Give Thanks for Scrum 2011 Transparency and Micromanagement

1Self-Organization andTransparency: Team Freedom or aPath to Micro-ManagementDan LeFebvre Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011Agile/Scrum Coach, CSC 2011© DCL Agility, 2010-2011

2Dan LeFebvreFounder & Agile Coach,DCL Agility, LLC Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) Extensive experience in software product development as a developer, manager, director, and coach Using agile practices since 2003 Fulltime Agile Coach since 2006 Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

3Scrum Theory Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

4Self-Organization in Scrum Development Team decides how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality They select the amount of work in the Sprint They size the work They plan the work They design and build the solutions to the problems presented by the Product Owner Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

5Micromanagement Encarta “control of a person or a situation by paying extreme attention to small details” Wikipedia The micromanager monitors and assesses every step of a business process and avoids delegation of decisions. Micromanagers are irritated when a subordinate makes decisions without consulting them, even if the decisions are totally within the subordinates level of authority. Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

6A Cause of Micromanagement Responsibility w/out authority Manager’s Fear of failure Trust in Team’s team Motivation Manager control Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

7Traditional Power Structure Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

8Scrum Power Structure Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

9Common Dysfunctional Power Structure Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

10What happens if SM is held accountable? Responsibility w/out authority Scrum Master Fear of failure Trust in Team’s team Motivation Scrum Master’s control Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

11Managers in Scrum Scrum does not describe a role for the manager The Scrum Guide 2011 does not contain the word “manager” Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

12The Tale of the Golden Goose Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

13Good Manager’s Job Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

14Breaking the Cycle Responsibility w/out authority Help team Scrum Masterself-organize Fear of failure Trust in Team’s team Motivation Scrum Master’s control Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

The team’s story to Freedom First Scrum team Mix of people from all over Engineering Important project with a vision Membership varied greatly 12 people at its peak

Situation Scrum Master was held accountable for delivery SM “owned” task board and burndown SM directed Daily Scrum SM and PO did Backlog grooming without team New ideas and speaking up were not encouraged Poor team dynamics and rapport

Results Meetings were long and painful Very emotionally driven at times Team was working for story points Wrong focus, caused feeling of judgment Scrum Master and Product Owner friction grew Quality suffered Technical debt increased

First Fix Reduced team size to 7 Added domain expert developer Provided focused coaching to Scrum Master and Team

19Results Some improvement in morale Better use of Scrum Artifacts Scrum Master stills feels accountable for delivery No increase in productivity Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

20Second Fix Experienced Scrum Master assigned Re-introduced the vision Encouraged team to self-organize Pull work into a sprint Create their own plan, task board, burn chart Prime directive established in Reviews Focus on feedback and improvement, not blame Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

21Retrospective Prime Directive Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand. -- Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Reviews Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

Initial Improvements Physical task board Hand-drawn sprint burndown Strong and Improving Definition of Done (DoD) Explicit agenda for meetings Explicit appreciations during retrospective Stickies handed out like trophies

Additional Improvements Over Time Pairing on stories Strong and Improving Definition of Ready (DoR) Improved grooming – whole team, acceptance criteria Open atmosphere encouraged Appreciations handed out for speaking up and being heard Collocated space that was theirs

Intangibles Product Owner Collaboration Team and PO together discuss stories and designs Team suggests changes PO encourages interaction Strong sense of team Challenge and help each other Tester became real member of the team  Even fixed bugs Team morale skyrocketed

Results Velocity: From : 10-20 range with 12 people To: 30-40 range with 7 people 2x to 4x the raw velocity improvement and 3x to 7x the productivity improvement Higher quality output with stronger DoD Product Owner sees and appreciates value delivered by the team Once a team in trouble, now one of the model teams

26 New SMTeam size reduced Expert joins Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

27 Exercise: Mini Review Tell your group what you think is important about what you just heard and what implications it has for your company Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/201127 2011

28Give Thanks for Scrum 11/22/2011 2011

Give Thanks for Scrum 2011 Transparency and Micromanagement

by Dan LeFebvre on Nov 24, 2011

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Give Thanks for Scrum 2011 Transparency and Micromanagement — Presentation Transcript

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