Topic Teasers Vol. 11: Agile Slackers

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  Agile   Communications Management   Estimating   Talent Management  

I love working with my agile team. All the personalities are great, and everyone gets along fine. The problem is one person who we can’t rely on to finish her tasks on time. With no project manager to keep tabs on people, how do agile teams deal with slackers?

A. Ask the ScrumMaster to perform the project manager’s task of keeping tasks coming in on time and disciplining non-producing team members. He or she is responsible for team member actions.

B.  No one is expecting agile teams to estimate accurately, so allow the person whose work is not done in a timely way to continue at her own pace. Team harmony trumps speed.

C. With a self-directed agile team, the team members must confront the non-performing members to keep the flow of iteration work on track. Agile doesn’t mean “no accountability”.

D. Allow the slower team members to choose the latest tasks in the dependency chain, so that they don’t hold up the team.

Answer: C. With a self-directed agile team, the team members must confront the non-performing members to keep the flow of iteration work on track. Agile doesn’t mean “no accountability”.

Agile is sweeping many organizations…at least the specific processes by which work is chosen, organized, tracked and checked for quality. However, the change in project structure …

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