Mindful Masters went through an Agile Assessment recently and most team members were kind of disinterested in the assessment. Probably they knew that the outcome is not going to be so good and is going to be published as usual. Anil, the Scrum Master of the team knew that the team had great potential. They had some really experienced developers and even some good engineering practices. But somehow every Sprint they failed to deliver more than 50% of their commitment. Stories brought into work would never progress for several days and some would not know when to complete. Anil is seeking help to bring in some improvements which can drastically change the way this team is performing. The recent assessment has also brought in some negativity in the team. Some members told Anil that in spite of their best efforts they are not able to complete and do not know what to do. Can you help Anil?
Suggested Solution:
It is good that team has good experienced members and also some good engineering practices. The fact that stories are never started for few days indicates that they may not have a definition of ready (DoR) documented and implemented. Also a definition of done (DoD) as stories remain incomplete. This could be due to various reasons:
- Product Owner not knowledgeable about the product and is bringing in stories need lot more analysis before working on them. Team may be spending a lot of time trying to understand and analyse the story. Team discussing with Product owner and arriving at a DoR could help in bringing in stories which are ready to be worked on.
- A DoD would help the team to plan their work as well as know when a story is complete.
- Stories may not have proper acceptance criteria listed.
- Team may not be proactively involving in discussing the unknowns during planning or backlog refinement meetings.
Anil could get these things done (just a few to start with):
- Document DoR, DoD and put them into practice.
- Focus on backlog refinement meeting to make stories ready for the coming sprint.
- Bring in certain practices in the team to involve members in active discussions. Collaboration sessions and team activities would help a lot in this area.
4 Responses
Hi Shiv, I can relate to this, it is a real different world.
I was invited a few times to address students appearing for CET exams as an industry person and found it challenging to connect with them. I was able to connect somewhat as one of their concern was what if they do not get into a good college, which I was able to address by sharing real life examples.
Thanks Vasu. College “brand” no doubt helps early on in work life – corporate doors open more easily. But down the line, it is people’s motivation and track record that helps build careers. I am sure we have all seen examples affirming this. I have stressed with the mentees that I work with. An aside, the mentorship program I am involved in spans 4-5 months and so, I have had time to work on the “connect”! Yes – takes time and effort.
Hi Shiv – very well written – thanks for the write-up.
Many years ago I was a volunteer mentor for a couple of youth as part of Dream A Dream’s life skills mentoring program. This was in person mentoring where the mentee and I would meet periodically (usually on a weekend) and discuss general topics. There was no prescribed structure though all mentors did go thru a few hours of in person training. Based on that experience I can corroborate that it takes time for the mentee to open up, especially in that case given their lack of confidence in expressing in English which was the recommended language for communication. Switching to Tamil (in one case where the mentee was from Tamil Nadu) helped.
Can also relate well to your point on swings in mood and engagement level of the mentee and the need for mentor to shift gears accordingly.
I am sure the mentees are benefiting a lot from your vast and varied experience – hope you will come back to mentor more such students after you complete the current mentorships and possibly take a break!
Thank you, Bhasker!