Problem:
I am a scrum master ad I've started working with a new team 3 sprints ago. When I started I was warned about the team because they:
- Has never completed a sprint
- Politics within the team
When I started I thought OK I can solve some of the issues to complete at least one sprint. The first sprint I noticed a few issues that that I would like to change such as:
- Three week sprints
- They are comfortable to carry items over from one sprint to the next
- Product owner actually test the sprint items - Acts as an tester.
- Scrum roles and processes are not 100% defined.
- Someone predicted the sprint velocity (That I think is incorrect)
- Team is very discouraged
- They want to add development team members every time something goes wrong
- Scrum is not followed 100%
- Obsessive report generation
Solution
- Three week sprints
I want to suggest two week sprints, this gives opportunity to adapt using retrospectives. I also feel like team "Chills" the first week and the next two weeks they push hard.
- They are comfortable to carry items over from one sprint to the next.
I've made sure they break tasks down to workable and accomplishable tasks. I've asked the question and got an answer
- Product owner actually test the sprint items - Acts as an tester.
I've suggested she does what a product owner should do: What is a PO But she insist she needs to test each task (I understand her Point of view) because she is an expert in the area. But if the acceptance criteria is clear then there is no need for her to test.
- Scrum roles and processes are not 100% defined.
Fist we have one tester (User Acceptance Tester) for all developers.Then we have a "Business Specialist" and she does not really do anything to help the team accomplish sprints. She tells the architects how to architect. For example she said "There is always a place for hard coded in a system". As mentioned we have a Product owner that does more testing and closing tasks than doing what a Product owner should do. If a PO wants to test she can but should not become a bottleneck. I've asked the question and got an answer
- Someone predicted the sprint velocity
Before I joined the team the CTO worked out that the velocity is 60 story point and we need to do that every sprint to achieve our goal. The architects and Product owner said this wont be achieved. The data he used it not reliable. I've asked the question and got an answer
- Team is very discouraged
The UAT tester does not talk to the Product owner because they cant see eye to eye. The UAT is a very rude employee and she does not want to be in the office because she has to drive an hour to get to work, and she would rather be at the main office which is a few minuets from her house.
They have never achieved a sprint except two sprints ago, where I helped a lot. There is a communication issue and that cased us to not achieve the previous sprint.
- They want to add development team members every time something goes wrong.
I get constant calls from CTO where he says they want to add another developer to the team to achieve sprint. I've explained this will drag the team down but they don't listen. (We have a weird setup)
There is two projects that are done concurrently. We have one developer for that project A (Not that important project - Not my words) and the tester, Product Owner and two architects is the for project B (Important project - Not my words). So that is a development team of 4 people excl PO.
Project B has the same tester, Product owner and architects but the project has 8 developers. This team is a size 11 people, excl PO.
- Obsessive report generation
I have to send out a daily report to stakeholders containing info such as: Burn-down, Sprint goal RAG status, Date when item is Projected and actually in development, code review and testing. Cumulative area burn-down. My team is transparent and the stakeholders can walk up to our actual or Jira board and see statuses.
As you can read scrum is not followed 100% and to make changes is hard because of the client and management at my company.
What suggestions do you have to fix some of the above scenarios or fix all the issues as a whole?.