Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Scrum Coaching For Sprint Delivery

By Kristen Baird


Software development through the scrum method requires that five to seven members dedicate their time and effort towards delivery of a common goal. This goal is set by the product owner with strict standards and timeline. For a team to produce the best results, scrum coaching is necessary.

Coaching helps the sprinting team to capture the demands of the work at hand and develop a delivery strategy. The sessions help to create teamwork which is essential for the work at hand. Members can easily identify with engagement limits, rules and requirements of their project. They also understand the standards that must be met.

A coaching session for the team helps to set the rules and norms to be followed during the sprint session. All the work should be completed within a set sprint session. This means that strict rules and norms must be put in place to prevent laxity that might affect quality of work or delivery time.

Teams take time to form as members understand the talents, temperaments and abilities of their colleagues. These teams are allowed to form hierarchies that bring a sense of order and allow easy flow of instructions. It is during training that each team member understands the flow of instructions and its benefits during a sprint.

Coaches must understand that peak performance takes time. Each team goes through several stages namely Tuckman-model, Foaming, Storming, Norming and finally performing. On average, most teams will take three sprint sessions to deliver satisfactory results. This knowledge makes it easier to handle the teams.

Scrum teams are identified by several characteristics. They include the presence of rules and norms that have to apply to all members equally. This is aimed at creating a level playing field that eliminates pressure so that all members can easily deliver. These rules must be set during formation of such a team though they can be revised as the project progresses.

The scrumming team must be empowered and provided with all the resources it requires to deliver. Empowering also means assessing their skills before giving any assignment to ensure that they are capable. These skills must be balanced and complementary to avoid unnecessary duplication and competition.

Autonomy is crucial for any scrumming team to deliver on their stipulated project. The tenets of autonomy need to be outlined at the planning stage. It is at this stage that all resources required are evaluated and allocated. As the team organizes itself for the task ahead, it must assign roles to each member and determine their meeting schedule. Interference before completion kills the group morale and may derail the project.

The members in a team are limited and are required to be full time participants. This explains why teams are small and have no sub-teams within them. The rules to be laid for each team include the location and time of daily meetings, how to define work as Done, guidelines to be used when coding and the tools for use on the project. Failure or success is never attributed to a single member. The entire team is accountable.




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