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Agile coaching hints

boring stand-ups
  • typical reason: every team member is solving very different issue, no intersections or direct collaboration; basically "I do not care" about 1 status sentence of my colleagues because there is no connection to my current work + strong individualism
  • possible solution: moving towards to the feature team, e.g. instead of doing 1 feature by 1 developer 6 weeks, try to split work and do it in parallel by 3+ developers with feature lead in 2 weeks or even faster if possible (could be challenging at the beginning but helps to build no siloed knowledge) + build the team
too long stand-ups
  • typical reason: too much details + bike-shading and direct follow ups on stand-up with whole team + manager's hijacking
  • possible solution: park every discussion longer than 1 minute after the stand-up and follow up only with committed people (pigs & chickens); 'kill' any bike-shading; have manager's talk after the stand-up
non realistic estimations
  • typical reason: unknown domain or code, in this case it is more about the code + just shallow involvement of the team
  • possible solution: introduce team architect role (hat) and go deep into the code + team grooming culture with proper story mapping since beginning of the project
confusion & misunderstanding about SCRUM
  • typical reason: no real experience from working SCRUM team
  • possible solution: build agile fluency on team level which makes sense, step-by-step
too many task switches and distraction during the sprint which leads to slow development
  • typical reason: sprint shield does not work, priorities are changing like crazy
  • possible solution: empower ScM role to protect the sprint (first question: could we plan for it for the next sprint?), PO works on grooming/planning to order priorities/dependencies and keeps team focused on that 20% of work which delivers 80% of business value
retrospectives does not exists
  • typical reason: underestimation of human nature to learn & improve by simple sharing of different perspective
  • possible solution: create 'room' for regular team retrospective, listen & act, pick 1 or 2 most important topics for the team and focus on them in next iteration/s with help of management if necessary; after 3-6 month look back and evaluate if we are really learning & improving (then celebrate)
busy business
  • typical reason: everybody is trapped in magic wheel, doing best effort work, overloaded by operational stress without any chance to escape
  • possible solution: step back little bit and think, it is about mindset; individual cannot save whole organization or team, act like jazz band - play your part but listen to each other and create together; on individual base act like snooker player - prefer shot which gives you better position in next move over quick win without future
nobody owns the code
  • typical reason: long and legacy development by hundreds of people with too many organizational changes
  • possible solution: introduce (step-by-step) team ownership for particular module (cf. Conway's law), team should pick module - typical bottom up attitude
we are not able to achieve mid-term plan
  • typical reason: plan is unreal and there is not confidence and commitment from the team to it
  • possible solution: planning is good but we have to be ready to change it in order to reflect the reality - review & adjust; it is easier to get commitment for good plan but of course it is necessary to distinguish commitment and forecast
boring meetings
  • typical reason: goal of the meeting is not clear for everybody or meeting is hijacked by another agenda
  • possible solution: consider who & why must be on the meeting, set expectation how & why people should contribute, stick to agenda and park side talks to another time
we are delivering scope not value (benefit)
  • typical reason: we do not measure value (benefit)
  • possible solution: implement analytics & feedback to measure value we are delivering
no motivation
  • typical reason: global & local strategy is not communicated well or does not exists or is not aligned with personal motivation
  • possible solution: clarify global & local strategy and make sure that everybody can understand and align with it if possible
engineering standpoint is not visible
  • typical reason: engineers trying to guess managers thinking and prepare solution which could go
  • possible solution: engineers prepare suggestion which is best according them and clarify why (SWOT) and also they identify other options to support informed decision; decision should be documented and discussed on project retrospective to learn
stand-up does not occur when ScM or PO is not there
  • typical reason: team is not mature enough
  • possible solution: coach the team to take responsibility for a sprint
people are late for meetings
  • typical reason: passive-aggressive behavior = people are not happy to attend meeting but they openly do not rise any objections
  • possible solution: start on time, waiting is waste; talk to people on retrospective how to make less meetings or do it more attractive and try to motivate by setting clear reasons & expectation 'why to attend'

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