Agile team: The Development Maturity

Why Scrum is Simple but not Easy?

Scrum is simple but not easy for the following reasons:

1. A successful change is not completely top-down or bottom-up;
2. The end state is unpredictable, and Scrum needs continuous improvement;
3. Scrum is ubiquitous in the entire organization;
4. Scrum is completely different from traditional training/education;
5. Changes come faster than before;
6. Best practices are dangerous. Find a method that suits you;

Scrum is not only a technical change, but also a conceptual innovation. The whole team must adopt the following attitude when doing things:

1. The team must learn to start working without a big and comprehensive plan;
2. The team must learn to analyze and understand requirements through user stories and communication without detailed requirements documents, and start design and programming;
3. The team should be accustomed to frequent code submission and continuous integration;
4. The team works in a highly transparent environment, and everyone’s progress is well known by everyone;
5. The team needs pair programming, and frequent communication and discussion are needed;

Scrum is not only a process framework, but more importantly, it uses Scrum to build teams and enhance team capabilities. The degree of team running-in almost determines the effect of Scrum implementation. But the success of the team is not achieved overnight. How to polish the team at different stages of the team is a challenge for everyone.

This article focuses on the three stages of a Scrum team from creation to maturity, to help you locate your team stage and find a way to break through the next stage.

Agile team: Stage I

1. The role of the PO (product owner) in the Team is clear, and the PO is responsible for managing the Product Backlog;
2. PO is the main source of requirements, and is responsible for collecting requirements from all parties, and is responsible for the requirements;
3. The PO is responsible for determining the priority of the Product Backlog, which is also the case when changes occur;
4. There is one person in the team who can take on the role of Scrum Master, basically this person will take on the role of Scrum Master for a long time;
5. Basically be able to coordinate the team to solve the problems encountered in the Sprint. However, the ability to solve cross-domain problems is weak;
6. The Scrum Master assists team members in maintaining the Sprint Backlog and cultivates the habit of team members to maintain the Sprint Backlog by themselves;
7. The Scrum Master is responsible for leading and presiding over the stand meeting. The stand meeting is at a fixed place and time and ends within the standard time. The Scrum Master is very clear about the work content of each member of the team, and most of the problems and risks can be found through the stand meeting. ；
8. The Scrum Master is responsible for conducting various meetings as scheduled, such as plan meeting, summary meeting, PRD (Performance review and development) reivew, Code review, Case review, etc.;
9. The Scrum Master is responsible for leading and presiding over the plan meeting, giving the evaluation method of working hours, giving the plan content and priority level of this sprint, guiding everyone to split the sprint content, and guiding everyone to complete the evaluation of working hours;
10. The Scrum Master is responsible for leading and presiding over the summary meeting. The Scrum Master is mainly responsible for summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of this iteration, and formulating improvement measures against the shortcomings and following up;
11. The Scrum Master is responsible for monitoring risks and progress, and can inform stakeholders;
12. In most cases, Team can complete its commitment to DOD;

Agile Team: Stage II

1. The PO is responsible for managing the Product Backlog, and the Team approves the content of the Product Backlog;
2. Team will assist the PO in collecting requirements and will actively propose requirements. Team recognizes the requirements and is responsible for the requirements;
3. PO assists Team in determining the priority of the Product Backlog, even when changes occur;
4. The role of Scrum Master in Team is Backup. When the Scrum Master is not there, Backup can fully assume the role of work;
5. Fully able to coordinate the team to solve the problems encountered in the Sprint. The ability to promote cross-domain problem solving is strong, but the ability to promote cross-department problem solving is weak;
6. The habit of team members to maintain the Sprint Backlog by themselves has been formed, and the Scrum Master only needs to supervise and remind;
7. The Scrum Master assists in the effective progress of the stand meeting. The stand meeting ends within the standard time at a fixed place and time. Team members are very clear about the work content of other members. Team members can assist the Scrum Master to find some problems and risks. Some problems and risks are still discovered by the Scrum Master;
8. Scrum Master assists in the effective conduct of various meetings, such as plan meeting, summary meeting, PRD review, ERD review, Code review, Case review, etc.;
9. The Scrum Master assists in the effective execution of the plan meeting, and discusses with team members to determine the evaluation method of working hours, the plan content and priority of this sprint, and then jointly complete the split of the sprint content and the evaluation of working hours;
10. Scrum Master assists in summarizing the effective progress of the meeting, discussing and summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of this iteration with team members, and can formulate effective improvement measures and make effective improvements against the shortcomings, and the advantages can continue to be maintained;
11. Leaded by the Scrum Master, team members participate in monitoring risks and progress, and can regularly notify stakeholders;
12. Team jointly completes its commitment to DOD (Definition of Done);

Agile team: Stage III

1. The Product Backlog is initiated and managed by the PO, and the Team participates in the discussion and improvement;
2. Team jointly proposes and collects requirements, and is jointly responsible for the product;
3. The Team jointly determines and is responsible for the priority of the Product Backlog, even when changes occur;
4. Anyone in the Team can take on the role of Scrum Master;
5. It can help Team overcome all obstacles encountered in the Sprint, and has a strong ability to promote cross-domain and cross-department problem solving, and ensure that the DoD is completed as agreed;
6. The team members maintain the Sprint Backlog consciously, and the Scrum Master regularly checks the team members’ maintenance of the Sprint Backlog;
7. Team members actively participate in the stand-up meeting, which is carried out efficiently and effectively. The stand-up meeting is at a fixed place and time and ends within the standard time. The team members are very clear about the work content of other members, and the team members actively raise questions and Risks, discover all problems and risks together with the Scrum Master;
8. With the assistance of Scrum Master, team members lead the effective conduct of various meetings, such as plan meeting, summary meeting, PRD reivew, ERD review, Code review, Case review, etc.;
9. With the assistance of Scrum Master, team members lead the plan meeting, and the team is jointly responsible for the results of the work-hour evaluation, the plan content and split results of this sprint, and the priority level confirmation results;
10. Supported by the Scrum Master, team members lead the summary meeting. Team is jointly responsible for the results of this iteration and can jointly recognize the root cause of the shortcomings. In the later period, all team members actively and effectively improve, and gradually turn the shortcomings into advantages. The advantages can get better and better;
11. Team actively monitors risks and progress together, and can notify stakeholders in a timely manner;
12. Team focuses on the realization of functions and specializes in the realization of products. Team has the ability to identify the correct route of the product and jointly promote the continuous improvement of the product;

Summary

The more mature an Agile team becomes, the more it demands not only from PO and SM, but also from team members.

In an agile development team, this is a process of continuous learning and improvement, which promotes the ability and level of the entire team and is therefore very beneficial to the development of the team, especially when there are more new people in the workplace.

Finally, it is better to let them learn and grow in the team work, which can help them improve more quickly and improve the overall strength of the team.