My premise: some scrum team members might not know their organization's end-to-end process flow for delivery.
My question: how do you the PM deal with this potential problem?
I'm aware this is not a problem unique to scrum teams but I am wondering how it's dealt with on a scrum project. On a waterfall project, it could be dealt with by planning out ad nauseam all of the delivery steps.
A trivial example is a new developer fresh off the streets who's not done big-scale development before. How does he/she know it starts with requirements, then design, then development, unit test, integration test, acceptance test, production release, repeated over and over again.
A more practical example, if your organization expects peer reviews, or solution design documents, or legal/security/privacy reviews, or special release processes to be followed, etc, etc, etc, how does the PM ensure that the team knows and follows the process?
Maybe it's not the PM's responsibility, perhaps it's the responsibility of the Scrum Master to address? Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Talking about Scrum, Scrum Master is accountable for all related to teach and coach about Scrum. Take into account Scrum is a framework, it does not prescribe, you will not find "the how" into Scrum. There is no line or statement in Scrum about to use USer Stories, Story Points, kanban, etc. So, Scrum is simple to understand because all you need to know about Scrum is inside a 19 pages document: the Scrum Guide. Point. The challenge when organizations using Scrum is to fill it up with the tools and techniques that best fit for the current organization situation. That is the moment to decide if user stories or use cases for requirements, use case points/function points/story points for estimations, kanban/burn down or any other thing to control and monitoring the progress, etc, etc. And beyond that, is the moment to decide it you will add some required documents. Because of all that, something is critical but mostly missing BEFORE you will use a method: the method, the approach (Agile, Lean, etc) you wlll use must be decided after performing an activity that belongs to business analysis (just to add some information): needs assessment. In that moment, two critical factors must be taking into account to decide: the product/service/result characteristics and your current environment (enterprise architecture (characteristics).
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1 reply by Robert Neil Wood
Oct 23, 2018 8:24 PM
Robert Neil Wood
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Thanks Sergio.
Re-reading my question, my ask might not be clear enough.
What I'm wondering about is - how do you, as a PM, deal with the potential problem that your scrum team might not know all the steps they must execute to deliver a software change?
Talking about Scrum, Scrum Master is accountable for all related to teach and coach about Scrum. Take into account Scrum is a framework, it does not prescribe, you will not find "the how" into Scrum. There is no line or statement in Scrum about to use USer Stories, Story Points, kanban, etc. So, Scrum is simple to understand because all you need to know about Scrum is inside a 19 pages document: the Scrum Guide. Point. The challenge when organizations using Scrum is to fill it up with the tools and techniques that best fit for the current organization situation. That is the moment to decide if user stories or use cases for requirements, use case points/function points/story points for estimations, kanban/burn down or any other thing to control and monitoring the progress, etc, etc. And beyond that, is the moment to decide it you will add some required documents. Because of all that, something is critical but mostly missing BEFORE you will use a method: the method, the approach (Agile, Lean, etc) you wlll use must be decided after performing an activity that belongs to business analysis (just to add some information): needs assessment. In that moment, two critical factors must be taking into account to decide: the product/service/result characteristics and your current environment (enterprise architecture (characteristics).
Thanks Sergio.
Re-reading my question, my ask might not be clear enough.
What I'm wondering about is - how do you, as a PM, deal with the potential problem that your scrum team might not know all the steps they must execute to deliver a software change?
...
1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Oct 23, 2018 9:04 PM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Well, as you know PM role does not exists in Scrum. I will try to understand the point behind your question. Each people into the team must know what to do with each item into the backlog. What to do is not in a piece of paper, is inside the head of each person. How to behave is a matter of maturity in the team. That is the hardest thing to understand inside Agile based environments. If you do not see that behavior then you must abandon the use of Scrum.That is because is very important (and mostly forgotten) to do what I stated above before using Scrum or any other thing. Creating documents should be an item into the backlog.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Oct 23, 2018 8:24 PM
Replying to Robert Neil Wood
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Thanks Sergio.
Re-reading my question, my ask might not be clear enough.
What I'm wondering about is - how do you, as a PM, deal with the potential problem that your scrum team might not know all the steps they must execute to deliver a software change?
Well, as you know PM role does not exists in Scrum. I will try to understand the point behind your question. Each people into the team must know what to do with each item into the backlog. What to do is not in a piece of paper, is inside the head of each person. How to behave is a matter of maturity in the team. That is the hardest thing to understand inside Agile based environments. If you do not see that behavior then you must abandon the use of Scrum.That is because is very important (and mostly forgotten) to do what I stated above before using Scrum or any other thing. Creating documents should be an item into the backlog. Saving Changes...
Without doubt, it is the responsibility of the Scrum Master to address the end-to-end process flow in a scrum project however, some organizational process asset allow a mixture of core scrum team and non-core team in its end-to-end process flow. In a scrum project, the scrum master is expected to use scrum principle and process to direct the team towards achieving a shippable deliverable after an acceptable sprint.
Potential problems (impediments) in scrum are often discovered, discussed and dealt with during scrum time boxes which include daily stand up meetings, sprint planning sessions, sprint review sessions and retrospect. The structure of a scrum project is collaborative in nature therefore allow for team interaction during iteration. A scrum team is expected to show collective accountability and transparency. Issues that may cause slippage are easily escalated to the scrum master probably for further escalation to the product owner for immediate resolution. This is a typical impediment resolution pathway in a scrum project.
Summarily, it is the duty of the product owner to present the product backlog which contains customers’ user stories and the acceptable criteria to the scrum master and his team to deliver the final product in a sprint. A sprint period is notably very short therefore, sprint team are expected to be knowledgeable in their role so they don’t constitute a constraint. Recruiting a newbie developer or quality analyst or business analyst to be part of a scrum team may constitute a risk for a scrum project. However, scrum team recruitment follows certain criteria. Requirements in scrum project are discussed during sprint planning meetings so that team member can commit to it prior the sprint. If you cannot commit to the user story then you are not fit for the team. It is worthy to mention that a scrum team is a self-organizing team (shared ownership) which is different from a traditional project team.
A typical user story as expressed below ‘An internet banking user wants to be linked to his/her account in another Bank’ tells what, who and why about the requirement therefore, if a developer is not technical enough to handle it, he/she is not expected to commit to it during sprint planning. Saving Changes...
Mohan KulkarniPM Specialist| MBK ConsultantsPune, Maharashtra State. India, India
Yes ,it always happens in the project team.Time dimension makes everything unique. Every individual evolves differently everyday so is the organisation as it is gathering working in given framework and governance style. Further the team also remains dynamic and is likely to undergo changes.Hence the something or other is not known to all the team members with same degree of understanding /sensitivity --of time, urgency,importance,gravity /knowledge is supposed to be well accepted and understood by each of the the team members . Here lies the skill of Scrum master to bind this team into one synergised live resource to keep aligned with the VMVs and march to create a incremental and final product. Of course this is very challenging but achievable with consistent practice. Lot depends on the level of commitment of every individual whether new or veteran in a self organised team to surmount /and ride over the gaps due to their limited understanding of the organisation as perceived by others which may or may not be true , by covering each other on real time basis and sail through the project increments to deliver the product exactly as per customer requirement.It is a teamwork that will not allow the ball to miss the goal.. This is true for all the successful projects whether it is agile framed or Warefall framed. The continuous diligency of a team leading to quick corrective actions are good enough to get over uncertainties due to ignorance or lack of knowledge or lack of understanding and be a winning team
Thanks Robert for raising this issue. Very valid but that is a challenge for Project Manager, Scrum Master or Coach and the Team to focus on covering the gaps of each other and play a game whole heartedlywith unified one to win the match. Saving Changes...
Yes the Scrum Master has a big role to play, but also the Product Owner who is in the fact the closest thing the Agile project will have to a project manager. The "steps they must execute to deliver a software change" should be known by the Scrum team when the project commences, and then it should only be a matter of ramping newbies up when required. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
This overall responsibility is on the organization, and how it handles their knowledge management practices. Exposure to the knowledge base would be part of the employees onboard process. There will be a direct correlation between the extent of the knowledge base and the time-to-competency for new-hires - more value return. From there, the PM or SM, would augment the guidelines and add connections to the why/value behind each. Saving Changes...
this is an onboarding activity which applies regardless of the delivery approach. In terms of who needs to help individual team members understand the end-to-end delivery process, it could be:
1. Scrum Master or Agile Coach
2. PM
3. Individual people managers for the team members
4. Self-learning if the organization's knowledge base is sufficient for this purpose
5. Peer-to-peer learning within the team
@All - thank you, much of what you've said aligns with my thoughts.
So, moving this forward, and at the risk of appearing anal in my approach, which I don't feel I am but might appear with this suggestion, is this roughly how you think you a good scrum organization should be operating relative to my SDLC question:
1. The org should have some amount of SDLC definition ideally not tied to a specific delivery method
2. When a resource is onboarded (to the org or at latest to a project), the onboarding should cover this SDLC (as well as a 1000 other bits) with a particular emphasis maybe on the SM knowing this well
3. The PM (or if you like the SM) should be checking with the team at the outset to understand if they need additional training, understanding, knowledge, access, etc. to plan out and execute the SDLC during sprints
4. The SM is responsible (?) during Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution to support the team in planning and executing the org's SDLC
Thoughts? Comments? Saving Changes...
Ruth HowcroftProgramme Manager - Software development| CACI LtdTwickenham, United Kingdom
Hi Robert,
As far as I understand it, the team should know the steps required to deliver the work/stories. Scrum master just makes sure they stick to the process of scrum. A well practiced team may not even need a scrum master as they will be intimately familiar with the scrum rituals. I agree with Sante; the Product owner is more the work organiser and aware of customer delivery requirements and internal processes. Saving Changes...
