The Problems with Pacesetters on Agile Teams (Part 1)

  Agile   Communications Management   Talent Management  

It was a highly stressful time. The government-mandated date was approaching and our code had to be out the door and delivered to thousands of customers on time. The date wasn’t going to change without an act of congress (literally), and the code had to calculate perfectly lest we risk lawsuits from the government and our clients. Worse yet, the domain was so complex that qualified people were scarce: we hadn’t been able to staff up early, and adding people to the project was not an option.

At 7 a.m. I came to work and he was still there--our senior programmer, wearing the same clothes as the day before and not looking very fresh. After 36 hours, he was still working: configuring systems, slinging code and being a hyper-developer. There was no time to plan or delegate work. Completing the code was a holy quest in need of a champion, and he was there to fill that role.

Eventually the system got out the door and the e-mail accolades from executive management followed: “Great job!”, “Thanks for the extra effort”, “We recognize your contributions”, “Couldn’t have done it without you…”. After a flurry of production problems, the true effects of the final rush became apparent: 60 percent staff turnover in a matter of months and moral at an all-time low. Our heroic senior programmer stayed on, waiting …

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