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Company Wants Me To Commit Every Four Weeks

Last post 12:36 pm February 11, 2020 by Ian Mitchell
3 replies
07:55 pm February 5, 2020

The company where I work wants me to commit to doing so many epics every four weeks and one of our KPIs is the percentage of committed epics done.  So, if we commit to 10 epics and 8 are done then we have a 80% success rate as a team for that four weeks.

 

The company is so large that we will not get any feedback from the customer for half a year as we release as a company then.  For this reason I wanted to choose Kanban but I think I cannot use that as we need the sprints to commit. What are you thoughts, is it possible to mix the WIP of the Kanban with the 4 week cycle of commitments?

 

In addition, some other manager has made some guidelines that the sprints are two weeks in length to get faster feedback.  I am thinking that this is useless as we need to commit in four week chunks. Also we release to the testing daily that I think we will get no added benefit from two week sprints.  Do any of you see any benefit to using 2 week sprints in this case?

 

Thanks


02:09 am February 6, 2020

I think you need to consult with other team mates who practice agile and have a discussion of whoever is insisting you to commit that number of epics. They might have a different understanding of agile or the framework you are using.

I think the week in the sprint is not the problem, I think the problem is the understanding between your management, your stakeholder and your teams are not aligned to one another.


12:56 pm February 6, 2020

The company where I work wants me to commit to doing so many epics every four weeks and one of our KPIs is the percentage of committed epics done.  So, if we commit to 10 epics and 8 are done then we have a 80% success rate as a team for that four weeks.

As a Scrum Master you need to make transparent to your company that focusing on outputs rather than outcomes is not valuable. So what if you complete 100% of epics and no one wants to use your product?  Turn this around to start focusing on value measurements. Check out Evidence Based Management for ideas on Key Value Metrics: https://www.scrum.org/resources/evidence-based-management

The company is so large that we will not get any feedback from the customer for half a year as we release as a company then.  

I see the pillars of empiricism crumbling at your feet. Might this be an impediment you need to make transparent? How can the feedback loop shorten so your company can make better decisions based on evidence and facts?

In addition, some other manager has made some guidelines that the sprints are two weeks in length to get faster feedback.  I am thinking that this is useless as we need to commit in four week chunks. 

Why is this manager making decisions for a self-organizing team on a Sprint length? How long can your Product Owner and Development Teams wait for feedback? Is this something for a Scrum Master to help teach/coach the manager?


12:36 pm February 11, 2020

What are you thoughts, is it possible to mix the WIP of the Kanban with the 4 week cycle of commitments?

What evidence does the team have that these so-called "commitments" are realistic and achievable?

Do any of you see any benefit to using 2 week sprints in this case?

Let's take a step back and focus on the empiricism Chris mentioned. How do you see empirical process control being established in the scenario you describe?


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