Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Domain 4: Team Performance
1. Adaptive leadership
Agile methods use an approach called adaptive leadership in which leaders modify how they interact with team members based on the team’s level of maturity, or stage of formation.
“Adaptive leadership” is an important skill in this kind of environment. A good Project Manager or Scrum Master should be capable of providing a sufficient level of leadership to get the team to a level of self-sufficiency and progressively back out as the team reaches that level.
Agile methods use an approach called adaptive leadership in which leaders modify how they interact with team members based on the team’s level of maturity, or stage of formation. We’ll discuss adaptive leadership next, but before we can get to that, we need to examine the process of team formation and development that it is based on. The model of team formation we’ll be describing originated with Bruce Tuckman. The four primary stages of his model are called forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. These are followed by a disengagement phase called Adjourning or Mourning since people Often miss being on a high-performing team after it’s disbanded.
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2. Building agile teams
Agile methods promote using co-located teams and creating a collaborative team space, this
The approach also comes with challenges.
Co-Located Teams
Team Space
Caves and Common
Tacit Knowledge
Osmotic Communication
Global, Cultural, and Team Diversity
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3. Burndown/burnup charts
Burndown
A burndown chart is one such tool for collecting that project data. Using a burndown chart is a means of seeing how much work is left and how much time there is to do it in. It’s a graphical representation, offering in a picture what a thousand words might not be able to communicate as clearly.
Burnup
A burn up chart tracks the amount of work to be completed as one straight line across the top of the graph (unless a scope change occurs). A second line is then used to track work completed, starting at zero and increasing to the right as more tasks are finished.
4. Developmental mastery models (Tuckman, Dreyfus, Shu-Ha-Ri)
Tuckman
Tuckman's model explains that as the team develops maturity and ability, relationships establish, and the leader changes leadership style. Beginning with a directing style, moving through coaching, then participating and finishing with delegation, at which point they are almost detached. At this point, the team may produce a successor leader and the previous leader can move on to develop a new team.
Dreyfus
Dreyfus Model of Adult Skill Acquisition
Another team development model that might come up on the exam is the “Dreyfus model of
adult skill acquisition." This model by Stuart.Dreyfuspostulates that adults learn new skills over five stages:
Novice,
Advanced beginner,
Competent,
Proficient,and
Expert
As we move through each of these stages, in addition to improving our skills, our level of commitment, approach to decision-making, and perspective on the task evolve as well.
The Dreyfus model of skills acquisition by brothers Stuart and Huber Dreyfus covers covers a similar concept as the 3 step ShuHaRi but uses 5 stages instead from novice to expert. The stages follows a progression from rigid adherence to rules to an intuitive mode of reasoning based ontacit knowledge.
Michael Eraut summarized the five stages of increasing skill as follows:
1. Novice
“rigid adherence to taught rules or plans” no exercise of “discretionary judgment”
2. Advanced beginner
limited “situational perception” all aspects of work treated separately with equal importance
3. Competent
“coping with crowdedness” (multiple activities, accumulation of information) some perception of actions in relation to goals deliberate planning formulates routines
4. Proficient
holistic view of situation prioritizes importance of aspects “perceives deviations from the normal pattern” employs maxims for guidance, with meanings that adapt to the situation at hand
5. Expert
transcends reliance on rules, guidelines, and maxims “intuitive grasp of situations based on deep, tacit understanding” has “vision of what is possible” uses “analytical approaches” in new situations or in case of problems
Shu-Ha-Ri
Alistair Cockburn made the analogy to Aikido (Japanese martial art) in terms of how we learn a technique and get better at it from beginner/novice to journeyman, to master. There are 3 stages of gaining knowledge:
Shu – Beginner stage
In shu, we repeat the forms and discipline ourselves so that our bodies absorb the forms that our forebears created. We remain faithful to these forms with no deviation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari
Here we follow the teaching of the master. Follow the instruction or rules as laid out without worrying about the why or the theory behind certain things. There is a preference for one option as many options of doing the same thing will just create confusion.
Ha – The Journeyman stage
In-ha, once we have disciplined ourselves to acquire the forms and movements, we make innovations. In this process, the forms may be broken and discarded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari
In Ha, we are beyond the basics and now understand the theory behind why we do certain things. We can clearly evaluate different alternatives and decide on which one to take.
Ri – The master stage
In ri, we completely depart from the forms, open the door to creative technique, and arrive in a place where we act in accordance with what our heart/mind desires, unhindered while not overstepping laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari
In Ri, we are going beyond learning from others, but learning from our own experience and adapting the rules for different circumstances, and creating our own approaches.
When I presented this talk at the Munich Global Scrum Gathering, it was my first trip to Munich. If I needed to go from point A to point B, I’m in a new setting and I’m at the Shu state. I need directions to follow a map or preferably a guide that can lead me and show me the way. If you give me more than 1 set of directions, that’s kind of too much information.
After being there for a couple of days, I got the general lay of the land and was able to wander on my own and know where to turn right or left or pick an alternative between 2 routes. That’s the Ha level.
Back home in DC, my commute to work is just common nature. I do it without even thinking about it. I just get in the car and drive and 25 minutes later I’m at work. If there is traffic, I discover alternate routes or shortcuts on my own that puts me right back on track. This is the Ri level.
5. Osmotic communication for colocated and/or distributed teams
Osmotic communication means that information flows into the background hearing of members of the team so that they pick up relevant information by osmosis. This is normally accomplished by seating them in the same room.
Osmotic communication refers to the useful information that flows between team members who are
Working in close proximity to each other as they overhear each other’s conversations. For example, let’s say that Bob asks Jim how to restart the build server. Mary is just about to use that machine and overhears their conversation—as a result, she can intervene on the restart and save a potential conflict. This ability to pick up on things that would otherwise be missed is one of the major benefits of co-locating the team, saving them time, and improving their teamwork.
Alistair Cockburn likens osmotic communication to energy fields that radiate from people. If you’re too far away, you won’t receive its benefits—you can only get the full benefit if you are in close proximity with no barriers, as shown below. In other words, to improve their osmotic communication we want to get people sitting and working closely together with few barriers between them.
6. Global, cultural, and team diversity
As our communication options expand and become less expensive, and as our partner and customer bases widen, globalization, culture, and team diversity are becoming increasingly important factors for project teams. It’s not uncommon to have team members from three or four continents working on the same project. Although different cultures bring challenges, they can also bring more efficiency to a project because there is a broader pool of resources to choose from.
Since knowledge work is invisible, agile teams rely on coordination and communication to share information.
However, globally distributed teams face special challenges in this area that need to be addressed:
Different time zones
Different cultures
Different communication styles
Different native languages
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7. Team space
This is their “team space” (or “war room”)—the common area for collaboration and information sharing where they conduct their everyday work.
Agile teams often commandeer a large open area, like a conference room, to serve as their team space. In this area, there should be plenty of wall space for whiteboards to be used during collaborative discussions, as well as room to post information radiators of the project metrics. To take full advantage of the benefits of co-location, the team space should also be supplied with the following tools and equipment:
Whiteboards and taskboards
Sticky notes, sticky paper, flip charts
Roundtable with screen/laptop
Video conferencing capability
No barriers to face-to-face communication
Food, snacks, and toys!
The rationale for most of these items should be nearby now. For example, we’ve already discussed the use of whiteboards, sticky notes, information radiators, and face-to-face communication in talking about agile tooling and communication, and we’ll be talking about the use of digital tools below. However, there are two other elements of agile team spaces that may be less familiar—“caves and common” and "tacit knowledge."
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8. Physical and virtual co-location (Distribute)
Distributed teams are teams that have at least one team member working off-site.
Agile recommends that teams be co-located, and so far we’ve been talking about co-located agile teams as if they were the norm. Highsmith asserts that agile methods work better for distributed teams than non-agile approaches because of the following factors:
The short iterations used in agile development force continuous close collaboration and coordination.
The project will be easier to control because a releasable product is built each iteration.
Digital Tools for Distributed Teams
Videoconferencing,livechat,Skype
Interactive whiteboards
Instant messaging (IM) andVoIP (Voice overInternetProtocol) headsets
Presence-based applications
Electronic task boards and storyboards:
Web-based meeting facilitators
Survey applications
Agile project management software:
Virtual card walls
Smartboards:
Digital cameras
Wiki sites, document management tools, and collaboration websites
Automated testing tools, automated build tools, and traffic-light-type signals:
CASE tools
9. Velocity
Velocity is defined as the “measure of a team’s capacity for work per iteration.” This powerful metric allows the team to gauge how much work they will be able to do in future iterations, based on the amount of work they completed in past iterations. This provides a way to track and communicate what they have accomplished, anticipate what they will be able to accomplish in the future, and forecast when the project (or release) is likely to be done.
Here’s an example of tracking a team’s velocity across iterations:
10. Team motivation
Efforts to motivate people like the art of encouraging them toward the right-hand side of this range. In addition to motivating individuals, we can also approach the motivationinterms of the entire team. Alistair Cockburn compares team motivation to the overall propulsion vector of team members in a raft. In other words, if the team members’ individual motivations are personal and have no alignment toward The project goal, then the overall team vector (direction and speed) is likely to be small and not well directed toward the project goal, as shown below.
11. Training, coaching, and mentoring
Training is the teaching of a skill or knowledge through practice and instruction.
The agenda is usually created by the trainer, and the format is very structured (and typically prepared in advance).
An example of training would be attending a one-day course on agile planning techniques.
Coaching is a facilitated process that helps the person being coached to develop and improve their performance. Coaching often starts with an initial topic that is then expanded and developed in collaboration with the coach. Coaching sessions are usually scheduled in advance and have a defined
Structure. An example of coaching would be arranging a session with ScrumMaster to get help with project reporting.
Mentoring is more of a professional relationship than a specific activity. The mentor can be a sounding board for tackling issues on an as-needed basis. The mentee owns the agenda, and the format is free-flowing.An example of mentoring would be having a relationship with an experienced agile leader who youmeetwithfromtime to time, bounces ideas off, and asks for advice.
Lyssa Adkins outlines the following guidelines for one-on-one coaching:1
Meet them a half-step ahead
Guarantee safety.
Partner with managers
Create positive regard
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Tools and Techniques:
Adaptive leadership
Burndown/burnup charts
Osmotic communication for colocated and/or distributed teams
Team space
Velocity
Knowledge and Skills:
Building agile teams
Developmental mastery models (Tuckman, Dreyfus, Shu-Ha-Ri)
Global, cultural, and team diversity
Physical and virtual co-location
Team motivation
Training, coaching, and mentoring
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