The Shower Shenanigans: A Communication Wake-Up Call

This morning, an unexpected visitor joined me during my shower—our small dog, who just had surgery decided to jump in!

At first, I thought she just missed her Mommy and needed some support in her pain med fog. But nope, this little escapade was actually the result of a communication mix-up between my wife and me. She assumed I had the dog, and I assumed the dog was with her; and the next thing you know, we've got a soggy, post-op pup trying to share my shampoo.

This got me thinking about how easily communication can go off the rails at work, especially in Agile and Scrum, where our ability to release high-quality updates that delight customers is 100% contingent on the level of trust we have in our team members to understand and follow through with their respective tasks. Just like the misunderstanding that led to our wet dog, we can miss crucial details if we don't take a moment to clarify and confirm our mutual understanding of the problem we are trying to solve and the solution we are working to develop.

Here's the thing: Every player collaborating to move through the stages of the Product & Software Development Lifecycle (PDLC & SDLC), sees the problem and their respective roles through varying lenses.

*Follow the links above for additional resources on the Product & Software Development Lifecycle.*

Scrum Roles in Agile

Scrum framework

Scrum Framework

• UX team members are laser-focused on Accessibility, Compliance, and the overall 'look and feel' of the User Experience.
• Engineers focus on code coverage, build efficacy, regression, and merge tasks required to get to 'dev complete' and successful release.
• Product Owners and Product Managers (PO/PM) are the guiding hands of the 'big picture'. They are the voice of the Customer and Stakeholder, and must be aware of all moving parts of a feature or enhancement - from design to Engineering, to documentation, and release readiness. As a whole, Product team members ensure that solution enhancements provide value and align with the company roadmaps necessary to achieve the 'Definition of Done' and overall business objectives.
• Scrum Masters (PSM): These days, many Product Owners also double as both PO and Scrum Masters (PSM). They work with teams and ensure adherence to the values and principles of Scrum, to remove barriers for Engineering, and to connect teams with the necessary resources on the road to deployment. Overall Scrum Masters are key players who empower the team to meet the Definition of Done needed to deploy or release updates to the user base that meet expectation and streamline user experience.

How we get to Definition of Done in Scrum

How we get to the Definition of Done in Scrum

Throughout scrum software development, we're all trusting each other to fulfill tasks and keep one another informed. Most especially, we all need to accept, buy into, and fulfill our tasks with the same Definition of Done in mind.

Our success as a team is wholly contingent upon our ability to see the work through each other's eyes so that we can ask the right questions and obtain the correct information to move production forward. What is obvious to one person might not even cross someone else's mind, and that's where things can get tricky. Just like my surprise shower guest, assuming we mean the same thing without checking can lead to some unexpected—and sometimes messy—outcomes.

The takeaway? Clear communication isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must. We need to recognize and respect the different perspectives each team member brings to the table because while it might take a village to build a great product, it also takes serious effort to ensure that village isn’t just running in circles. Check often what is meant by the Definition of Done. Clarify the work remaining to get to dev complete. Restate the task scope needed to get release-ready, and keep each other informed. As a pillar of Scrum, Transparency in software development is essential to ensure we deliver value. After all, nobody wants a surprise visitor in the shower—or in the middle of a sprint.

Cathrin is a Professional Scrum Master and Scrum Product Owner (PSM, PSPO) certified through scrum.org, who leads teams and initiatives to build enhancements and accessibility compliant IoT solutions in the healthcare industry. Please see her LinkedIn to connect.

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In product development, this is particularly important. Each team member views the project through a different lens:UX designers focus on accessibility, compliance, and the overall look and feel.Engineers are concerned with code quality, ensuring that the builds are green and ready to merge.Product Owners and Managers prioritize whether we're ready to deploy, if documentation is complete, if regression testing is thorough, and how our deliverables align with the strategic roadmap and business objectives.We all trust that our teammates are handling their parts of the project. However, what might be obvious to one role may not even cross the mind of another, leading to those small (or sometimes not so small) surprises down the line.

Sparks beats AI !

I love Sparks.

For those unfamiliar with the "BIGGEST Band you've never heard of," Sparks are the unsung architects of many sounds we now take for granted from the early 1980s onward. They are the invisible hand guiding genres and artists alike, shaping the musical landscape with their unique, pioneering compositions.

As a 90s kid and a Xennial, I witnessed the last generation to straddle the analog-to-digital shift, playing outside in the summers, playing early Atari and Sega Genesis, feeling out of sync with the 80s vibes of soft rock contemporaries like Natalie Cole, Pointer Sisters, and not quite old enough to really enjoy the Boss or glam and big hair metal bands like Cinderella, Motley Crue, and early Metallica. Speaking for myself as a kid in NJ, I was also not. down. with the balloon pants, big hair and poppy synth of M.C. Hammer, Paula Abdul or Chaka Khan (although Chaka is awesome). Essentially the 80s were a lot of waiting around for my generation's cultural moment. I could never relate to the overtly sexualized groupies of the Van Halen and Crue fans, or to the objectification of artists like Lita Ford and the Heart sisters. Metal was my first love, so I was familiar with early Metallica with Chris Burton, 80s Megadeath, and Misfits; but I was barely a preteen so my chances of seeing any of them at the infamous CBGBs without risking being kidnapped or worse was slim to none.

The rise of artists like Sinéad O'Connor, Nirvana, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, Bjork and college alt-rock radio heralded in the rise of grunge and the 'second wave of brit-pop'. The 90s were our time, later solidified by the advent of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the WB network.

90s music—industrial, ska, punk, alt-rock, synth, emo, and electronica—deeply influenced today's artists, though it represents just a slice of modern rock's rich tapestry since the 60s. Young me didn't grasp the organic evolution of rock, even as I reveled in Lollapalooza performances by Siouxsie Sioux, Jane's Addiction, and Nine Inch Nails.

I remember transitioning from tapes to CDs and then to iPods, epitomizing our generation's analog-to-digital journey. My first CDs were Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's and B-52s The B-52's. Streaming is my norm now, but I once dedicated a wall to CDs. We grew up with grunge's birth, Cobain's tragic end, the emergence of sisterhood *again* with Tori Amos, Sara McLaghlin and Lilith Fair; and hip-hop's mainstream rise, movements all now recreated on apps like suno.ai and GPT.

I first heard Sparks on Gilmore Girls in the "Troubadour" episode, performing "Perfume."

Initially, I thought they were a fictional band—a mistake I quickly corrected. Sparks ARE rock-n-roll (Thank you Chazz Michael Michaels from Blades of Glory): Channeling and intuiting the *next* 'sound' at the vanguard of rock movements since Jimmy Page's Yardbirds days ('66-'68).

Their 1974 album, Kimono My House, foreshadowed the avant-garde sounds of bands like Foxy Shazam and The Struts. In 1979, Sparks released the first fully rock synth album No. 1 In Heaven, predating the likes of Blondie's "Rapture" and influencing 80s and 90s music. "The Number One Song in Heaven" and "Tryouts for the Human Race" both intuited the club beats of the 80s era, as well as influencing gay club hits of the 80s and 90s.

In the 2000s, Sparks collaborated with Franz Ferdinand to create FFS (Franz Ferdinand & Sparks), blending alt and post-punk into hits like "Johnny Delusional" and "Save Me From Myself," echoing the eclectic and theatrical musings of Dresden Dolls in songs like "Half Jack" and "Coin-Operated Boy"; as well as more well-known bands like Ben Folds in their ability to merge story-telling with theatre like vocal performance in songs like "You Don't Know Me (feat. Regina Spektor)", and "Cologne", both from their Way to Normal 2008 album.

Defining Sparks is like catching light particles in quantum experiments; they defy categorization, evolving with each wave of musical innovation. They embody the enigma of musical genius, continuously thriving.

As a music enthusiast, I've pondered how generative AI might impact music's essence. It's mind-blowing to create captivating songs with apps like suno.ai. But can AI truly replicate an artist's unique spirit? I tested this with Sparks, a band renowned for their irony, humor, and musical genius.

The results? AI can't do irony. AI does not get humor. AI will never beat Sparks.

First attempt - Suno to create songs that resemble Sparks genre and style:

• Circuit Lovers
• Circuit Lovers (Take 2)

Second attempt - Suno to create songs that resemble style and genre of specific Sparks songs:

• City Lights
• City Lights (Take 2)

AI-generated songs captured some electronic synth and pop elements but missed the Sparks' 'spirit': The layers and mix of musical genre, visual and literal pun, and the spunk and ironic spirit through which Sparks often interpret the age are maddenly unique and impossible to recreate via formula or feature stores.

Should this test be a new litmus test for artistic originality? The genius of Sparks is inimitable, and that's what makes them timeless. Should it even matter? Artists like Will.i.am are embracing AI. What would a band on the level of Sparks even sound like with AI? Better? Worse? Definitely not the same.