Domain IV: Team Performance: Part 2

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 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Describe servant leadership and list the characteristics of a

servant leader
Describe the importance of coaching and mentoring within
teams
Differentiate between distributed and co-located teams in agile
projects
Explain brainstorming and the steps to conduct brainstorming
sessions
Assess team velocity in agile projects and list agile tools
Agile Leadership
 Definition of Leadership

“Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others,

towards the achievement of a goal.”

—Forbes magazine
 Agile Leadership

Agile Leadership theory

leadership Visioning
Servant leadership
Empowered Model the way
teams
Risk management

Retrospectives

Agile
methods Earned Traditional project
Testing
techniques value management
reporting
 Best Practices of Agile Leadership

Model Desired Behavior

A leader must be honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring

Create and Communicate

a Vision
A leader must define a clear goal or vision per the organizational goals

Enable Others to Act A leader must foster collaboration by building trust and strengthen others by
sharing power

Challenge the Status Quo A leader must look for innovative ways to change, grow, and improve and
experiment and take risks

Involve the Right People

and Encourage Them A leader must recognize contributions of the team and appreciate individual
excellence
Management vs. Leadership

• An agile leader must embrace the agile principle of

being flexible and adaptable and also motivate others
to follow it

• Management and leadership are often believed to be

synonymous with each other, but they are not
 Management vs. Leadership

Management Focuses on Leadership Focuses on

Tasks/things People

Control Empowerment

Efficiency Effectiveness

Doing things right Doing the right things

Speed Direction

Practices Principles
Servant Leadership

• Servant leadership is important to facilitate the success

of an agile team

• It paves the path for the success of the team

• It applies to leaders in an agile team:

o Scrum master

o Product owner

o Line managers

• It enforces leading from behind the team and serving

 Characteristics of Servant Leader

Facilitates
teamwork

Enables Removes
team impedime
interaction nts

A servant
Supports leader
Enables
project
and
managem
educates
ent

Enables
Celebrates
agile
successes
values
Coaching and Mentoring
 Coaching and Mentoring

You can guide a team using coaching and mentoring. Each with its own
focus and benefits nurtures the team and delivers results.

Coaching Mentoring
A coach: A mentor:
o Helps team members accomplish specific o Shares agile experiences and ideas with
tasks and goals
the team
o Aligns each individual’s goals with the
o Guides the team members to grow and
organization’s goals
develop
o Helps team members reach the next level
 Agile Coaching

Agile coaching can be provided by an internal or external coach.

• Maintain a balanced perspective while working with different

teams
• Assess and guide teams as they progress because teams may
face constraints and impediments
• Stay true to the team members’ values
• Understand social and psychological aspects and the complexity
of the team
• Use an approach that makes sense to people and addresses
their problems
• Develop methods for designing non-intrusive interventions for
changing team dynamics
The coach has to:
• Learn what is needed to encourage people to work as a team
Levels of Agile Coaching
 Skills of an Agile Coach

The three primary skills that an agile coach must possess are ability to:

Work with people Facilitate change Use systems thinking

• Listen to team • Enlist support • See the big picture

• Give feedback • Reach agreement • Identify levers for
• Ask questions • Implement change change
• Build trust and • Learn from failure • Alert with danger
rapport signals
Agile Emotional Intelligence
 Agile Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) EI quotient (EQ)

Agile emotional intelligence is a measure that describes the ability of people to identify, assess, and
manage their own emotions, the emotions of others, and that of groups.
Agile Emotional Intelligence

Agile EI is a soft skill that every project manager must

possess while handling projects in an unpredictable
environment that can be applied to:

• Promote collaboration among agile teams

• Enable leaders of agile projects to be flexible, while

adapting to customer’s changing requirements
 EI Skills Assessment Framework

The EI Skills Assessment (EISA) framework is based on Reuven Bar-on’s Emotional Quotient
Inventory (EQ-i) model.
 EI Skills Assessment Framework

Perceiving is the ability to accurately recognize, acknowledge, attend to,

and understand the emotions, belonging to self and others.

Managing is the ability to effectively manage, control, and express

emotions.

Decision making is the ability to apply emotions appropriately to manage

change and solve problems.

Achieving is the ability to generate necessary emotions to self-motivate in

the pursuit of realistic and meaningful objectives.

Influencing is the ability to recognize, manage, and evoke emotions within

oneself and others to promote change.
Team Motivation
 Team Motivation

Build the team around motivated individuals; give them the support and encouragement they need.

An agile leader must motivate the team using one of these motivation theories:

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor

Human Needs Theory

David McClelland’s Achievement

Motivational Factors by Boehm
Motivation Theory
 Maslow’s Theory

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs is depicted as a five-level pyramid.

The fifth level is where people

Self-
Actualization reach their full potential.

Esteem

Love and Belonging The four lower levels represent

the most fundamental needs,
called ‘Deficiency needs’ or ‘D-
Safety needs.’

Physiological
 Maslow’s Theory

Maslow indicates that the lower level needs have to be satisfied before one can move
to the higher level needs.

Achievement of full potential, tolerance, and awareness Self-

Actualization

Respect and recognition of self and others

Esteem

Sense of belonging, relationships, and family

Love and Belonging

Protection needs Safety

Fundamental needs for survival Physiological

 Frederick Herzberg's Theory

Frederick Herzberg established a theory based on:

Motivators Hygiene factors

Factors that give satisfaction, arising from Factors that are necessary but do not motivate;
intrinsic conditions of the job, such as: although the absence of these will result in
• Recognition dissatisfaction
• Achievement
• Personal growth Examples: Status, job security, salary, fringe
benefits, and work conditions
Examples: Challenging work, recognition, and
responsibility Required to establish a minimal level of team
performance
Required to determine if the team can achieve
high performance
 McClelland's Theory

David McClelland's Achievement Motivation theory is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory.

It describes three types of dominant motivators:

Achievement Affiliation Power

People with Achievement People with Affiliation People with Power motivators
motivators are characterized by motivators are characterized by are characterized by the
the following traits: the following traits: following traits:
• Have a strong need to set • Want to belong in a group • Want to control and influence
and accomplish challenging • Want to be liked, and will others
goals often go along with what the • Like to win arguments
• Are willing to take calculated rest of the group wants to do • Enjoy competition and
risks to accomplish goals • Favor collaboration over winning
• Like to receive regular competition • Enjoy status and recognition
feedback on progress and • Do not like high risk or
achievements uncertainty
• Often like to work alone
 Boehm's Theory

Barry Boehm created team motivational factors from his extensive project work

He established the Theory W of software project management, which states “Make

everyone a winner”

His theory was supported by two principles:

Plan the flight and fly the plan Identify and manage your risks
 Boehm's Theory

Achievement Possibility for growth

Relationship with peers Work

Relationship with Recognition

subordinates Boehm’s Team Motivators

Salary Advancement

Responsibility Technical supervision

Team Space
Team Space

• Team space, also known as war room, refers to

the environment in which the team performs its
everyday work
• Team space is also called, team room, project
room, delivery room
• Establishing a team space involves:
o Gathering an entire team in one room
o Working on factors that foster communication
and motivation, leading to higher productivity
 Signs of Bad Team Space

Bad team spaces can lead to chaotic and unproductive team output. A lack of
communication is cited as the single biggest cause of project failure.

Minimal or poor
Seating arrangement Stale artifacts on the Team members
interaction among
by job description walls wearing headphones
the team members

More focus on the

Lack of information
furniture layout than
radiators in the Unattractive spaces
on creating team
workspace
space

Focus on reducing distractions to avoid communication gaps

Co-Located Teams

• Co-located teams work together in the same

physical location

• Each team has all the required skills

• Teams work independently but collaborate to

coordinate their work
 Co-Located Teams

The image depicts a co-located team in Location A.

Location A

Team 1 Team 2
 Co-Located vs. Distributed Teams

Co-located teams Distributed teams

Location A Location A

Team 1 Team 2
Team 1 Team 2

Location B
Team 3 Team 4
Team 1 Team 2

Make coordination and collaboration easier Agile environment can overcome location issues
 Co-Located vs. Distributed Teams

Co-Located Teams Distributed Teams

• Team members are seated in a room; also called • Teams are distributed geographically
war room
• Formal logging of knowledge is necessary
• Issues are resolved informally
• Structured use of processes is ensured
• Incidental interaction leads to productivity
• Team decides roles based on sprint goals
• Roles are explicitly defined based on tasks

• Communication is done in caves and commons

• Teams can use technology for collaboration
pattern: • Live video conferencing or group chat instant
o Caves can be used for phone calls, short messaging can be used
meetings, or for team members to • When sending mail, teams can choose the
concentrate recipient and CC the rest of the team
o Commons are open, shared workspaces for • Forums or corporate information hubs can be
the team where osmotic communication
takes place established
Osmotic Communication
 Osmotic Communication

Osmotic communication refers to information that is overheard and absorbed from

surroundings.

It is one of the benefits of having co-located teams

🡪 🡪

🡪 🡪
 Collaboration and Coordination

Collaboration and coordination are required for a project.

Collaboration Coordination

• Collaboration is the process of bringing • Coordination is the act of sharing

together the knowledge, experience, and skills information among team members

of multiple team members to contribute to • It requires some level of interaction

the development of a new product

• It requires some level of coordination

between the team

• It enables the team to potentially achieve a lot

more than the sum of the parts
 Collaboration and Coordination

The guidelines for using interaction modes to foster greater collaboration and coordination are:

Match interaction Use highly effective

Use different
needs with Use low-cost modes modes for critical, high-
interaction modes
collaboration practices risk activities
 Collaboration Technology

Collaboration can happen in two ways:

Synchronous Asynchronous

All participants view information and/or All participants view information and provide
meet at the same time. feedback at different points of time.

Examples:
Examples:
• Email
• Teleconferencing and videoconferencing
• Exchange of drawings and documents
• Web-hosted meetings
• Project information and models
• Virtual collaboration sessions
• Workflow and groupware software
 Communication Gap: Example 1

Q Natasha Lisovskii, the ScrumMaster at Nutri Worldwide Inc. was monitoring an R&D project that sought to develop a
new Customer Relationship Management software package. Despite following the agile methodology, the project was
behind schedule. The graphic below shows how the team members were working in silos and communicating through
emails and physical documents.
ScrumMaster
Monitors the
R&D Project

Business Analysts Developers Testers

Extract Translate the Write verification
knowledge about information into scripts to validate
requirements executable codes results
from customers

List the changes that the agile coach should implement to reduce the communication gap within the team.
 Communication Gap: Example 1

A Here are some changes that can help the team overcome their issues:

Ensure daily stand-up meetings are conducted.

Use minimal documentation and increase face-to-face communication.

Use Kanban/task board to track the progress of user stories.

Use burnup and burndown charts to show the progress of the sprint and release.

Introduce video and audio conferencing facilities.

 Communication Gap: Example 2

Q Tony Orlando, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Fairfax, was asked to report on the primary
reason behind a recent project failure. The main reason cited was the contradictory goals of different stakeholders
working on the same project. The main challenge faced was:

Lack of communication between different stakeholders

Developer Marketing, Sales, and Finance Personnel Customer

Wants to write
Demands a good user
structured codes Want the product to succeed
experience
 Communication Gap: Example 2

A Tony cited that the failure of the initiatives was due to the disconnect between business units (marketing, sales, and
finance) and IT goals. Communication gaps like these make the agile development framework and its principles
important. In agile, the focus shifts from the project to the product.

Collaboration and communication between different stakeholders

Develope Marketing, Sales, and Finance Personnel Customer

r
Brainstorming Sessions
 Brainstorming: Facilitating Team Success

Brainstorming sessions help generate ideas from a selected audience to solve

a problem or stimulate creativity.

Brainstorming can be used by project teams to:

• Solve a process problem

• Invent new products or product innovation

• Solve inter-group communication problems

• Improve customer service

• Budget the exercises

• Schedule projects
 Brainstorming: Facilitating Team Success

Collective brainstorming is an important requirement for collaboration across teams.

Optimize the Engage an Provide background Create a team with

environment for experienced to the participants people from diverse
brainstorming facilitator ahead of time groups

Conduct a creative Establish the ground

Postpone criticism
warm-up activity rules
 Team Velocity

Velocity trend across iterations

• Team velocity is a key metric used in agile projects

to forecast the delivery timeline

• It is calculated by adding up the number of story

points assigned to each user story that the team has
completed during the iteration
 Team Velocity

Velocity trend across iterations Points to remember:

• Velocity is an observation of the team’s capacity to

complete work per iteration; not an estimate or a target

• It is based on the team’s sizing of work items according

to estimated time; not on the time dictated or imposed
by anyone other than the team members

• It is comparable across iterations for a given team on a

given project; not comparable across teams or projects
 Velocity: Example 1

The project team completes four stories in one iteration.

Calculate the velocity based on the following story points:

Q
Story A—5 Story B—3 Story C—7 Story D—5

A • Velocity can be calculated by adding the story points assigned to each user story
• Therefore, velocity = 5 + 3 + 7 + 5 = 20
 Velocity: Example 2

Q If the velocity of the team is 14, identify the stories that will be earmarked for iteration 1 and
iteration 2 during release planning.

Note: Story A has the highest priority followed by story B and so on.

Story A—5 Story K—2 Story C—3

Story F—3 Story B—8 Story G—3

Story I—8 Story D—5 Story J—2

Story H—7 Story E—1

Product backlog
 Velocity: Example 2

A Based on the team’s velocity, 14, the stories that will be earmarked for iteration 1 and iteration 2 during
release planning are:

Iteration 1 Iteration 2

Story A—5 Story B—8 Story C—3 Story F—3

Story E—1 Story D—5 Story G—3

Velocity = 5 + 8 + 1 = 14 Velocity = 3 + 3 + 5 + 3 = 14

The team can understand the priorities and select the best possible
combination in collaboration with the product owner.
 Sample Velocity Chart

The bar chart displayed on the screen shows the velocity of a team over 13 iterations:

Team
50 Velocity
45 44
45 42 43
40 38 41 40 Leaving the
35 outliers, the
35 33 average velocity of
30
25 30 sprints is 38
25
20
15
10
5 4
Outliers observed in 0
iterations 1 and 7 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Completed Points Per Iteration

Average velocity from iterations is used to compute the overall capacity for upcoming releases.
 Agile Tools

Agile was initiated by software developers and emphasizes on sharing, community, and high visibility.

There are many agile tools available as open source products.

 Agile Tools

The tools that will help improve team performance can be categorized into:

Agile software
Agile-specific project Continuous integration
Automated testing tools configuration
management tools build tools
management tools
Knowledge Check
Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is most true about the team facilitator role?
1

A. The team facilitator controls the work done by the team

B. The team facilitator enables the team by removing impediments

C. The team facilitator takes key decisions on behalf of the team

D. The team facilitator decides the team composition

 Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is most true about the team facilitator role?
1

A. The team facilitator controls the work done by the team

B. The team facilitator enables the team by removing impediments

C. The team facilitator takes key decisions on behalf of the team

D. The team facilitator decides the team composition

The correct answer is B

Team facilitators ensure success of teams. They don't control, make decisions, or determine the team composition.
Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is a key attribute of agile leadership?
2

A. Creating and communicating a vision

B. Ensuring governance and standards are followed

C. Applying a management framework to make and review decisions

D. Implementing a strong organizational model

 Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is a key attribute of agile leadership?
2

A. Creating and communicating a vision

B. Ensuring governance and standards are followed

C. Applying a management framework to make and review decisions

D. Implementing a strong organizational model

The correct answer is A

Agile leadership ensures that a vision for the project is created and communicated.
Knowledge
Check
Can osmotic communication occur with distributed teams?
3

A. No, osmotic communication can only occur in person

B. No, distributed teams cannot truly apply agile techniques

C. Yes, if they use Instant Messenger, have a live video feed, and email CC lists

D. Yes, all communication is osmotic

 Knowledge
Check
Can osmotic communication occur with distributed teams?
3

A. No, osmotic communication can only occur in person

B. No, distributed teams cannot truly apply agile techniques

C. Yes, if they use Instant Messenger, have a live video feed, and email CC lists

D. Yes, all communication is osmotic

The correct answer is C

Although osmotic communication generally occurs in team room settings, tools like IM, live video feeds, email, and other
information sharing techniques can also trigger osmotic communication.
 Key Takeaways

An agile leader must embrace the agile principles of being

flexible and adaptable and motivate others to follow it
The focus of agile coaching changes at the beginning, middle,
and end of a sprint
An agile leader needs to motivate the team based on well-
known theories such as:
• Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs
• Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory
• David McClelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory
• Motivational Factors by Boehm
 Key Takeaways

Team space, also known as War Room, refers to the

environment in which the team performs their everyday work
Agile work for both co-located and distributed teams
Team collaboration and coordination are essential for a
project's success
Brainstorming sessions help generate ideas from a
selected audience to solve a problem or stimulate creativity
Team velocity is a key metric in agile projects that is used to
forecast delivery timelines