Making Agile work for you by avoiding these bad practices
A common complaint about Agile is that inexperienced people are expected to deliver extraordinary results. Agile, they say, just doesn’t work in practice. This article focuses on problems related to Scrum which is the most popular types of Agile. The power of Agile is that it leverages human behaviour as a means to achieve a goal. By understanding the theories behind human behaviour you can better utilise them. This approach makes the most of Agile and avoids the common problems listed below.
Problem: Assigning tasks to team members.
Theory Undermined: Intrinsic Motivation Theory (Deci, 1971), Drive Theory (Pink)
Details: Intrinsic Motivation Theory demonstrates how a person’s desire to do something is much stronger when it is felt that it is their choice and they were not dictated to do so. In Scrum, when team members select their own User Stories they create an internal intrinsic motivation to complete that User Story as best they can. The User Story comes complete with its ‘Definition of Done’ which creates an implied contract between the team member and the team. The team member will deliver the User Story conforming to that definition. Assigning a task to a team member removes all the benefits gained from that Intrinsic motivation, along with any sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose.
Solution: Let each team member select which User Story or task they wish to undertake.
Problem: New tasks are given to the team in the middle of the Sprint.
Theories Undermined: Psychological Safety (Edmondson and Lei, 2014), Self Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan)
Details: A team that feels psychological safe can be relied upon to dependably contribute without fear of retribution or embarrassment. They can take on a task and be depended upon to deliver the required outcome. Where uncertainty exists, then that sense of psychological safety can not be established or maintained within a team. The teams engagement and innovation will soon wane as they learn that what they initially set out to achieve will alter along the way.
Solution: Block all new tasks being added during the Sprint. If that is not possible then consider shortening the length of the Sprints until the new tasks stop interrupting the Sprint. Alternatively move to a different framework such as Kanban.
Problem: Team members are interrupted in the middle of a Sprint in person or by email.
Theory Undermined: Context Switching Theory (Weinberg)
Details: Interrupting any of the team members during the Sprint while they may be holding 20 ideas or variables in their head causes them all to come crashing down, only having to be reconstructed again at a later time. This can impact their task by increasing its duration from anything between 20% to 50%.
Solution: In order to maintain productiveness allow people outside of the Development Team ask team members questions at the designated times (eg: Grooming / Refinement). Alternatively nominate a person such as the Product Owner or Scrum Master to answer all questions. Don’t multitask and do work towards the definition of Done / Done before moving onto another User Story.
Problem: Inefficient Daily Scrum Stand-ups. They either don’t take place or they turn into status reporting exercises
Theories Undermined: Metcalfe’s Law (1980) Nudge Theory (Thaler-Sunstein/Kahneman-Tversky)
Details: The Daily Stand-ups meeting centralizes communications and cuts down on the paths of communication thereby minimizing the impact of Metcalfe’s Law, which highlights an n(n-1)/2 level of communication in teams. This means that there are 45 communication paths when 10 people are involved. In the absence of the Daily Scrum meeting, ensuring that everyone is informed via direct conversations or emails is a poor and timely substitute.
The practice of Nudge Theory applies to the Daily Stand-up on many levels. Firstly the Three Questions are framed (choice architecture) to promote productivity; they are all focused on progress. Secondly, the meeting is short (timeboxed to 15 minutes) and focused; reinforcing productivity. Additionally, Nudge Theory can be further utilised via the concept of nudge heuristics from a person playing the role of a Choice Architect.
Solution: Conduct the Daily Scrum Stand-up at the same time daily. Each person announces past progress, planned progress and any blockers. No more, no less.
Problem: Skipping the team Retrospective meeting.
Theories Undermined: Plan-Do-Check-Act [PDCA] cycle. Double Loop Learning.
Details: For every action there is a reaction. Applying pressure on the accelerator of a car will result in the car going faster. The feedback is immediate. The closer together that those two events occur, the easier it is to learn the outcome. Eliminating the Retrospective robs the teams ability to see the effect of their actions. The Retrospective acts as a Double Loop Learning mechanism by scrutinising the values, thinking and assumptions behind the actions. Without the Retrospective, efficiencies can not be gained.
Solution: Trust in the full process and undertake all of the activities within the framework even if you don’t understand why they are in place.
Problem: Reinventing the wheel, by inventing new practices without researching best practices.
Theories Undermined: Theory of Constraints (Goldratt, 1984), Queuing Theory (Erlang), Little’s Law (Little, 1954), Garbage In, Garbage Out
Details: While Agile encourages experimentation, it’s not efficient to reinvent the wheel and so there are a couple of relevant theories that you should know in relation to the Sprint backlog. Firstly the Theory of Constraints (TOC) comes into play. The theory states that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Scrum has already identified and strengthened the weak links; Late integration of code is mitigated by continuous integration. Late testing is replaced by Test Driven Development. Late bug detection is offset by Pair Programming and Inspection & Adaptation. ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ is eliminated by writing User Stories to deliver value and being defined by the Definition of Done. Queuing Theory plays its part within the Sprint, as does Little’s Law in reducing Work In Progress (WIP) levels to reduce average cycle time.
Solution: Research as much as possible and consider certification & accreditation.
Agile practices may seem simple on the surface, but when you dig beneath you will find strong supporting theories holding its framework in place. As you can see, you need to be careful about which ones you remove.
