Those of you with Scrum & Agile experience are probably familiar with the following story:

A chicken and a pig are together when the chicken says, “Let’s start a restaurant!”.
The pig thinks it over and says, “What would we call this restaurant?”
The chicken says, “Ham n’ Eggs!”
The pig says, “No thanks, I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved!”

There is only one problem with this story, they are missing the Seagull.

A Seagull can be identified by these characteristics:

1. Comes into the project mid-sprint with no prior contributions
2. Makes a lot of noise
3. Craps on everyone & everything
4. Leaves just as abruptly as he or she appeared

This can be a team morale killer, especially if it is a C-Level player. Also it will definitely have an adverse effect on your current velocity!

So how does a Scrum Master play defense against a Seagull?