JOSEE DUFOURIT Programme Manager| WorldlineSavigny Sur Orge, ., France
A bit of background...
An IT data warehouse building project, Mostly technical with lots of interesting challenges for the team which was very motivated to learn and deliver. Training and ramp-up was efficient, architect ensured a great support right from the beginning.
Management "designated" a scrum master at the beginning, who was replaced by the manager at one point.
Now, the scrum master comes from the team itself.
We are now at sprint 11 (went from 2 weeks to 3 weeks at team request) and well... we are not reaching the sprint objective (by little, but...) since 12 weeks...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
What does 'not reaching the sprint objective' mean? From the title, I see that each demo after the 3 week sprint failed? Where was the failure? A requirement failure, or another aspect? Has each sprint been spent refactoring from the prior?
Some questions:
Are the stories too large?
Are there unmet dependencies?
Is there a dependency on another team?
There could be many reasons. My question is how did it continue for 12 weeks while there seems to be an obvious problem?
Maybe it is time to put the breaks on and reevaluate.
...
1 reply by JOSEE DUFOUR
Mar 30, 2017 4:42 PM
JOSEE DUFOUR
...
Maybe... Hence the initial question :-)
How did it continue...well... a paternalising organisation will tend to take time to investigate how it could be solved. A large paternalising organisation would take weeks to do it ... !
Otherwise, no dependencies. Stories probably too large, in fact. And yes, a new sprint (partially) refactored the previous one.
Not reaching objectives means, to me, not being able to deliver what team promised to deliver. Sometimes it is really close...sometimes farther. And mostly relating to technical aspects, leading to functionalities not being met.
My biggest problem is the demotivation of those, in the team, that are still performing well...
Was there competency issues with the Scrum Master which led to the replacement? What is the organizations experience and maturity with Agile? Sounds as though, you list symptoms seen in as organizations are new to Agile...
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1 reply by JOSEE DUFOUR
Mar 30, 2017 4:20 PM
JOSEE DUFOUR
...
I agree. The "nomination" of a scrum master is showing a lack of maturity in the organization indeed.
I do not think the competencies of the individual are questionnable. The process is.
Saving Changes...
JOSEE DUFOURIT Programme Manager| WorldlineSavigny Sur Orge, ., France
Mar 30, 2017 4:12 PM
Replying to Gary Hamilton
...
Was there competency issues with the Scrum Master which led to the replacement? What is the organizations experience and maturity with Agile? Sounds as though, you list symptoms seen in as organizations are new to Agile...
I agree. The "nomination" of a scrum master is showing a lack of maturity in the organization indeed.
I do not think the competencies of the individual are questionnable. The process is. Saving Changes...
JOSEE DUFOURIT Programme Manager| WorldlineSavigny Sur Orge, ., France
Mar 30, 2017 3:29 PM
Replying to Drew Craig
...
What does 'not reaching the sprint objective' mean? From the title, I see that each demo after the 3 week sprint failed? Where was the failure? A requirement failure, or another aspect? Has each sprint been spent refactoring from the prior?
Some questions:
Are the stories too large?
Are there unmet dependencies?
Is there a dependency on another team?
There could be many reasons. My question is how did it continue for 12 weeks while there seems to be an obvious problem?
Maybe it is time to put the breaks on and reevaluate.
Maybe... Hence the initial question :-)
How did it continue...well... a paternalising organisation will tend to take time to investigate how it could be solved. A large paternalising organisation would take weeks to do it ... !
Otherwise, no dependencies. Stories probably too large, in fact. And yes, a new sprint (partially) refactored the previous one.
Not reaching objectives means, to me, not being able to deliver what team promised to deliver. Sometimes it is really close...sometimes farther. And mostly relating to technical aspects, leading to functionalities not being met.
My biggest problem is the demotivation of those, in the team, that are still performing well... Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Suggestion is to do a sprint retrospective for Sprint 11 , perform an impact analysis and present a Project Status update to Management. Clearly outline the current issues, risks to the project if the issues are not resolved, project progress through Earned Value Measures like CPI and SPI and Stakeholder concerns regarding quality of project. If you can highlight how the quality of the product is getting affected, that should immediately capture Management attention
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1 reply by JOSEE DUFOUR
Mar 31, 2017 1:42 AM
JOSEE DUFOUR
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Thanks Deepesh, gathering factual project indexes and sharing them with management is a good idea.
Retrospectives are made, after each sprint end. And I can only imagine (I was not part of the previous ones) the team sees what is wrong, expresses it and does nothing to change and improve... For example if the stories are really too large, PO should be asked to make them smaller and so on...
Gary and Andrew posts cover both side organisation new to Agile, maybe the team also and size of story, availability of ressources.
Yes motivation might already not be there.
...
1 reply by JOSEE DUFOUR
Mar 31, 2017 1:51 AM
JOSEE DUFOUR
...
Thanks Vincent
You are right. I'm trying to determine which other aspects (maybe more soft skills oriented?) can I envisage to enhance the situation... Today I'm kind of "far" from the team and I participate almost only in demo...Maybe I should get "closer"...but I do not want to step-in the scrum master role or add more chaos...
Saving Changes...
JOSEE DUFOURIT Programme Manager| WorldlineSavigny Sur Orge, ., France
Mar 30, 2017 6:38 PM
Replying to Deepesh Rammoorthy
...
Suggestion is to do a sprint retrospective for Sprint 11 , perform an impact analysis and present a Project Status update to Management. Clearly outline the current issues, risks to the project if the issues are not resolved, project progress through Earned Value Measures like CPI and SPI and Stakeholder concerns regarding quality of project. If you can highlight how the quality of the product is getting affected, that should immediately capture Management attention
Thanks Deepesh, gathering factual project indexes and sharing them with management is a good idea.
Retrospectives are made, after each sprint end. And I can only imagine (I was not part of the previous ones) the team sees what is wrong, expresses it and does nothing to change and improve... For example if the stories are really too large, PO should be asked to make them smaller and so on... Saving Changes...
JOSEE DUFOURIT Programme Manager| WorldlineSavigny Sur Orge, ., France
Mar 30, 2017 6:42 PM
Replying to Vincent Guerard
...
Gary and Andrew posts cover both side organisation new to Agile, maybe the team also and size of story, availability of ressources.
Yes motivation might already not be there.
Thanks Vincent
You are right. I'm trying to determine which other aspects (maybe more soft skills oriented?) can I envisage to enhance the situation... Today I'm kind of "far" from the team and I participate almost only in demo...Maybe I should get "closer"...but I do not want to step-in the scrum master role or add more chaos...
...
1 reply by Vincent Guerard
Mar 31, 2017 8:21 AM
Vincent Guerard
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Don't you have reason to be on-site for a few days? then make one so you get a feel of floor.
Or what about being present virtually to daily meetings?
Saving Changes...
S RajasekarSenior Project Manager| AllscriptsBangalore, Karnataka, India
If you see continues failure it is simple "You don't have right people in right places" this has to be addressed.
If every sprint goes for toss means objective and expertise are problem , in sprint planning team should understand the objective and what can be achieved realistically based on skill/expertise/velocity and commit to only those...
Efficient Scrum Master should be able to address this problem by coordinating with product/solution management along with the team.
...
1 reply by JOSEE DUFOUR
Mar 31, 2017 3:42 AM
JOSEE DUFOUR
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Thanks
I think you are right, but before throwing away the baby with tub water, I'd like to explore other options, naively hoping there are some!
Saving Changes...
JOSEE DUFOURIT Programme Manager| WorldlineSavigny Sur Orge, ., France
Mar 31, 2017 2:28 AM
Replying to S Rajasekar
...
If you see continues failure it is simple "You don't have right people in right places" this has to be addressed.
If every sprint goes for toss means objective and expertise are problem , in sprint planning team should understand the objective and what can be achieved realistically based on skill/expertise/velocity and commit to only those...
Efficient Scrum Master should be able to address this problem by coordinating with product/solution management along with the team.
Thanks
I think you are right, but before throwing away the baby with tub water, I'd like to explore other options, naively hoping there are some! Saving Changes...
