play the role of benevolent dictator on the list which is nice. I’m still amazed that people got all twisted up about a ‘woof’ and a handshake.
I like the handshake thing. I also enjoy barking like a dog from time to time. Who doesn’t?
Anything that serves to exclude is questionable. Secret handshakes, Pigs & Chicken terminology… I guess I have no sense of humor, but I find these things just annoying. They erect barriers between people.
And then there’s this: the best humor is emergent humor. What is described by these activities is imposed humor, and therefore little different to imposed discipline, or imposed work schedules. Think about it…
I understand the concern, but the woof is just pure silliness, and hardly a secret.