Just over a month ago I had the great pleasure of making a trip to Singapore and Malaysia to teach Certified Scrum Master classes. It was my first time teaching in Singapore and it was a very cool experience to teach such a sharp bunch of folks. The highlight of the trip though was co-teaching in Malaysia with Mike Sutton and helping the folks at ATSC (http://www.asiaictpm.com/default.htm) with the official kick off of the Malaysia Scrum User Group. The class in Kuala Lumpur was pretty huge for a CSM class (56 people) and it would not have been possible without Mike Sutton who lives in the UK but has been spending time in Kuala Lumpur working on some projects for his company WizeWerx (http://www.wizewerx.com/). Mike and I have very different backgrounds and I think I probably learned as much from him as anyone in the room.
Along with starting up the Scrum User Group, ATSC has also started a special networking group called MSC Circle to help raise awareness and networking opportunities for the Scrum Masters in KL. During the event I had the chance to shoot some video interviews with a few of the folks who took the class. They are embedded further down in the post.
If you'd like to learn more about the Malaysia Scrum User Group please go to http://myscrum.ning.com/ and sign up to hear more about the great things that are underway there. My good friend SK Khor, who I have had the pleasure of volunteering with for a number of years through the PMI IT&T SIG where he has served as the Asia Pacific Regional Director is heading up the group with support from MDeC (http://www.mdec.my/), the Malaysia govt. group that is responsible for helping establish and promote the growth of IT in Malaysia. Based on the work SK did with the IT&T SIG, and the fact that we've been able to grow the number of CSMs in the region to 80 since December, I think there will be a lot of activity in the region in the coming months.
I had a really great time on the trip and being a part of the classes and the kick-off event. I have a bunch of people I owe thanks to for the experience. None of it would have been possible without Mike Sutton, the folks from ATSC - SK Khor, EK How and Nan Ping Lee, as the incredible support from MDeC COO, Ms. Ng Wan Peng and Ms. Aiza Zeyati. On top of all this, I would just like to say that the people at the Scrum Alliance (http://www.scrumalliance.org/) rock like Hagar. Jim Cundiff, Tobias Mayer, Howard Sublett, Maria Matarelli and Tom Mellor, who was kind enough to record a video welcome to the members of MSC Malaysia for our opening event are some of the most responsive and supportive people I've run across in my 10+ years of volunteering for professional organizations. I owe all of them many pints.
And now, on to the videos…