Agile Challenges & Learning

1st challenge — Software quality

• The most important aspect is to deliver the high quality/production ready /bug free deliverable at the end of the each sprint
• Most of the times this is missed and it leads to increase in technical debt.
• At a later point this slows down the productivity & leads to the maintenance nightmare.

2nd challenge — Commitment

• There is a constant challenge when choosing between these priorities

1. Features
2. Schedule
3. Quality

• This reminds me the areas that influence the project’s success — From Construx — Course based on the book Code Complete by Steve McConnell.

1. First is all about the requirement gathering
2. Second reason is about project planning & execution
3. Third reason — code quality

Committing between features/schedule/quality to deliver a bug free working software is always a constant challenge.

3rd challenge — Estimation

Many times, we work on something that is completely new from our past experiences, estimating those and adding to the task board doesn't help much.

4th challenge — Pressure

The biggest challenge for millennial is that , the task board stifles innovation, experimentation and out of the box thinking. Task board now has refocused thoughts on how to get rid of the task in the shortest time possible, the card on the board is a constant reminder to get it to done bucket.

Like how Simon Sinek’s says in one of his talks — how we are addicted to the triggers of dopamine with the number of likes and comments , which gives the feeling of reward.

5th challenge — Motivation

The Magic Wand — Retrospection & Review

Retrospection

One of the finest motivation factor which I observed is the retrospection meeting. It lifts the morale of the team.

1. Appreciate each and every good work done by the team. — Everybody contributes & participates without having fear/worrying about missing how to showcase his/her work — enables team to work selfless
2. Discuss about things that could have been done better. — It serves as a constant reminder for everyone on the team to identify opportunities to do better. — Helps to highlight the mistakes of the team. — Teammates voluntarily identify their mistakes. — Increases transparency

It had a very huge impact.

Review Meeting

Client’s feedback and requirement changes always add a mixed responses. But mostly the client’s attention,appreciation & feedback had always kept the team high.

When these reviews and feedback loop missed in the life cycle , it shakes the productivity & morale of the team. Recently read a book

“Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World” In chapter#5 Lie #5: People need feedback — the author points out that its not the feedback, it is the positive attention that improves the productivity of the team. The attention the stakeholders give to their product and team does the magic.This had been enabled by the review meeting.

But sometimes it turns out as a mundane stuff. Looks like it needs lot of attention & experience to make the spell influence good.

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer. It’s a collective work. Thanks to Divya, Jona & Kirupa for sharing the thoughts with me.