Whenever we start a new project there is always a chance of having a few new faces in our scrum development team. Also, there is a big chance of having a new client or at least a new Product Owner in our team. In a nutshell we can say that there is always a possibility of changed team composition when we start a new project.
The biggest challenge I see (sometimes I embrace it as an opportunity to learn) is, the jelling of new member with the team or the team accepting the new member quickly. And that’s not a big surprise because the reasons are obvious.
Some of such reasons I experienced are-
1. Cultural variances
2. Doubt of efficiently coping up by the new members with the rest of team
3. Lack of skill sets required to be a Scrum player
4. New/Immature to Agile culture
5. …
Yes, you got it correct! A very effective way to overcome this situation is to break the ice (3Cs…this time a bit different…communicate communicate and communicate) with openness and transparency.
But surprisingly I have observed that sometimes a few teams tend to miss such opportunities which come in the form of Scrum ceremonies. One of such ceremonies which I experienced that teams try not to include Product Owner is Sprint Retrospective.
I ask only one question (humbly) to team that let me know a single reason to not inviting Product Owner in Sprint Retrospective. You might think that there would be NO answer. But there always exists at least one. Team- “We would like to discuss this between development team as there are few things we want to discuss and keep within development team”.
How does this sound? Team wants to keep something hidden from Product Owner? This seems odd. There is something seriously wrong happening with team and certainly a lack of trust and transparency?
Ok, now you as a ScrumMaster tried to find out the root cause to know what development team wants to hide from Product owner and you find that during planning team over committed and they took some kind of debt (Not necessarily technical debt). Team thinks that it is better to hide this from Product owner and repay it in next sprints. After all development team want to see Happy Product Owner and listen “Bravo!”.
Cool… So now team will hide this debt from Product owner and will be in a catch 22 situation. Will team repay the Debt or will it keep on increasing? Let us keep finger crossed and watch Spectre with some awesome actions by Daniel Craig :-|.
On the contrary when you involve Product Owner in your retrospective and update him about the debt team has taken during the sprint and the plan to repay in next/subsequent sprints, there are full chances that your Product owner will understand this and you will get some user story in your backlog. Even if he doesn't appreciate you but one thing he will establish and that is your honesty, that’s the first step you took for trust building.
And yes, team is tired after the sprint done and everyone needs a break. So there are two chances, either some of the team members will try to escape from retrospective or if they participate for the sake of ceremony then it will be boring and the outcome will be not as expected. So why not mix some fun in your Sprint retrospectives? Play some game (different with the one you played in past) for your retrospective and see the difference.
Don't forget to share your experience with your Funtrospective.
The biggest challenge I see (sometimes I embrace it as an opportunity to learn) is, the jelling of new member with the team or the team accepting the new member quickly. And that’s not a big surprise because the reasons are obvious.
Some of such reasons I experienced are-
1. Cultural variances
2. Doubt of efficiently coping up by the new members with the rest of team
3. Lack of skill sets required to be a Scrum player
4. New/Immature to Agile culture
5. …
Yes, you got it correct! A very effective way to overcome this situation is to break the ice (3Cs…this time a bit different…communicate communicate and communicate) with openness and transparency.
But surprisingly I have observed that sometimes a few teams tend to miss such opportunities which come in the form of Scrum ceremonies. One of such ceremonies which I experienced that teams try not to include Product Owner is Sprint Retrospective.
I ask only one question (humbly) to team that let me know a single reason to not inviting Product Owner in Sprint Retrospective. You might think that there would be NO answer. But there always exists at least one. Team- “We would like to discuss this between development team as there are few things we want to discuss and keep within development team”.
How does this sound? Team wants to keep something hidden from Product Owner? This seems odd. There is something seriously wrong happening with team and certainly a lack of trust and transparency?
Ok, now you as a ScrumMaster tried to find out the root cause to know what development team wants to hide from Product owner and you find that during planning team over committed and they took some kind of debt (Not necessarily technical debt). Team thinks that it is better to hide this from Product owner and repay it in next sprints. After all development team want to see Happy Product Owner and listen “Bravo!”.
Cool… So now team will hide this debt from Product owner and will be in a catch 22 situation. Will team repay the Debt or will it keep on increasing? Let us keep finger crossed and watch Spectre with some awesome actions by Daniel Craig :-|.
On the contrary when you involve Product Owner in your retrospective and update him about the debt team has taken during the sprint and the plan to repay in next/subsequent sprints, there are full chances that your Product owner will understand this and you will get some user story in your backlog. Even if he doesn't appreciate you but one thing he will establish and that is your honesty, that’s the first step you took for trust building.
And yes, team is tired after the sprint done and everyone needs a break. So there are two chances, either some of the team members will try to escape from retrospective or if they participate for the sake of ceremony then it will be boring and the outcome will be not as expected. So why not mix some fun in your Sprint retrospectives? Play some game (different with the one you played in past) for your retrospective and see the difference.
Don't forget to share your experience with your Funtrospective.
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