Ben SC3

• Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of being transparent?  Where is it opaque and unclear in its workings?  Be honest.
• Our team is very transparent with how we feel about designs and is always vocal. We tend to get more opaque when changes are being made, since not everyone is present every day. Sometimes, leadership is opaque as well, since some leaders never actually showed up, or they were irresponsible and unhelpful.

• Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of supporting autonomy, mastery, and purpose for each person?  Where does it fall short?
• I think when we distribute jobs and have each small group figure out how to complete them on their own, it does a good job at supporting autonomy. We do a pretty good job at letting people discover what subteam they belong in. People can try out mechanical, or electrical, or programming. A shortcoming of ours is that when we have people we feel are unhelpful or annoying, we tend to 'dump' them on media. I think we could spend more time working with that person and let them try out different teams, see what is the best fit for them.

• Chapter 8: "Prioritizing everything is prioritizing nothing."  What do you think are the five highest priority items for our FRC team?  Put them in order 1-5.
• 1. Set up and comprehend our leadership system
• 2. Have students leading design, meetings, outreach
• 3. Have a vast understanding of the year's game
• 4. Efficiently build a well functioning robot
• 5. HAVE FUN! (by winning)
• Chapter 8: Sutherland and others say that authority and leadership should have nothing to do with each other.  Do you believe this is true?  Explain with a concrete example from your own experience.
• I agree with this, it seems as though authority is the control over someone via punishments and rules. Not trying to start anything here, but there are cases in which teachers use authority, not their leadership, to guide students: making kids do homework not because they want to learn and develop, but with the threat of detention and failure. Leadership is motivating people to do what needs to be done, going through the adventure with them, being a guiding light. This is like when captains of a team will help their teammates up, push them to do better, watch their backs and such.
• Summary
• I've learned how to implement scrum, what true leadership is, knowing what is important, and the importance of whole team involvement. It is hard to have one person guiding everyone, so have many people working together, sharing ideas as equals, keeping things moving smoothly.

Ben 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? 
• People with higher titles might feel as though they shouldn't have to do the simple and laboring tasks. People with inferior titles might be afraid to share ideas that could revolutionize the whole process. Along with the negatives, there are also positives. Titles can help with resumes and applications, but more importantly, they can indicate someones specialty. Everyone is a team member, but not everyone can handle different aspects the same as someone else.
• Chapter 4: What is the purpose of the sprint?  What are the rules that govern a sprint?
• A sprint is time in which a team will have assigned a number of tasks that have to be completed by the team. It is used to get a lot of work done in a small amount of time. It is governed by the jobs that need to be done.
• Chapter 5: Why is multitasking wasteful?  When in your own life do you refuse to multitask and just focus on a single task?
• It is easy to lose track of thoughts and ideas when multitasking. You aren't doing the best job you can, and it takes you longer to do each individual task than it would if you sat down and focused on one at a time. When working on reports, essays, and eating, you shouldn't multitask, the quality of work will suffer, and you don't realize how much you eat, causing you to over-eat. 
• 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?
• At the end of the regular season, we had the idea of making a robotic arm, we never completed this task. I could be wrong, but I don't think we even got started on it. 
• Chapter 6: What does the "Definition of Done" mean?  Why is it critical that the entire team understands the DoD for each task?
• The 'Definition of Done' is that a task or product has been completed to its entirety. The product is able to do all the jobs required of it. Everyone needs to understand this because if they don't, it is very likely people will start a task and never finish it. They'll begin building or designing and decide they're bored. From there, they could think the product is complete.
• Summary
• We learned about the various parts of scrum, such as sprints, DoD, the wastefulness of multitasking, lack of titles, and such. They are essential to a fluid and efficient work place and need to be implemented for maximum creativity and results.

Jacob SC3

• Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of being transparent?  Where is it opaque and unclear in its workings?  Be honest.

In our team, it is easy to walk down and ask about or just look at what is being done on the robot.  We also made our general strategy pretty available as well.  That's where the transparency starts to deteriorate: changes in design (front/back load, wheel arrangement, drive train, etc) are not always communicated to all members, there is a very apparent divide between the programming, mechanical, and media people with each doing their own thing, and I personally have had to deal with the challenges of what people want while designing CAD models.  This lack of transparency caused many delays last season and it needs to be fixed.

• Chapter 7: Sutherland talks about the importance of measuring velocity every sprint (even though it can be tedious at times).  How does knowing velocity affect a sense of growth?  Why is it needed to identify the "happy bubble"?

Any business cannot know it's success if it does not have an idea of it's velocity.  Velocity means speed in a given direction so to know ones velocity is to know how quickly a business is approaching or passing it's goal.  If it is moving rapidly in the right direction growth is good and is perceived as such.  If it is not moving, but the company is happy a happiness bubble may be forming.

• Chapter 8: A product owner needs to be knowledgeable about the domain, empowered to make decisions, available to the team, and accountable for value.  What specifically are we looking for in a product owner for a FRC team?  Do we need more than one?

In a FRC team a product owner would have to have a great understanding of the rules of the game and what role the teams robot is supposed to play.  They would also need to have an idea of what can actually be made and an idea of a time frame for these things.  This would require somebody who has at least a baseline understanding of every section and knows a great deal about the majority of pieces or is willing to work with others to arrange tasks for their weak areas.  For our team we might need more than one product owner;  this is largely due to the transparency issue I mentioned earlier since most people are rather restricted to their faction and don't know much about the others (mechanical/media).  If we fix this problem it could become feasible to have only one, but they would have to be around all the time and be well informed on just about everything.

• Chapter 8: "Prioritizing everything is prioritizing nothing."  What do you think are the five highest priority items for our FRC team?  Put them in order 1-5.

1. Prepare kids for future involving STEM principles

2. Build an amazing, functional, and legal robot

3. Recruit new people who are willing to learn

4. Raise money and awareness

5. Have fun (make it to nationals/worlds)

6 or 1. World domination (don't tell Paul we're doing it without him)

• Chapter 9: Summarize one story from Chapter 9 and explain why it gets you excited about using a proper implementation of scrum with our FRC team.

The chapter that struck me as most significant was the application of scrum in schools.  The teacher literally had the students divide themselves up into cross functional teams and organize their own learning.  This has alleviated some of my worries since this worked so well in a high school I really think it can work on our team

• Summary

In these chapters I learned about transparency and how essential it is, how happiness affects results, and about a few real world situations where scrum was used.  The situations especially helped me to understand how our team can implement and use scrum to improve our productivity.

SC3

Chapter 7: How should the sprint retrospective work?  What questions should you ask?  Who should participate?  What should you do with the result?
Answer: This is captured at the end of each Sprint. what went right, what could have gone better, what can be made better in the next Sprint. Requires a certain amount of emotional maturity and an atmosphere of trust. Hear the feedback, take it in , and look for a solution rather than get defensive.

Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of supporting autonomy, mastery, and purpose for each person?  Where does it fall short?

Answer:When we do a mistake we learn what not to do next time and know not to do that next time. We allow people to make mistakes but also help them if they need. Also overtime we learn things and when we do it a lot you get pretty good at it. Doing something for a while we learn different things and we could overtime master. The purpose for the person is because they can both learn and help with things that they might of not done before but they are also given a place they can be themselves. Where things cut short is when you if you have to many people and can't have more come or if someone does do autonomy as well.

Chapter 8: Sutherland and others say that authority and leadership should have nothing to do with each other.  Do you believe this is true?  Explain with a concrete example from your own experience.
Answer:Yes. I don't have much experience but I would think that they shouldn't have nothing to do with each other because if you have an authority over someone it might be a little hard to show leadership. Also when you have to show leadership, you should also do things that shows you are a leader.
 
Chapter 8: "Prioritizing everything is prioritizing nothing."  What do you think are the five highest priority items for our FRC team?  Put them in order 1-5.
 
Answer: 
1.Working robot
2.know the game/rules
3.know how the robot works(controls, which buttons are used, etc.)
4.sponsors
5.students/mentors

Chapter 8: What does a minimum viable product (MVP) robot look like?  Who are the customers of our robot during the competition season?  Does the customer change in the post-season?
 
Answer:One that is very effective, actually works, maybe be able to do things fast. Sponsors, people who are cheering for our team. Yes.

 
Summary:
I learned that scrum is more than just helping you figure out how long something might take. It also helps you know what things should be done first before others. It shows that when working on multiply things at a time will cause then not to be done soon.

Braxton SL1

Intro: Skip to the last page of the intro.  There are three questions.  The author suggests that if your answer is no to the questions, continuing is a waste of time.  If your answer is yes to each, please also explain WHY you are willing to go through this pain, because it will be painful if you want to truly be a better leader.

My answer to each is yes, and I am willing to go through this as it will not only improve my experience and abilities in robotics, but it will also improve my skills for the future, and having the skills of servant leadership as this book discusses can be very valuable in the future.

Chapter 1: Explain the differences between leaders and managers.  Would product owners and scrum masters be leaders, managers, both, or neither?

The difference between leaders and managers is that when you lead, you inspire and influence people to work together, while when you manage, you're running day-to-day tasks in a company, team, division, etc. Our scrum masters and products owners would be both, managing the tasks of operating and constructing the robot, creating the backlog list, running meetings and planning poker, etc., as well as inspiring, motivating, cajoling, and influencing team members to actually work and make a difference on the team.

Chapter 1: The word "influence" comes up dozens of times in the first chapter.  Why does Hunter keep talking about it?

Hunter keeps talking about influence as  he says that leadership is a personal business, and that a leader is a large part on the lives of those he's leading, the cause of personal development, dinner conversations, likes and dislikes, and more. Therefore, the leader influences those he/she leads, and this emphasis is to drive home this point throughout the chapter.


Chapter 2: What is a legitimate use of power by the leaders of a FRC team?  How often should this be used?

On an FRC team, legitimate use of power is usually just applying pressure on team members laying about and not doing their job in a pinch, however that doesn't really work in the long term. In most situations where power could be applied, it is simply preferable to try to influence lazy workers to do better; late projects (but not too late) are better done by a team, not a hero; and rival designs are better tested than shouted down. Power is good for last-minute situations or as a short term solution, while authority can be permanent and long-lasting if applied correctly, and by the right person. Due to its short term nature, power should be used sparingly and for emergencies, not every day.

Chapter 3: Hunter lists a number of history's greatest servant leaders: Jesus, Ghandi, MLK, and many more.  Name one person who has earned authority over you because of their service in your life.  Give a few concrete examples of what they do that earns them authority over you.

Instead of listing one person, I'll name two: my grandparents. Since we've lived in the same town since 2007, they've helped a lot with raising my brother and I, they've chauffeured us round when we need  ride, they've provided food, a place to stay, advice, and more. 

Summary:

In this first part of the book, I learned bout the basic principles of servant leadership. I learned about the difference between power and authority, the difference between leading and managing, and the importance of influence in leadership.

Nate SC3

Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of supporting autonomy, mastery, and purpose for each person?  Where does it fall short?
We are okay at getting in and getting to work.  We have people who are now very good at certain team functions and have their purpose.  The problem is we are not always letting everyone try things and find their purpose.

Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of being transparent?  Where is it opaque and unclear in its workings?  Be honest.
Our team is good at being transparent because we tell Pethan what we are doing, whether it is a good or bad idea.  Though sometimes we tell him after we try and break something.  We also have a problem of not allowing ourselves to see when we should work and when we should take a break.  We had many problems of being unfocused during crunch time, or we tried to go too long when we had time to slow down and take a break to clear out minds.

Chapter 8: A product owner needs to be knowledgeable about the domain, empowered to make decisions, available to the team, and accountable for value.  What specifically are we looking for in a product owner for a FRC team?  Do we need more than one?
We would need someone who can stay focused for extended periods, able to work with everyone, well organized, and can keep themselves updated with what is going on.  We could use a couple people to do this (maybe 2-3) because it is difficult for people to always be there, so that job could be done with shifts as long as we had a system to keep all of them informed on what happens.

Chapter 8: "Prioritizing everything is prioritizing nothing."  What do you think are the five highest priority items for our FRC team?  Put them in order 1-5.
1.  Getting people to join-We rely on the interest of students and adults to join the team and build it up.
2.  Finding a place for people-It is best for us to retain team members and allow them to get good at things and try many aspects of the team.
3.  Communication-When we work as a team and collaborate efficiently, we can produce a better robot.
4.  Money-We need money to support the purpose of out team, to build a robot.
5.  Building the robot-This is the point of FRC, but the other priorities are necessary for this to happen.

Chapter 9: Summarize one story from Chapter 9 and explain why it gets you excited about using a proper implementation of scrum with our FRC team.
In the Uganda story, scrum was used to improve the lives of impoverished farm workers.  They tracked selling prices and used technology to keep plants healthy.  This increased both the yields and earnings of the food.  This get me excited because it shows how quickly the scrum method can improve situations.

End with a summary of what you learned.
In this section I learned about implementing the scrum method.  It shows the necessary parts that have to be there in order to work.  Also, the last chapter proved that this method does work in many scenarios, so this method can greatly improve our team.

Bryan SC3

• Chapter 7: How should the sprint retrospective work?  What questions should you ask?  Who should participate?  What should you do with the result?

The sprint retrospective should work by having everyone who was working in the sprint tell about what they got done and how they did it. They should be able to confidently tell us how they completed the task and how long it took as well as telling us how we could have them work more efficiently. What we should do with the result is to look at it and figure out how we can become a more efficient team.

• Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of supporting autonomy, mastery, and purpose for each person?  Where does it fall short?

Well, as a team we have started becoming student led. We have been doing well at allowing everyone to do any task that they want. Now, we didn't always have people work on prioritized things. We had some people at specific points work on only filler jobs and not high-priority jobs. 

• Chapter 7: How does our team do a good job of being transparent?  Where is it opaque and unclear in its workings?  Be honest.

Our team does a good job of organizing our tasks. We have a board in Pethan's room that tells what tasks are being done and by whom. It also tells everyone how far they are with the completion of that task. There is a problem though, Pethan's room is really out of the way and I have had experiences where I am running down to Pethan's room to only find that the person I needed to talk too had just left the room. All in all, we are very transparent for the most part.

• Chapter 8: A product owner needs to be knowledgeable about the domain, empowered to make decisions, available to the team, and accountable for value.  What specifically are we looking for in a product owner for a FRC team?  Do we need more than one?

We are looking at the exact same values for an FRC product owner. We need one that is knowledgeable, empowered to make decisions, available to the team, and accountable for value. I personally think that theoretically we don't need more than one, but we will most likely need a maximum of 2.

• Chapter 8: "Prioritizing everything is prioritizing nothing."  What do you think are the five highest priority items for our FRC team?  Put them in order 1-5.

1. Having a functional robot

2. Having an understanding of the game

3. Having an understanding of the robot

4. Getting sponsors

5. Having solid organization

Summary:

I have learned about transparency, autonomy and how scrum works. It has really given me a solid understanding of how our team will be working in the next few years.