Common mistakes done by Agile teams

Anand Murthy Raj

02 Jan 2014
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Agenda
Introduction
Agile Manifesto
Facts of Agile
Adoption rate of Agile methodologies
The “Agilist” Mindset
Common mistakes done in Agile projects
Q&A

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Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and
helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on
the left more.
Source:http://agilemanifesto.org/

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 Facts of Agile

Source PM research institute

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Adoption rate of Agile Methodologies

AGILE METHODOLOGY MOST CLOSELY

FOLLOWED
Scrum or Scrum variants were by far the most
common agile methodologies employed.

Source PM research institute

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What is an Agilist mindset?
“The Waterfall mindset”
Tries to be Predictable
Fixes scope on projects and
keeps time and cost as
variables
Measures success of its
project by their conformance
to plan
Values methodology and
process more than people
Resists change in S/W
requirements and
development processes
Sees the system specification
as generated documentation
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“The Agilist mindset”
Accepts that predictability in
business and software is
impossible
Time and price are fixed.
Scope is variable
Success of the project is
measured by the value it gives
Agile Business to its customers
Transformation
Values people more than
process. Hence accepts a
process instead of imposing it
Welcome changes in S/W
requirements even late in
development cycle
Progressive Elaboration
instead of conformance to
SRS
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Common Mistakes – Adoption mistakes
• The Delivery Origination must understand
and appreciate the paradigm shift in the
delivery model. This did not happen quite
often.
• All the decision makers were not agile
enough to accept the facts and move
forward.
• The customer did appreciate the close
engagement throughout the project, but was
not ready to take on the joint responsibility of
success and failure.
• Often teams members were selected based on bench availability. No
validation was done if they are self-organized and cross functional?
• Not all including the team, PO and SM was able to digest and understand
the change in Task based to value based approach.
• There were no checks and balances to see the Agile Adoption’s direction
Top Bottom or Bottom  up or a mix of both?
• Not all the organization gears meshed well to create an Agile delivery rhythm
Image Source : SolutionsIQ.com

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 Common Mistakes – Discipline Challenges
• Release planning : Planning was done by the PO without
much involvement from the team.
• Sprint Planning : This was a meeting to challenge the
teams and get them to agree on the business agreed
timelines. The time box often expanded to complete the
discussion.
• Daily standups : They were like daily sprints. We spent
60 mins everyday. The daily standups did not reinforce
commitments. Tasks were assigned by PO.
Results
• Deviating from value based to task based.
• Technical debt are like baby tigers. They grew up to full grown tigers very quickly.
• Short sightedness of vision and more focus on daily missions.
• Team games became individual game.
• Inspect and Adapt become very rare.
• Team style of working was more Reactive vs proactive.
• Planning is always next 3-4 months.
• Resist the temptation of changing the target once the sprint starts. “It is really tough to
shoot at a target in a moving train when you are also riding on a horse on a uneven
surface” – Sholay movie.
Image Source : http://en.paperblog.com

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 Common Mistakes – Mixing waterfall and Agile
into painful Agile-fall
In any lab in the world, acid + base will always
result in salt and water. No exceptions for this
rule

Some statements made by PO that caused serious reactions resulting in salt and
water!!
• PO: Can we have a schedule in MS project created to verify if the dates are
correct?
• PO: How can we consider this design as a scalable design. Let us spend one
week on designing the whole…..
• PO: Hey Guys, just do as what I say. I have worked on multiple such projects
like this..
• PO: I am the guy who cuts the check every month. If you don’t want to do as
what I want, better move out of the project.
• PO: What kind of scrum Master are you? You do not control the team.
• PO: Tomorrow is Ramzan. I know it’s a holiday, but we do not have any
muslim in the team. Lets us work tomorrow.

Image Source : http://en.paperblog.com

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 Common Mistakes – Mixing waterfall and Agile
into painful Agile-fall
• PO: I don’t care.. I need an intermediate build today. Even if it requires you to
stay whole night, JUST DO IT.
• PO: Guys can we please have a detailed requirement and design document
create? What kind of developers are you? You prepare some rough diagrams.
I need a detailed documentation and let us review this online tomorrow. The
review takes 3 hours so what?
• PO: If the functionality is not delivered today, get ready to meet your boss
tomorrow. This is for sure an escalation.
• PO: Hey Guys… you do not seem to understand the product. The build failed
because of you folks.
• PO: Hey QA team, why the hell you have missed catching so many bugs. Do
not tell me you do not have time, let us make sure we have discipline in
swiping in, but swiping out depends…we have to maintain pace and no issues
if it is not sustainable.
• PO: Do not expect the Sales and Mtkg Mgmt teams to plan their release
based on your timelines. Release dates and scope are fixed. We need to meet
the dates at any cost. Of course the budget is also fixed!!! No more questions
around this.

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 Common Mistakes – Team vs Individuals
 No maturity in selecting team members who are highly
motivating and energetic. Remember even one drop of ink can
turn the whole barrel of water blue and black.
 What steps were taken to get the right Scrum Master and
Product owner?
 The SM was not trained. Scrum Master must be assertive and
aggressive and must be ready to fight for the team in crisis at
the cost of his/her own reputation and must be able to take the
team forward. Most of the times SM could not do this!!
 Respect the team and trust their abilities. A baby cannot start
walking in 3 months after birth. Team will come up with amazing
results. There was no time given for the team to grow and
deliver
 There was no opportunity for the team to fail. Failure always was a crime !!
 Scrum Master/Product Owner must learn to be silent and listen. After all both words have
the same alphabets in a different order.
 The team was never treated as a set of human resources who tend to flip on both sides of
a mean line of a control chart. After all only a dead body will have a constant pulse and
heartbeat.
 Roles and Responsibilities of the three pigs must be clearly understood and the Scum
Master must correct them if the team jumps onto to the other shoes if unwarranted. Scrum
Master must be strong and must know how to keep his/her foot down to get the team on track.
Image Source : http://bizify.co/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/team-motivation.jpeg

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 Common Mistakes – Motivation & Environment
 Focus was not on team motivation and Intrinsic
motivation.
 Scrum Master could not ensure ensure that the
environment is Innovation centric
 Command & Control to Team empowerment
transition always creates bubbles and SM was
not so mature enough to puncture these bubbles
before they splash and make the area wet.

 The Mgmt or the SM failed to Reward and Recognize the team after every
achievement. Teams was often penalized for failure. (MOM award is given
after the match is over not after 6 months)
 The SM and PO failed to ensure the Team is CHILD : Committed, Helpful,
Improve, Lively and Deliver
 As Lysa Adkins said, PO must be a CRACK: Committed, Responsible,
Authorized, Collaborative and Knowledgeable. This was not the case.
 Scum Master must be Bulldozer, Shepherd, Servant leader and Guardian and
again this was not the case.
 Team often feared that failures will hit them in appraisals.
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 Common Mistakes – Motivation & Environment
 PO and SM must speak, radiate and focus on
team performance. We always came back to
Individual performance.
 Performance evaluation. The Mgmt used some
mistakes to beat the members (eg: For 52 weeks,
time sheet was not entered for 2 weeks, You did
not participate in Org level initiatives). Handle the
Appraisals very carefully and with quantitative
data.
 Lack of Agile Coach will hindered team the speed in attaining agile maturity.

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 Q&A

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Thank You
Anand Murthy Raj
anandmurthy.raj@gmail.com
+91 9845707457

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