Nate SC2

Chapter 4: Sutherland required his first scrum team to throw out all titles.  Why?  Where (inside and outside FRC) have you seen titles get in the way of getting things done?  Where can titles be a positive thing on a team?
Titles can cause people to abuse power and can slow work down.  A manager guides a group, but they take a bit of the employees voice away.  In our team waiting to check with a mentor or team lead has caused us to delay getting things done.  That being said, a title ca mediate between different ideas if there is a split in how something could be done.

Chapter 4: The daily scrum should be "closer to a football huddle [than individuals reporting out]".  Explain why.
A football huddle is a way to let everyone know what is going on, and the goal you have as a team.  In a football huddle most people will have different jobs but all be working towards the same goal.  In this technique everyone is up to date on the plan for the day, and everyone has a job they can do.

Chapter 5: Why is multitasking wasteful?  When in your own life do you refuse to multitask and just focus on a single task?
Multitasking is wasteful because you can't focus well on multiple things at once.  Multitasking does not get things done faster, it usually takes longer and produces a lower quality product.  In my life I always refuse to multitask.  I find focusing my energy on one thing to be much more efficient and effective.  The closest I get to multitasking is switching periodically from one assignment to another when I get stuck so I can come back with a fresh perspective.

Chapter 5: One section is titled "half done isn't done at all".  What are some half-done tasks we have with our FRC team?
Well, this course is halfway completed.  I can't think of any we currently have half done.  But we do have a tendency to start something and not finish.  This is a problem because we forget how far we were and many times have to restart.

Chapter 6: Explain how planning poker is supposed to work.  Mention the halo effect, Fibonacci numbers, who should play it, and the discussion that should occur when estimates vary too much.
Planning poker is a way for people to more accurately decide what tasks are most important.  It allows for an accurate estimation and uses the Fibonacci sequence because menial tasks do not vary in difficulty much, but strenuous tasks can vary more greatly in difficulty.  It eliminates the halo effect of people automatically siding with a person.  The people who play it should be those who are familiar with the tasks and can justify their reasoning accurately.  If there is too great of a difference the highest and lowest numbers should explain their reasoning and everyone repeat the poker hand.

End with a summary of what you learned.
I learned the importance of organization during work.  It is needed to efficiently complete a task.  Prioritizing tasks allows for work to be done in a sensible order, and it organizes work in order to eliminate inefficient multitasking and less important jobs.  We do not necessarily need to work at robotics for 10 hours a day and go to school.  If we use our time wisely and recognize when we are being inefficient we can get our work done much faster.  Skills from this book can help our team a lot.