3 Common Scrum team Failure Modes

3 COMMON SCRUM FAILURE MODES AND (HOPEFULLY) SOME SOLUTIONS

Chris Walsh Dell IT

chris.walsh3@dell.com

@AgileCork

CAREFUL NOW…

“I Tried These 3 Simple Tricks With My Scrum Team And You Wont Believe What Happened Next…”

CAREFUL NOW…

Team Structure

Roles Team stability

Cross-functionality Self-direction

Backlog Management

Value Streams Priorities

Estimation Schedule

Sprint Execution

Planning Sprint Flow

Product Increment Metrics

Development Practices

Code Management Test Approach Programming

DevOps

WHERE TO LOOK…

THE PRODUCT BACKLOG

Fail #1

TYPICAL SPRINT

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Team Retro

Sprint Review

Product Increment

SYMPTOMS – PLANNING

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Sprint Goal

“ ”

Sprint Backlog

Task list (2-3 days)

Team Retro

Sprint Review

SYMPTOMS - SPRINTING

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Scrum Board

To Do Doing Done

Team Retro

Sprint Review

Burndown

SYMPTOMS - REVIEWING

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Team Retro

Sprint Review

Product Increment ?

(POSSIBLE) CAUSES & (POTENTIAL) FIXES

PRODUCT OWNER?

TRY STORY MAPPING WITH THE

WHOLE TEAM.

FOCUS ON THE WHAT NOT THE HOW.

DEV TEAM SKILLS

Huh?

I got nothin’.

Ummm.. Just keep smiling…

Too busy

coding.

DEV TEAM SKILLS

Huh?

I got nothin’.

Ummm.. Just keep smiling…

WORK ON SPECIFIC BACKLOG

REFINEMENT SKILLS. ASK QUESTIONS!

Too busy

coding.

TRY STORY MAPPING WITH THE

WHOLE TEAM!

DEV TEAM SKILLS

Huh?

I got nothin’.

Ummm.. Just keep smiling…

WORK ON SPECIFIC BACKLOG

REFINEMENT SKILLS. ASK QUESTIONS!

Too busy

coding.

TRY STORY MAPPING WITH THE

WHOLE TEAM!

YOU ARE HERE

NO PRODUCT VISION?

FIND THE PRODUCT VISION. (IT

PROBABLY EXISTS SOMEWHERE).

THE TEAM

Fail #2

SYMPTOMS – SPRINT PLANNING

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

? ?

SYMPTOMS – DAILY SCRUM

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

?

Which daily Scrum is

this?

Where’s Bob? What exactly

did I do yesterday?

So tired. So very tired.

SYMPTOMS – SPRINT REVIEW

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Where’s My £%&*ing Product

Increment?

Sprint Review

Product Increment ?

SYMPTOMS – CODE BASE

SS1

SS3

SS2

Org.

Dev Org 1

Dev Org 2

Dev Org 3

System to be developed

Organisation contracted to develop the system

(POSSIBLE) CAUSES & (POTENTIAL) FIXES

UTILIZATION FIXATION

MEASURE QUEUEING TIME OF A FEATURE THROUGH IT’s DEV

CYCLE.

INTERNAL SILOS

INTERNAL SILOS

CALCULATE THE TEAM’s “BUS NUMBER” AND CREATE A PLAN TO

INCREASE IT.

“GETTING TO DONE”

Fail #3

SYMPTOMS – SPRINT REVIEW

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Where’s My £%&*ing Product

Increment?

Product Increment ?

Sprint Review

SYMPTOMS – DAILY SCRUM

Sprint Plan

1

Sprint Plan

2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Day (2 Week Sprint)

Ho

urs

Scrum Board

To Do Doing Done

SYMPTOMS - “MINI-WATERFALL”

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4

Code S2 + Bug Fix S1 Code S3 + Bug Fix S2 Code S1 Code S4 + Bug Fix S3

Test S3 + Retest

Test S4 + Retest

Test S2 + Retest

Test S1

Time

De

fec

ts

Expected Defect Profile

SYMPTOMS - “SPRINT+1”

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4

Code S2 Code S3 + Bug Fix S1 Code S1 Code S4 + Bug Fix S4

Test S3 + Retest Test S2 + Retest Test S1

Time

De

fec

ts

Expected Defect Profile

(POSSIBLE) CAUSES & (POTENTIAL) FIXES

CLEAR DEFINITION OF DONE

DO NO MORE THAN ONE THING AT A TIME.

CLEAR DEFINITION OF DONE

DO NO MORE THAN ONE THING AT A TIME.

LOOK FOR THE SYMPTOMS

CREATE OPTIONS

USE THE SCRUM EVENTS.

COMMITMENT, FOCUS, OPENNESS,

RESPECT & COURAGE.

Questions? QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU!