Almost 30 years ago, I worked as an editor for a German computer magazine called “PC Praxis“. With a monthly circulation of about 200,000 copies, it was the top-selling magazine. In these days, you could be a know-it-all, we were exploring and writing technological history in real-time: I disassembled huge desktop computers and tested graphic cards, hard disk drives and modems; installed, tested and reviewed software (on DOS 3.1) and games, wrote how-to-articles and experimented with the Usenet.

Wait a second: How can a Scrum Master not like sprinting? Well, I like the concept, but not the word: In Scrum, a sprint is an event and container for all other scrum events such as the sprint planning, daily scrums, the sprint review and the sprint retrospective. Depending on the stage of the project and risks involved, a sprint could last up to one month. So, what is wrong with that?

Take the future of a city full of autonomous cars (a technologist’s dream come true): The natural “enemies” of these smart vehicles will be cyclists and pedestrians as they are unpredictable human risks who will suddenly rule the streets (neatly programmed, autonomous cars will stop and obey when pedestrians stand in the middle of the road). In consequence, and to keep traffic flowing, a “smart system” needs to take care of all subjects disturbing that flow.

It is easy to “start with why”: You sit down, walk, brainstorm or meditate, and eventually you will come up with a lofty “why statement”, which will be your favourite mantra for the next few days. But what will you do with it? Many people then skip or only lightly touch the “what” because it is much more fun to explore the “how”: it is all about learning and acquiring knowledge, skills needed for future success; networking, talking, fiddling with technologies and figuring out perfect workflows for quite unlikely scenarios.