Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Case studies for Scrum Masters
Case Study 1:
You are the scrum master for the project where the budget has been fixed. The scope has been discussed with the top-level managers and high-level plan has acknowledged. Managers demonstrated the confidence that IT delivery team has performed such work and can do it on time within budget. Now the project has come to the execution phase. During the execution of the project, you have started following the scrum process and start elaborating the backlog, showing the demo to the business stakeholders. You have started discovering that there many challenges which never looked at during the initial scope analysis and budget finalization. Whenever you are reviewing all these challenges to the business, the business is consistently blaming saying that IT is not competent to accomplish the work. You also as a scrum master acknowledge that there are competency issues that with the current team skill-set many things are not going as per the plan.
Give it a thought:
What you should be doing? Business is pretty upset? you may lose the contract? There is a deadline on the final date for go live and business is anxious.
What you should be doing? Business is pretty upset? you may lose the contract? There is a deadline on the final date for go live and business is anxious.
- What do you think as a scrum master you can do?
Case study 2:
You are a scrum master for a team who is working on the latest digital product, your team is working on a couple of microservices API. Your team is small and having 9 members; most of the team members are having 4-6 yrs. of experience and they are extremely efficient developers and your manager is a micromanager where he is not having any other obligation other than taking care of the 9 individuals. He is forcefully coaching the team, where he is 100% immersed in the PM way of looking at the world. You have one Product owner who is in France and there are 3 more developers working as a contractor from
France working with this India team; any day their contract can be terminated and all the scrum events are going on smoothly but everywhere you discover people are sitting on top of your shoulders, asking for micro-level details, asking for billing hrs., asking for velocity vs quality defect data, and pressurizing to do more? At every senior leadership visit, your product is showcased as a digital product development initiative. You are under terrible pressure to deliver higher quality product and through rapid delivery. You are having an issue and the team members are not performing well and the attrition is very high.
- How do you drive?
Case study 3:
You are the scrum master for a product-based company where your team is supporting back office work for a bank. Your end product development is done in India by your scrum team. You are dependent on some component which comes from the Vendor company based in Gurugram, India. Your product owner and the user base are in Germany. You have a total of 15 members in the team and many stakeholders are spread across multi geographical locations. You are the senior scrum master for this team and an expert who is expected to minimize some of the burning issues happening with the team. You have asked a few of the team members who are working for a long time with this scrum team. They showed a pessimistic view that nothing can be done. By applying your world-class communication skills,
Case study 4:
Penguin software is a small-scale software development company. They are mostly into software services. They have got a subcontract from a product development company to do end to end automation testing by integrating their team with the product development company’s scrum team.
The expectation is very high which is to rapidly automate all the end to end test suites that are continuously produced by the full-stack team members. As a scrum master, every sprint you will be fully in charge of the overall product quality. The team is using the latest cutting-edge technology for developing the solution. One of the challenges that is present is that you do not have highly competent team members to run the show. But while getting the order, your sales team had promised a lot. Now the order has come, and you need to fulfill the dream. You are the scrum master for the team.
Case Study 5:
Project Power world has 40 team members in a scrum team. There are 5 scrum teams. It is a geographically distributed team. There was an immense expectation from this team with a tight timeline. Team was formed newly after going through several months of recruitment drive for new members. Each scrum team has one scrum master and one shared product owner for all these scrum teams. Each scrum team was dealing with many challenges within the India teams plus among India and Sweden teams. Leaders of the team are struggling hard to bring in scrum discipline and establish the self-organized team. There was cultural barrier which is leading to many issues, there were new ways of working which causing issues with old timer, there were new governance which causing some issues etc. There were leaderships support but only 50%.
By knowing more about human psychology,
Case Study 6:
You are the scrum master for one of the product teams which is developing a Realtime Database. This is a database and it is not a standalone product. This database will be used by the Airline platform and there are many consumers who will use this product. Your team is releasing through sprints, but the airline platform team is doing a release in six months. You are going too fast for them and your team is not getting real-time feedback about the software you are building.
How are you planning to collaborate with the airline platform team, which is 100+ team members?
Your entire product management team is supporting you, but you are getting resistance while collaborating with the Airline team.
As a scrum master, what do you think you will be able to do to control the damage?
There is a lot of conflict within the team and outside the team. Teams are based out of Denmark, US and India. You are the senior scrum master and with the team for the last few months.
Case study 7:
Opto automation has many scrum teams which are building software for the next generation Industrial Automation control systems for the cement plant. The team has adopted many tools to increase the speed of delivery. New tools to code, design, test and deploy everything is being used in the project and it is completely new for the team members. It is a 30-member team and there are 3 scrum teams which are geographically distributed (India, Switzerland and US).
Recently, it moved from waterfall to an agile way of working. You are the scrum master for one of the scrum teams in India.
They are already comfortable with the team tools they were using.
Case study 8:
Germpower is an automobile software product company where many scrum teams are working to develop a product. Recently, they received an order to build a product, which needs to be migrated to a modern technology from a legacy product. The organization is not a high paying company and most of the team members do not have a strong track record with their education.
The software was absolutely unfamiliar, and nobody knows where to commence. The Scrum master was a senior team member within this organization. The Scrum master was one of the best people leaders and he was accepted by many of his colleagues. His leadership style was genuine and people-oriented. Everyone prefers to work with him. He encourages individuals to take initiatives; he supports and cares about the well being of the people. During the initial days, when the teams were in the discovery phase, there were demands to put extra efforts to know more about the technology plus the legacy system, as the scrum master was easygoing and a fun-loving individual. The team members were always putting extra efforts to understand more about the technology and the legacy system. Unfortunately, after 6 months of the project, he received an onsite long-term opportunity which was greatly required by the organization and he has to travel to Switzerland with his family. You have been recruited as the new scrum master for this project.
- How can you motivate the team for a better performance?
- How will you break the distributed challenges in this case?
- How do you simplify vendor management and your scrum teams’ frictions with other partners?
Case study 4:
Penguin software is a small-scale software development company. They are mostly into software services. They have got a subcontract from a product development company to do end to end automation testing by integrating their team with the product development company’s scrum team.
The expectation is very high which is to rapidly automate all the end to end test suites that are continuously produced by the full-stack team members. As a scrum master, every sprint you will be fully in charge of the overall product quality. The team is using the latest cutting-edge technology for developing the solution. One of the challenges that is present is that you do not have highly competent team members to run the show. But while getting the order, your sales team had promised a lot. Now the order has come, and you need to fulfill the dream. You are the scrum master for the team.
- What are your thoughts to build the team, which is doing long term product development work for more than a year?
Case Study 5:
Project Power world has 40 team members in a scrum team. There are 5 scrum teams. It is a geographically distributed team. There was an immense expectation from this team with a tight timeline. Team was formed newly after going through several months of recruitment drive for new members. Each scrum team has one scrum master and one shared product owner for all these scrum teams. Each scrum team was dealing with many challenges within the India teams plus among India and Sweden teams. Leaders of the team are struggling hard to bring in scrum discipline and establish the self-organized team. There was cultural barrier which is leading to many issues, there were new ways of working which causing issues with old timer, there were new governance which causing some issues etc. There were leaderships support but only 50%.
By knowing more about human psychology,
- How can each scrum master can Improve the situation?
- What do you do in such situation?
Case Study 6:
You are the scrum master for one of the product teams which is developing a Realtime Database. This is a database and it is not a standalone product. This database will be used by the Airline platform and there are many consumers who will use this product. Your team is releasing through sprints, but the airline platform team is doing a release in six months. You are going too fast for them and your team is not getting real-time feedback about the software you are building.
How are you planning to collaborate with the airline platform team, which is 100+ team members?
Your entire product management team is supporting you, but you are getting resistance while collaborating with the Airline team.
As a scrum master, what do you think you will be able to do to control the damage?
There is a lot of conflict within the team and outside the team. Teams are based out of Denmark, US and India. You are the senior scrum master and with the team for the last few months.
- What will be your change strategy?
Case study 7:
Opto automation has many scrum teams which are building software for the next generation Industrial Automation control systems for the cement plant. The team has adopted many tools to increase the speed of delivery. New tools to code, design, test and deploy everything is being used in the project and it is completely new for the team members. It is a 30-member team and there are 3 scrum teams which are geographically distributed (India, Switzerland and US).
Recently, it moved from waterfall to an agile way of working. You are the scrum master for one of the scrum teams in India.
- How do you ensure all the change initiatives run smoothly and are sustained for the long-term?
- Why do you think culturally divisive teams will listen to you?
They are already comfortable with the team tools they were using.
Case study 8:
Germpower is an automobile software product company where many scrum teams are working to develop a product. Recently, they received an order to build a product, which needs to be migrated to a modern technology from a legacy product. The organization is not a high paying company and most of the team members do not have a strong track record with their education.
The software was absolutely unfamiliar, and nobody knows where to commence. The Scrum master was a senior team member within this organization. The Scrum master was one of the best people leaders and he was accepted by many of his colleagues. His leadership style was genuine and people-oriented. Everyone prefers to work with him. He encourages individuals to take initiatives; he supports and cares about the well being of the people. During the initial days, when the teams were in the discovery phase, there were demands to put extra efforts to know more about the technology plus the legacy system, as the scrum master was easygoing and a fun-loving individual. The team members were always putting extra efforts to understand more about the technology and the legacy system. Unfortunately, after 6 months of the project, he received an onsite long-term opportunity which was greatly required by the organization and he has to travel to Switzerland with his family. You have been recruited as the new scrum master for this project.
- What do you think you will be performing to reinstate the old scrum master style?
Case study 9:
MegaAero system is a product-based company building solution for the Aircraft cockpit. Recently the organization has started a new solution for the Cockpit Display System. Though the development is with multiple scrum teams, but the parameters are fixed (Time, cost, etc.). The contract has been signed, the release date is fixed, team members are from different departments and they are billing 50% for this program. You are the scrum master for `the multiple scrum teams!
An Expert higher than the Product Owner is your boss/Line manager. He is setting everything and asking on a daily basis about the program progress. The team members are under tremendous pressure to deliver. You can see the psychological pressure on the teams. They are already burning out due to the pressure. They express their concerns in the many retrospectives which you have started driving.
MegaAero system is a product-based company building solution for the Aircraft cockpit. Recently the organization has started a new solution for the Cockpit Display System. Though the development is with multiple scrum teams, but the parameters are fixed (Time, cost, etc.). The contract has been signed, the release date is fixed, team members are from different departments and they are billing 50% for this program. You are the scrum master for `the multiple scrum teams!
An Expert higher than the Product Owner is your boss/Line manager. He is setting everything and asking on a daily basis about the program progress. The team members are under tremendous pressure to deliver. You can see the psychological pressure on the teams. They are already burning out due to the pressure. They express their concerns in the many retrospectives which you have started driving.
- What do you think about this scrum program and what should you do, what can you do differently by knowing the motivational factors?
Case Study 10:
You are the scrum master for the team name RAID which is building up a platform product for multiples business lines. Initially, this project was launched with a small idea and after one year of work, this was accepted by the business extremely successfully, and businesses prefer to develop RAID 2.0 and other business lines also grew interested to reuse this platform. The platform is built up in the XYZ cloud web service platform. Team members from XYZ company were in your scrum team as a full-stack developer to establish this proof of concept and ensure the capability of the XYZ cloud platform. Now after one year, your company decided to minimize the contract employee from the XYZ as a full-time developer. You as a scrum master scared that with the competent team members you have, you will not be able to demo sprint on sprint. As you had experienced at an initial couple of sprints where you were struggling to develop potentially shippable products every sprint, that why you have hired XYZ full-stack developers with higher prices and XYZ also involved to establish their cloud platform to be used.
- What do you consider you need to work out as a scrum master?
There is pressure from top to get rid of XYZ team members owing to the higher cost.
Can these case studies be solved by below model?
Can these case studies be solved by below model?
Friday, December 13, 2019
Pancha Bhoota Model for Achieving Organizational Agility
Pancha Bhoota Model helps organizations to stay relevant in turbulence time.
7C CHAKRA MODEL FOR INDIVIDUAL AGILITY
7 CHAKRAS
HOW WELL THESE SKILLS ARE DEVELOPED?
WHAT ARE WE DOING TO DEVELOP ALL THESE SKILLS?
MAP WITH GREAT ROLE MODEL LEADERS WHOM YOU ARE FOLLOWING, HOW ARE THEIR SKILLS DEVELOPED?
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Kindle book is available
To all my well-wishers, after 19 days of the paperback version of The Scrum Master Guidebook, The Kindle book is also available for reading,
Please have a look and experience the learning, please share with your companions and support me to spread the message. Thanks to all my well-wishers.
Friday, December 6, 2019
Thursday, December 5, 2019
It has been 10 years .......Down memory lane...
I have started my Scrum Master Journey in 2009, in ABB Power Automation Product development unit.Thanks to the management, I was the fortunate one to start these experiments, which has changed my life altogether after that.
It was a New Generation Power System Explorer Product development. We were 30 members team from Sweden, India, and Poland. I have enjoyed the power of scrum to produce something unique. Microsoft Team foundation server was the tool that helped us run the show(TFS 2009). 3 years I have worked as a Scrum Master, to raise the product, sprint by sprint, release after release.
Immense knowledge and challenge we had at that time. That knowledge was intensive and powerful which helped me till today.
This is product we have worked for...
2012, I wrote my first paper in PMI Bangalore, PMPC 2012, whatever I have gained knowledge during that time. It was not exactly scrum paper, but for productivity improvement by using scrum as an instrument.
With that knowledge power, I have moved into ABB Industrial Automation Product development in ABB as an Agile coach in 2012
We have to build Control system product development with a distributed team, members from the USA, Switzerland, Finland, and India. Awesome experience so far, intensive challenges, outstanding team members. Varied culture. That worked has shaken up my knowledge extensively.
I was the Scrum Master and coach for that product
That environment so rich for research and development, we could able to experiment with many thing and leadership was allowed to experiment many things.
This is the product look like...
As a Coach, I have written many papers in International journals with the experience and experiment we have done at that time. Few papers...
Why team should collaborate more
What a Coach can do for the organization
How to build a better product
Experiment gamification at our team
Coach as a consultant
I kept capturing my learning, good, bad and ugly ...
I have presented many conferences during that time, due to the rich knowledge acquired from product development...
After that I moved my journey, coming out from the dedicated delivery role and pursued as an Agile coach which I am doing till now ….
As a part of the journey, now also I play the role of Scrum Master but not for delivery but for the present support for the team
Scrum Master in Product Development is a wonderful journey so far where we are constructing something which impacts the society ……Those days, those experiments, those team members, leaders cemented my foundation on which I stand today...Awesome people, awesome ambient.
The Organization is a Laboratory! and we are all researchers?
Strange, is not it?
In my previous organization, In an interview, the interviewer asked this query,
How do you ensure your continuous learning?
I answered,s and the answer has become a game-changer for me, I replied, - “to me, Organization is a Laboratory, I do research here; I test all the hypothesis and verify my learning. I continue to do so to establish my continuous learning. Every day I must go to the office to solve a purpose and I pay attention to my hypothesis, I search for a problem, seek solutions and analyze those solutions and validate with my understanding..."
I must declare, with all our knowledge, research, it is not guaranteed that you will consistently gain benefit;
It is an endless endeavor.
Recently one of my companions insisted to apply for an opening in his company, if I get a job in that company, it would easy for us to commute as we stay in the same apartment complex, He gets a good employee referral, win-win for both of us. The organization is also very well known as the best people-friendly company. After some weeks, I inquire what happened, he informed, one specific certification is missing in my profile, so they are not considering me, he asked what is the use of that certification, I explained, that certifications organization bought your company!!! without that stamp, it would problematic to obtain the gate pass to that company. You may be Ph.D., but that stamp is a prerequisite to obtaining the gate pass! he realized! Nowadays it is also not so safe to express against any certification! there are battalions to safeguard those service.
I believe we need to continue our research journey to make the organization better in some of the other diverse ways.
Why do I research? Why should we research?
The research leads to the methodical compilation of information about the activities, attributes, and outcomes of programs, benefits, organizations and associations served by organizations.
The main purpose of the research is to instruct action, to prove a theory, and contribute to developing knowledge in a field of study.
A mechanism for Building Knowledge and Facilitating Learning
Means to Know Various Challenges and Increase community Awareness
Nurture individual potential and realize objectives through numerous opportunities.
A Seed to Love Reading, Writing, Analyzing, and Sharing Valuable Information
Further understanding of expanding community needs
Constitute a different understanding about what works and what does not
Push for organizational learning
How do we conduct the research better in our laboratory?
Every day we read many books, concepts, models, frameworks and theories.
These are observations by some authors in some context which he/she might have looked at performing.
Will it work for me, for us? Can we investigate and confirm the same? Can we confront the numerous assumption used?
Why to take it indiscriminately?
Let us dry run, analyze,Investigate everything in our context and note down our observation
Affirm what the author or writer said. What will take place, in a process, we come out with a stronger and different model which we are examining performing further in our context.
Research is an inseparable part of learning: both continuous self-education and researching in college,on the job etc.
Set a schedule: I compose weekly 2 blogs on LinkedIn. For the last 4 years, I have noted 485 blogs.
Most of the points are based on the publication and analyzed those theories at the diverse organizations.
For last 20+ years all these organizations have become my laboratory for experiments.
I started capturing my research, observation and finding in one of the websites I was maintaining, Buildandsustainorganization. in, From 2012, later I closed this site. I had 75 posts on that website in one year period.
Then I started writing my research observation in technical paper in international and national magazines.
And later moved into LinkedIn, Slideshare , https://theagilistguidebook.blogspot.com/ and https://thescrummasterguidebook.blogspot.com/
All these laboratories helped me to experiment and I could continue my research and listing down all observations and creating multiple assets.
My latest assets which can help you to become better are ....
You can read more about these two books
and
We all are researchers doing research at various organizations, few of us are sharing and others are still compiling, waiting for the daylight to come.
Don't hesitate to share your coaching journals to all of us, let us learn from each others. We all are little Einstein in our world....
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Monday, December 2, 2019
The Scrum Master Guidebook after 15 days.....
My dear colleagues, It has been 15 days since my second book has been published! The Scrum Master Guidebook, the paperback copy.
In 15 days, 11 of my early adopter friend has procured this book, thanks for your confidence, trust showed up for this book. I admire your learning attitude and grab this book as an early adopter to grasp the knowledge as promptly as possible to encash benefits to gain a competitive advantage.
I am sure the same attitude will take you to a different height of success. All the very best for your endeavor... As a writer, I cherish to have such passionate readers…
Sunday, December 1, 2019
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