Scrum Team Challenges & Remediation

                                                                                                                    

There are practical challenges which arise from the functioning of the Scrum teams. In this article, I would like to highlight the few major ones and some suggested ways a Scrum Master can implement to eliminate them –

Embracing the Agile Mindset

·         Bringing the change in mind-set is a big challenge. A team can be trained and coached but it takes a while for them to get into the groove and change their mind-set. The SM plays a pivotal role here. The SM can make sure the team is getting into an agile mind-set and accept the changes willingly. He should listen to the team problems and ask the team members to give solutions rather he proposing solutions. In some scenarios, he might as well give the solutions when the team is indecisive or unable to take a call. The team should never be forced to adhere to changes, rather the SM should work with the members (individually and collectively) to bring about the positive transformation.

Bringing cross functionality within the team

·         ‘Cross-functional’ is a word which can be easily said than being implemented. A lot of developers are married to their technology and convincing them to deliver business valuable results with another technology is not easy. SM and the Technical Architect/Advisor can help the team members decide which technology they could pick which would strike the right balance between the business value and technical gratification. Give developers time to immerse into the new technology and get confidence. A good way to achieve confidence is by delivering small user stories (typically less than 5 Story Points) at regular intervals. This would mean that developers are learning and performing at same time. We often neglect the fact that the testers also need to contribute as cross functional members. One of the ways to achieve cross functionality for them is to train them on Automation and Build. In an ideal cross functional team, everyone does everything but in reality the SM should utilise the knowledge areas of individual team members to bring about cross-functionality.

Creating an environment where team members Open-Up

·         Team members who speak are great as they do not keep things to themselves. Members who don’t speak are like dormant volcanos waiting to bust. For such members, it is important to open up from time to time. SM should talk to such members to understand their concerned areas and work with them to build a path of frankness and openness.

Empower the team to make them realise that they are the owners of the Sprint Backlog

·         Scrum team often does not realise that they ‘own’ the Sprint Backlog and they are accountable for its successful delivery. It is important to make them understand that they have ownership of piece of software increment and they can find the best way to deliver the features/increment expected from the Sprint Backlog. In the quest for excellence, they can take help from Technical architect/advisor to get things done faster and effectively. If they need training, SM should make sure that trainings are conducted well in advance and not during the Sprint when the real work has to be delivered.

Establishing an atmosphere of trust between members of different components

·         It is often a case that that there are two teams within the same scrum team. One team is represented by developers and the other by testers. Both are interdependent in many ways hence both need to make sure that they are do the best coordination for effective sprint delivery. Developers keeping testers posted of their build plan is one such great way for testers to know when the testing work is arriving in the sprint and make their test plans accordingly. The developers need to make sure that they give early builds to the testers. This can be achieved by breaking big stories into smaller chunks and delivering at equal intervals.

Make the team understand the Scrum Master is not a team manager

·         The SM is a servant leader of the team and he should make sure that team emerges to become a self-managing and self-driven entity overtime. The SM would never look good if the team fails. So he/she should try and make sure the team gets everything needed to achieve the sprint goal. That ‘everything’ can include getting resources, facilitating communication (internal/external), technology training (if needed), sorting out dependencies. A true success would be achieved when the team is self-managing and SM is involved into coordination only. But this maturity is not achieved overnight. The SM should give freedom to the team members to make their judgement calls.

Asking the team to make maximum use of the Daily Scrum calls

·         The team should make maximum utilization of the Scrum call to talk about their problems/impediments. If the problems are complex, post scrum calls should be scheduled immediately after the scrum call. The SM should make sure the problems does not stay with the team for a long time.

Encourage team to be fearless

·         The SM should encourage the team to accept challenges and work towards their goal in an effective manner. The team would take time to be mentally ready to take risks. The SM can induce confidence in the team by showing them the path of ownership and accountability.

Induce ‘Winning’ habit within the team

·         The Agile Scrum methodology could be treated as a game and scrum should be performed with the intention of winning and achieving committed goals. Once things begin to run smoothly, the momentum of constant and sustainable increase in velocity should continue. With the winning habit of continuously achieving Sprint Goals, the team gets confidence and this is visible in the scrum ceremonies especially ‘Retrospective’.

Encourage team to do ‘Continuous Retrospective’

·         Team retrospective should not be seen as a one-time Sprint activity. Retrospective should be done continuously throughout the sprint and experiences of the individuals should be shared constantly among all the team members for early adoption and continuous learning. To this, the SM should adopt new ideas, innovation and experiments and boost an environment of transparency and openness within team where team members express themselves unafraid. You can read more about this concept on Scrum Alliance website.

Encourage team to be Self-Organizing

·        It is important to foster self-organization within the team environment. Even though the team members may be competent, it would take time for them to gel up together, establish an atmosphere of trust, collaborate and get self-motivated to deliver work. The SM has to be patient while he practices this concept with the team. Team members usually have been used to taking orders from their managers (before agile was adopted in the organisation) and changing this mind-set definitely take time. Slowly the group of motivated individuals start to work towards the Sprint Goal and they adapt to changing environments. A true self-organized team would never ask its Scrum Master to assign them tasks/user stories, it would pull work directly from Sprint backlog and start delivering. This is also a sign of accountability and ownership. So within the team, all the attributes related to delivery would be self-managed in the best possible way. The SM should help the members in the beginning but slowly the members should be motivated to do this on their own.

Encourage team to be Self-Reliant

·         A true self-reliant team would try and utilize its own resources, capabilities, powers and expertise to deliver the product increment. A cross functional team knows how to achieve this in the best possible way. However realistically, the SM should help the team members realise their true potential to things done. Overtime, it is expected that the team would be matured to make its own decisions and utilize its resources to accomplish goals.

Thanks.