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How transparency can kill productivity in Agile teams
Why burn-downs and velocity slow down your team.
“We are putting all work items in Jira so we can make our teams’ work and progress transparent.”
— Manager in a company undergoing an Agile transformation
This sentiment of making all work visible to everyone is rampant these days. On the surface, it appears to be a step towards increasing transparency. But in Agile thinking, making all work and progress transparent is not the goal of transparency. Transparency in Agile and Lean reveals problems early so the team can resolve them or ask for help.
We often believe making the work visible is a good thing to do. After all, the Hawthorne Effect shows people, when being watched, choose to increase their performance. Many, in error, interpret this to mean more transparency means more productivity.
Often, we start the Agile journey from a traditional command-and-control, plan-focused, status-driven culture. Managers in this type of culture find comfort in plans and…
