Agile in a Flash 36

Is Your Team Circling the Drain? – The Team

Agile in a Flash by Jeff Langr and Tim Ottinger (card #36)

> Individual work assignments

> Piles of unfinished work

> Work assignments given under the table

> Empty ceremonies

> Neglecting quality practices

> Guarded speech

--

If a team has had trouble completing tasks well and on time in the past, it will have increased pressure from above. The urge to hold individuals accountable results in individual work assignments. To motivate fervent effort, work is piled on, resulting in piles of unfinished work.

Since outside parties have trouble getting work done through official channels, they find ways to pass work assignments under the table. This makes it less likely that official tasks will be completed (Gerald Weinberg’s Law of Raspberry Jam is “The more you spread it, the thinner it gets”).

Since the team is not truly collaborating, meetings become empty ceremonies. Overloaded team members neglect quality practices (such as TDD, testing, or CI) in a desperate bid to get tasks off their plates. As team members become bitter and disappointed, their public speech becomes increasingly guarded.

The development team needs to be rebooted so it can build a new reputation using an agile work system (we recommend hiring a capable agile coach). It needs a “whole-team” approach, with limited work in progress and no under-the-table assignments. Those in these circumstances are reminded of these wise words: change your organization, or change your organization.

--

Warren Buffet is quoted: "Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."