The purpose of Scrum is to create a potentially shippable Increment by the end of a Sprint.
However, many teams struggle to produce a done Increment.
In my experience, there are five common challenges to creating a done increment.
1. Lack of Team Ownership ☝️
The Development Team is accountable as a whole to create a done increment by the end of the Sprint.
A common sign of a lack of team ownership is a lot of WIP (work in progress).
Product backlog items in the Sprint Backlog are often "carried over" to the next sprint.
Each individual is focused on getting their piece done and not looking at the whole plan!
Quality issues are likely prevalent, but the team isn't discussing them.
2. Lack of Collaboration ❌🤝
Without collaboration, solutions are constrained by the experience and knowledge of individuals.
This is closely related to team ownership, so you will often see a lot of WIP caused by team members each working on a different product backlog item.
Lack of collaboration can also create issues when teams try to integrate the individual work they have done.
3. There is Not a Clear Sprint Goal ❌🎯
A sprint goal is a measurable objective set for the sprint that provides the team focus and flexibility.
It is created through negotiation between the Product Owner and the Development Team.
Without a sprint goal, the Development Team may lose sight of what is most valuable.
The Spring Goal should not be ignore, too vague, or too big.
4. Too Much Change During the Sprint 🔃🔃🔃
We don't know everything about the features and functionality or the work to deliver them at the beginning of the Sprint.
So how do we balance allowing emergence with actually getting the Increment done?
Ask you these questions:
- a)Are Development Team members doing other work?
- b)Is the Product Owner changing the sprint goal during the Sprint?
- c)Are we discovering diverging perspectives on what a product backlog item actually means during the Sprint?
5. Impediments Are Not Being Removed 🚧🚧🚧
It is easy to get overwhelmed by the expectations of delivering more product features faster
and feel like there is no time for implementing improvements.
However, removing impediments helps improve workflow and can result in higher quality.
Ask you these questions:
- a) Does the environment go down frequently?
- b) Does the team have the knowledge and tools they need to implement automation?
- c) Is there someone outside the team who has to perform certain tasks or provide approvals in order to create a done Increment?
#scrum #done #increment