Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Chickens and Pigs

Ken Schwaber introduced the concept of chickens and pigs with the daily scrum. Each attendee is either a chicken or a pig. The metaphor comes from the idea of a project to make breakfast of bacon and eggs. In such a project, the pig is said to be committed but the chicken is merely involved.

Committed and involved could be mapped to the ARCI designations for roles and responsibilities. This might help to map an agile process into a more formal or traditional organization.

• Committed (pig) is the equivalent of A(ccountable) and R(esponsible)
• Involved (chicken) is the equivalent of C(onsults) and I(nformed)

This CI or pig and chicken designation removes the problem of command and control by merging the doing, with the giving of orders. Committed designation allows for empowerment and its alter-ego self-organization. Committed allows for shared responsibility (in the common sense) and shared ownership. Everyone on the team, doing the work is committed and they are all jointly accountable.