Comments on: Improving Velocity, or Getting Things Done

By: alex

alex — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:55:56 +0000

I actually caught your post … sarcasm can be hard to pick up in text It’s actually not entirely a bad idea. In fact, I did tell my sponsor that if the team was properly motivated — through a carrot or a stick — they would achieve any velocity goal we set. It wouldn’t change the amount of work we’re getting done, but the velocity would go up (and of course so would the estimates!).

By: Kevin E. Schlabach

Kevin E. Schlabach — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:51:55 +0000

Don’t worry, my advice was “tongue in cheek” advice. I actually blogged about your post:
http://agile-commentary.blogspot.com/2009/05/gaming-system-velocity.html

You are correct about changing attitudes. As you transition to agile, you slowly realize that the people change is equal or bigger than the process change. I’ve been running into the reverse problem (people on the team):
http://agile-commentary.blogspot.com/2009/05/participate-in-change-dont-expect-it-to.html

By: alex

alex — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:16:35 +0000

Thanks for the feedback. One thing that’s really struck me is how difficult it is for people to change their attitudes and start thinking in a more ‘agile’ fashion … but my focus has largely been on my team and not upwards in the organization. It was easy enough for me to sell Scrum at a superficial level (sprints, stories, a backlog, and so on). This is a more challenging task and one that I expect to take longer. I’m not sure I’ll take your exact approach — that could seriously compromise my position and their trust, but it’s a valid idea.

By: Kevin E. Schlabach

Kevin E. Schlabach — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:43:18 +0000

Your gut is telling you the right thing… you don’t forcefully “increase velocity”, you have to help your team get what they need and it will do that on its own over time.

The easiest solution is to start accounting for the velocity of vacations and conferences or training. These are guaranteed points and therefore will drive up the average. After a few sprints of the higher number… disclose that you’ve gamed the system. Then drive home that forcing metrics only forces gaming of the system. Remind them that this is why waterfall fails in most environments. They are only pushing you to go back to the old way of doing things under a new name.

Help your project sponsor become agile!

Good luck-
http://agile-commentary.blogspot.com/