Essay on Team Facing Pressure: Strategies for Improved Sprint Performance

Introduction

The first scenario involved an exhausted team that seemed to be in a rush to complete the sprint. At the end of the sprint, they conducted a sprint review but failed to organize a sprint retrospective. Therefore the team needed to conduct a retrospective since it gives them an opportunity for inspection and planning to improve their operations (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2017). The team needed to identify ways to improve their sprints to handle the pressure better within the time limits hence the need for a retrospective.

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In the second situation, there was a need to enlighten the engineer on the importance of daily stand-ups. Daily stand-ups are critical for scrums as they help teams determine what was accomplished, obstacles encountered, and how to solve them as well as synchronizing the group (Axosoft, 2012). As a result, there was no need to cancel the meetings, but instead, show David how the meeting was beneficial, and since it took only 15 minutes, it would not waste his time.

In the final scenario, the scrum master needed not to impose their authority on the team. Servant leadership is critical when working with teams to allow the members to work in optimum conditions, which involves allowing them to be part of changes and decision making (Agile Practice Guide, 2017). Furthermore, according to Schwaber and Sutherland (2017), changes that would prevent the sprint goal from being achieved should not be implemented. Therefore, the change should not be imposed on the team but instead evaluated to determine if it would be allotted time without endangering the completion of the sprint.

Two Critical Interpersonal Skills

Two critical interpersonal skills that need further development are teamwork and flexibility. Teamwork is a skill that enables a scrum master to work together with a group to achieve certain objectives. The only way a team can organize its goals and sprints is by having a scrum master who knows how to get the best out of the team by facilitating collaboration and team spirit. For instance, in the scenario where change was necessitated, teamwork would have involved allowing the team to deliberate on the requests and find ways of incorporating them in the schedule. Improvement of teamwork will be achieved through being a better active listener, putting the needs of the team above personal desires, and communicating more frequently and openly.

Flexibility is also a vital skill that enables a scrum master to adapt to changes. In any project, changes and obstacles are inevitable. A good scrum master must find a way to adapt and find new ways of handling situations. For instance, if team members are not comfortable meeting at a certain time, the scrum master should be flexible and allow the time to be changed to suit the needs of others. Flexibility can be improved by being open-minded, anticipating change, learning to accept failure, and valuing feedback.

Professional or Personal Application of Skills

The scrum and interpersonal skills learned in this course will also be critical for personal life. For instance, in my academic life, when pursuing a master's program, I will need to undertake about 18 courses. If I intend to complete it in two years, I will determine how many courses I need to do every semester. When it comes to assignments, I will organize them to sprints to know when I should complete every assignment to ensure no late submissions. Also, when saving money, knowledge of scrum can be used. I would need to determine how much I need to save every week. If I fail to save for one month, I can use knowledge of the burndown chart and burn down velocity to determine how much more I need to save to achieve my target. Flexibility skills would allow me to make changes to reduce expenditures to increase savings. Therefore knowledge gained from scrum simulation will be critical in the future as a scrum master as well as in personal life.

References

Agile practice guide (2017). Project Management Institute Inc.

Axosoft (2012, Feb. 20). Intro to scrum in under 10 minutes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU0llRltyFM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2017). The scrum guide.