Bharath Srinivasan

Indicator's of a team's health that's beyond velocity

The most common cause of a Scrum Team (ST) not accomplishing their Sprint Goal, not having things DONE at the end of the Sprint , is that everybody is busy individually working on their Sprint Backlog items. When you look at the Scrum board, most of the things are OPEN / IN PROGRESS, touch time is too long and very few gets to DONE, really conforming to the DoD. Towards the end of the Sprint, everything needs to be tested all at once as one big batch and the time for functional validation seems to be crunched, resulting is low quality test coverage. Sprint Goal isn't accomplished and most of the Sprint Backlog items/stories aren’t DONE. The challenge is to get the ST members working together (not alone as individuals) as one well-oiled unit, with a singular goal to systematically get fewer stories to Done every couple of days; so that towards the end of the Sprint : Either most of the work is Done & Sprint Goal is accomplished OR The least amount of low value stories aren’t done (flexibility that comes with having a focused, challenging Sprint Goal). This problem might be present in most of the Scrum Teams (ST)? What habits and behaviors should we change? Most importantly - Do we want to? Do we have the "intent and accountability" to do it? Years of research has shown that 2 “habits” are the game changer : “ Limiting the Work In Progress(WIP) and Swarming” . That is multiple team members working TOGETHER on a single high priority Product Backlog(PB) item or a problem and putting their best foot forward to accomplish it. WHY? When you are working on 2 or more PB items at a time, you only have 80% productive time/availability - 20% is lost in context switching. When you are working on 3 or more PB items at a time, you only have 60% productive time/availability - 40% is lost in context switching. When you are working on 4 or more PB items at a time, you only have 40% productive time/availability - 60% is lost in context switching When you are working on 5 or more PB items at a time, you only have 25% productive time/availability - 75% is lost in context switching. Working on too many PB items or stories at the same time creates slowness, destroys team efficiency, degrades quality, erodes creativity and blocks transparency As a Scrum Team you can make yourself a lot faster, by adapting small changes in your daily habits and mindset. HOW? Focus on just 1 or 2 high priority items/stories (in the Sprint Backlog) at a time, self-organize with a challenging Sprint Goal. Redistribute the team members around these 2 high priority Sprint Backlog items, collaborate and get it to DONE in 1-3 days. Remember the guideline: 12 – 13 [ Swarm on 1-2 high priority items and getting to DONE every 1-3 days]. Then swarm on to the next 2 high priority items and get that to DONE. With fewer items in progress, you’d realize a whole lot of benefits: Better focus, collaboration. Increased flow efficiency. Early transparency into bottlenecks/impediments/queues/dependencies that are pulling the team back. Faster feedback & early validation of your assumptions. Shorter cycle time, better throughput. Increased value delivery & higher quality of work. Better productivity & reduced risks. Collaborative cross functional skill development. Enhanced trust, transparency and teamwork. Better insight into the progress towards the Sprint Goal and release plan. High motivation of the team members as they get to see something to Done every few days. Faster releases to production. Enhanced stakeholder satisfaction & whole team efficiency. More velocity - even if that's the sole focus. What takes you individually 5-8 days to complete, can be DONE in 1-3 days if two or more people are SWARMING together. Many team members will not buy into this habit mainly because of the way we have been conditioned to work, where we think being busy out-beats everything. They might think - I will work individually on my own items, keep myself busy. This behaviour is not a healthy sign and will cause the ST to slow down. Doing more is not better, doing better is better. Quality > Quantity and consistency triumphs intensity in the long-term. If you want to be a valuable Scrum Team member – apply the below 5 commandments. Collaborate, talk, discuss with your team to see how you can elevate the team efficiency. Focus on 1-2 high priority items at a time – limit your batch size. Collaborate to get them to DONE in 1-3 days. Then swarm on the next 1-2 high priority items, get that to DONE. Rinse, inspect and repeat. Limiting your WIP (1-2 high priority items at a time) and SWARMING are the key traits of highly successful teams. Decide if you want to be an ordinary Scrum Team or a: High Performing “Developer” High Performing “Product Owner” High Performing “Scrum Master” High Performing “Scrum Team” Don’t over think and over analyze this. Just start, it need not be perfect or rather it won’t be perfect. Focus on forward progress(small baby steps) not perfection. The team will find it's way. Trust and give them the time and space. Be consistent with this habit and do it every day, every Sprint, do it often. Results are inevitable with consistency. Big transformations happen only when small habits and behaviour changes are repeated consistently again and again. Until next time, sweat it out, recover and repeat! #MakeFitnessAHabit #1repatatime #ScrumOn Inspiration, Credits and References: Co-founder and Coach, Arvind Ashok ,@thequad.in,The Quad Fitness Pvt. Limited, Madras, India Gerald Weinberg, Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking. Scrum.Org , Professional Scrum Mastery – People and Teams

Don't fuss too much about your training routine. Whether it's strength training, yoga, resistance training, high intensity interval training, animal flow movement, walking or core work, your body doesn't care where you train ( terrace, garage, field track, 4 feet space in your living room etc.) or what you use to create resistance.

It's totally okay that you spent, the weekend eating, drinking and making merry. That's what festivals are for. But don't undermine the power of jumping right back on track.

With the Covid 19 pandemic, I really struggled big time to create the boundary between my work life and personal life. Day by day, that boundary was getting thin. There were lofty overlaps and I sucked at creating the balance.

We often try to make massive change once we realize something isn't right and this doesn't normally go so well. When it comes to making progress everyone wants to LEAP; take BIGGER steps.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times : Bruce Lee

What is the one thing you need to achieve everything you want with respect to health, fitness and life? Is it a special framework? Is it a super food? Is it a special training program? Is it a quick fix? Is it a short cut? Or Is it something that's very simple? As simplistic as it sounds, none of these are the holy grail of high performance. Consistency is ! It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently ! - great quote by Tony Robbins. Consistency is what transforms the average into excellence. Consistency is more important than perfection. Consistency always triumphs intensity. There will be weeks where it's either too hot or too cold, there may be times when you have only 20 minutes to get a workout in and there will definitely be times when you just don't feel like showing up for your training session. Welcome to the real world ! Yes, life happens..... But don't let that bog you down. Dust yourself off. Shake it off and show up. Yes, show up and get your hands on the kettle bell, show up to your training session. That's the power of showing up. Just show up for that training hour, things will fall in place and the magic happens. You will thank yourself for just showing up. sticking in and not giving up. Scrum is the same way. It's all about being consistent with the framework. Don't give up. Show up to your Scrum events with the right intent. Keep at it. You might feel it's overwhelming in this Sprint. That's okay, it's normal. Reset and show up for the upcoming Sprint. Be consistent : to create a Sprint Goal during the Sprint Planning. to have a highly visible, emerging Sprint Backlog, that's owned by the Development Team(DT). in starting your Daily Scrum with the Sprint Goal as your guide post. in empowering the DT to self organize their work around the Sprint Goal. in elevating the transparency of your Increment to your stakeholders and sharing the Product Backlog, likely completion dates. in creating one, small, incremental improvement action that's implementable in the upcoming Sprint. in enhancing the transparency of the remaining work in the Sprint and inspecting the progress towards the Sprint Goal in adapting the DT's daily plan. in having a Definition Of Done(DoD) and team working agreements that practical. in putting the best foot forward towards delivering high quality & valuable functionality atleast by the Sprint end. in building quality into the work with solid engineering practices. Be consistent, show up to train, show up to work, show up to Scrum, show up to unlearn and most importantly leave your ego at the door. Nothing happens overnight. Not fat loss. Not weight gain. Not lifestyle change. Not a high performing team. Not a Done Increment. Not a synergistic Sprint Goal. Not incremental improvements. But what can happen overnight, is "the first step to change". Take that first step to be "consistent". Things will automatically fall in place. Until next time, sweat it out, rinse, recover and repeat ! #MakeFitnessAHabit #1repatatime #ScrumOn Inspiration and References: Co-founder and Coach, Arvind Ashok ,@thequad.in,The Quad Fitness Pvt. Limited, Madras, India

Fitness and health is so many different things to so many people, but what is that one thing it should be for everyone? Any idea?........................... FUN !

Habits first and then progress follows! There is a huge power in the little things.