Many software companies try to introduce agility in the face of delays in product delivery, long development cycles, low product quality, high operational costs, and slow response requirements. However, the bosses and managers of most companies, from the outset, are doomed to failure-because they are putting the cart before the horse, ignoring the human ability and responsibility , and only looking to improve from the process and control.
Reasons for low individual or team performance
There are two main reasons why a person does not work well:
- Self-awareness is not clear
- Lack of responsibility
Self-cognition is not clear refers to a person do not know what they want to do, what can do, what can be done well, simply said is not self-knowledge, do not know their position.
Lack of responsibility is a person think that the matter is not his hand, is someone else's (such as the Boss, the company, the manager), dry and he has no relationship, so this thing can not call his sense of responsibility, do not have the motivation, the result is not good.
A company or team that wants to have good performance should work on both:
Find a member who has self-knowledge
Give members the right to choose and make decisions, to create a sense of responsibility
Figuring out the key, let's take a look at the most important phase of scrum-the Sprint initiation session-to see why most scrum practices fail.
Four key points to start a meeting
Sprint Initiation Meetings (scheduled meetings) in Scrum must be open, and Po (Product Owner), SM (Scrum Master), and ST (scrum Team) are required to participate.
In general, the sprint starts the meeting to do the following:
- Need to explain
- Select PBI (Product Backlog Item), which is where the customer chooses the important PBI.
- Disassemble PBI to SBI (Sprint Item).
- Discuss the hours of each SBI.
- St Selection task.
Many teams will break up the start-up meeting, 1, 22 things to do together, 3, 4, 53 things to do together.
When we explain the needs and PBI alone, it is easy to go back to the old way: only the so-called core personnel participate in the discussion.
Many teams in the scrum practice, will not start the meeting needs to explain and PBI selection delays, or feel no need to participate, as long as the product manager, Project Manager, technical Danale to participate in the good, the need to discuss the other team members to participate.
This made a serious mistake at the very beginning. To do so, those who did not participate in the needs of the discussion, certainly no enthusiasm! Because, this form, and before the waterfall or iteration, there is no difference ah, is a handful of people decide the demand, and then told or arranged for other members to do. informed, ordered, arranged, these traditional means of control, not only do not generate enthusiasm, but also greatly dampen and combat the enthusiasm of team members .
Participation is very important, which member is not involved in the decision-making process, which member is not motivated, there is no sense of responsibility, potential and efficiency will not come out. So, don't be afraid to start spending a long time, just take the time box limit, don't be ridiculous.
This is the beginning of the sprint and the first key point: The Scrum team participates in the requirement confirmation . This step is wrong and has a big impact on the back.
The second key point is from PBI to SBI, and the first key point, the same as the Po, SM, St together to complete. This sprint is St in doing, so St must agree with SBI, they need "I decide what we do in this sprint" feeling, this feeling brings the sense of control, bring enthusiasm. Otherwise, go back to the old road: You let me do what I do, what can I do? Notice that this is a very negative approach.
when a person cannot decide what he is going to do, he loses his sense of responsibility and is negatively treated (or unable to be active).
This point will also be discussed in the following sections.
The third key point is the discussion of work hours. Reasonable hours can make people willing to accept.
If a SBI need 32 hours, SM to 10, then who took this SBI will not be reluctant, the result must be spent more than 32 hours of work.
One thing to keep in mind about working hours: don't let people with the strongest technical skills decide on hours . It is obvious that highly skilled developers have less work to estimate than others because of their ability and efficiency. If a SBI is more complex, only people with strong technical and business skills can control it, then multiply their estimated hours by a factor (recommended by 2 or 1.5).
Finally, for all working hours discussed, multiply by 1.2 or 1.5 coefficients. So the final work is more reliable.
The last key point is to pick a task.
Note that the selection of "task" in the choice of two words, it is they bring a sense of participation, autonomy, enthusiasm.
If SBI decomposition finished, the work estimate is ready, then SM said, Zhang San you do this Li four you do that, the front of the kung fu is basically wasted. And this is exactly what many SM often make mistakes. when we are arranged, it is very difficult to have the motivation to do a good job, and even negative treatment , the task is almost reluctant to spend their minds.
One is willing to choose the task that requires him to learn new skills, which is a great thing, which means he is willing to challenge himself and grow. If you give him a pot of cold water, it hurts the baby ...
The challenges facing ScrumMaster
Many SM get bogged down in arranging SBI, often because of some practical difficulties, such as:
- Skill and task matching degree
- Progress pressure
- Critical tasks pose a risk to past performance-poor members
SM's concerns about progress pressures and mission-critical tasks can also be attributed to the mismatch between capabilities and tasks . Skills and tasks do not match, short-term pressure, long-term is good. This requires the SM to balance, such as a person to lead a challenging task, you can give it a number of high-matching tasks (the matching high-SBI work can be adjusted less, or not by the aforementioned factors), so combined, the impact on the progress will be smaller, and the team member, still can do what he is willing to do , there will be enthusiasm.
only SM allow St himself to choose the task, St has enthusiasm , otherwise, I do a good qt, ten years let me do GUI, I do not mean; he is familiar with Android GUI, for a lifetime, people want to engage in iOS are not opportunities, also bring negative emotions. don't limit people to a wall, allow him to grow, encourage him to grow, and help him grow . This is what SM wants to consider and the pressure and risk he needs to take.
No matter how much pressure and risk SM faces, be sure to remember: there is a choice to have a sense of responsibility, there is a choice to be motivated . Otherwise, you go back to the old way of telling, ordering, arranging, suppressing, and scrum is doomed to fail.
Summary
Scrum is not only a set of models, it is " people-oriented ", only the full participation and choice of team members to bring enthusiasm and responsibility, scrum practice can be successful.
Related reading:
- The things you don't want to say to the leader.
- 70% of the people left to lead the 4 deadly Sins
- The Best software project management method is the lump sum to the household
- For Mao you're in deep trouble-driven development
My public number "program Horizon" in this article to give the book "Scrum Combat-Agile software project management and Development " (Scrum Bible OH), participate in activities please scan code attention:
Follow this article by replying to "10173" or "latest" in the public number to see the event.
The two-point scrum is doomed to failure (book delivery)