Who are you and what is your main task, René?

I am René Puhlmann and I have worked at msg systems as a Senior Business Consultant since the spring of 2020. In my current role, I am working as a scrum master in a major agile project for a statutory insurance company.

The scrum master is one of the three roles in the scrum process, a process model straight out of product and project management. My role focuses primarily on the monitoring, support and improvement of processes – particularly, our team’s development processes. Within that context, the focus for me is not just on the process, but on the people as well, since people are the most important resource we have. They not only need to be able to understand our project processes, but implement them and feel confident as well. Meaning part of my role is to motivate the team to be even better, to coach everyone involved in the scrum process, to create a positive error culture and to establish the necessary transparency, so that the team can iteratively reflect on the work process – and consequently, improve it.

One thing I find particularly important within that context is communicating and acting with transparency. For example, I am also in charge of discussing the more unpleasant topics with the team so that we can work together on challenges to find a solution that everyone involved in the project can commit to.

The following quote by Benjamin Franklin is my motto for good teamwork: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

How would your colleagues describe you?

Transparent, motivated, Berlin brashness – most likely, though, they would use the words “hard but fair”! My work is all about improving collaboration between people and the predominant processes in a project. Everyone makes mistakes. And that is no big deal. Mistakes are the only way to learn, which is why one of my tasks is to show a little tough love. But don’t worry, I am very gentle ;

What was your first computer and what operating system did it have?

That would be the Commodore64 (c64) with a Unix-like operating system.