People tend to highlight that Scrum is best suited as training wheels. However, what most people forget is Scrum is a means to an end; it's not a silver bullet. It is only as good as the members of the Scrum Team. If your team is not getting the desired results with Scrum, then it probably is not Scrum, it’s your Scrum Team that is ineffective.
Here are 5 ways to identify if your Scrum Team is ineffective.
Insufficient Backlog Refinement
You have a great idea and to implement it you have identified a long list of features. All these features constitute your Product Backlog. However, most of these features are vague and every time you get into your Sprint Planning, most of the time is lost in clarifying and charting out details. Result, not a good plan and most often too many spillovers at the end of sprint.
When the Product Backlog is not refined enough i.e. when it lacks clarity and details around the Product Backlog Items, not ordered or is not estimated; it leaves the Scrum Team in a chaos with a high probability of their plans being derailed at any juncture of uncertainty.
Why it leads to failure:
- Unclear Understanding: Without well-defined Product Backlog Items (PBIs), the Developers would struggle to estimate effort/uncertainty, leading to unrealistic planning. PBIs that are too huge will become a source of confusion.
- Uncertainty and Instability: A poorly refined backlog will lead to more frequent changes as Developers discover uncertain elements while doing the work. This disrupts the team's focus, undermines predictability, and often results in incomplete or delayed deliverables.
- Reduced Team Efficiency: When developers spend valuable sprint time clarifying PBIs or dealing with ambiguous tasks, their ability to create value takes a hit.
- Strained Stakeholder Relationships: When the team fails to deliver what stakeholders expect due to a lack of clarity upfront, trust erodes. This can lead to frustration and a breakdown in collaboration.
Lack of Transparency
I remember from my early days of being a Scrum Master when I was taking my Professional Scrum Master class, my trainer recounted a story from Ken Schwaber. He said Ken came across a team which was using Burn Down charts as practice. What Ken noticed was, the ideal line and actual trend line were exactly the same. When enquired, the Developers said it is because they manipulated the numbers so that the management does not bother them.
Scrum thrives on empiricism upheld by the three pillars of transparency, inspection and adaptation. However, when communication channels become clogged or transparency is compromised, the team's ability to collaborate effectively diminishes.
Why it leads to failure:
- Information Silos: When team members operate in isolation, without sharing progress, roadblocks, or concerns, it creates information silos. This hinders the team's ability to identify and address issues proactively.
- Misaligned Expectations: If communication is not transparent then there is a high probability of expectations mismatch.
- Unresolved Conflicts: When disagreements or conflicts are not addressed openly and constructively, they can fester and negatively impact team morale and efficacy.
Lack of attention to Quality
Often when Scrum Teams are pressed against timelines, specially if they work under the traditional contracting mechanisms of fixed scope, timeline and budgets then the quality gets sidelined. When quality is compromised, undone work grows, which in turn creates bugs, In the rush to deliver frequently, some Scrum teams might inadvertently compromise on quality. While speed and defects and also increases technical debt and rework.
Why it leads to failure:
- Accumulation of Technical Debt: Cutting corners on code quality, testing, or design leads to the accumulation of technical debt. This debt will eventually need to be paid down, slowing down future development efforts.
- Increased Rework and Bugs: Poor quality often results in more bugs and defects, requiring significant time and effort for rework. This detracts from the team's ability to deliver new features and value.
- Reduced Customer Satisfaction: Every time customers use a product full of bugs or defects their experience is impacted. This leads to dissatisfied customers.
Ignoring Improvements
In my personal experience, more often than not, Scrum Teams during their Sprint Retrospectives identify improvements which are outside of their control. Also, they don’t necessarily identify a person who would be accountable to get the improvement done. Scrum Teams often keep going through the motions of executing sprint “ceremonies” without understanding the purpose of any of it.
Why it leads to failure:
- Self-inflicted mediocrity: No focus on improvements leads teams to a state of mediocrity, where they get into a mindset which fosters - “this is how it is done here” narrative. This stops teams from trying new ideas and becoming better.
- Frustration and Demotivation: When Sprint after Sprint, Developers participate in Sprint Retrospectives but find improvements which are beyond their control, they are frustrated and demotivated because they don’t see any improvements around them.
- Missed Opportunities: “Sharpen your saw” is one of the habits of highly effective people. When Scrum Teams do not take out time to focus on improvements it often leads to missed opportunities to experiment on how to be an effective team that creates value every sprint.
Ineffective Scrum Master
A Scrum Team is only effective when they have an effective Scrum Master. If the Scrum Master themself is ineffective then the Scrum Team cannot be effective. A Scrum Master is expected to teach, coach, mentor or facilitate the Scrum Team towards effectiveness. If Scrum Master is unaware or doesn’t build up their own skills they would not be in a position to make the Scrum Team effective.
Why it leads to failure:
- Ineffective Facilitation: Without a skilled facilitator, the Scrum team might find itself in a position where they cannot come to a consensus, or may be their events are often disengaging and purposeless.
- Unresolved Impediments: The Scrum Master is supposed to help the team overcome its impediments and in areas which are beyond the Scrum team resolve the impediments. An ineffective Scrum Master will not be able identify and resolve impediments.
- Poor Stakeholder Engagement: The Scrum Master also helps to protect the team from external interferences. If the Scrum Master is unable to identify and engage with the right stakeholders; it would be difficult for the Scrum Team to keep them satisfied.
The Antidote:
If you want to create an effective Scrum Team, start with an effective Scrum Master who not only understands Scrum but is hungry to improve themself as well as the team. Such Scrum Master can then support right practices and coach, mentor or facilitate the team in the direction of effectiveness.
The Scrum Master can highlight the importance of practices like Product Backlog Refinement to improve Sprint Planning and create predictable forecasts or The Scrum Master can challenge the team's Definition of Done, focus on technical practices and foster quality.
Thus, an effective Scrum Master is essential to create an effective Scrum Team.
Conclusion:
The Scrum framework is a great approach to build quality software products, however it is only as good as the craftsman who is using it. While sticking to the foundational elements of Scrum like empiricism, lean thinking, purposeful events and others can get a team started but to make it truly effective; one has to be aware of many common pitfalls and be ready to address them.
As Scrum Teams address the issues of insufficient backlog refinement, lack of transparency, lack of attention to quality, the absence of an effective Scrum Master, and ignoring improvements – Scrum teams can significantly increase their chances of delivering valuable products effectively and consistently.