..and that's why Agile SUCKS

*Notes on everyday fuckups of a Scrum Master from Ukraine (that only other Scrum Masters will relate)

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #7: War

That's gonna be a tough one: reflections on giant stress factor, such as war, on the team's well-being

Frankly speaking, for a really long time I didn't understand the depth of that impact, until I was offered to take additionally a non-ukrainian international team. And the difference hit me hard

So, for the record: there's no family in Ukraine that hadn't been impacted by war: everyone lost something or someone. Homes, means for living, calm nights, health (including mental), beloved ones, relatives or friends.. whole nation has PTSD

My fellow-neighbour lost her son, one of my girlfriends is a widow now, my former colleagues' home was destroyed in the recent night missile attack (hopefully he survived, still lost his car & apartment).. and this is, unfortunately, a default set of common feelings for every family:

grief for those, who were killed

anxious anticipation for those, who are currently in the frontline (or missing in action, or in captivity)

panic - for those, who don't wanna die and get compulsorily mobilized (being caught somewhere in the street)

chronic tiredness due to sleep deprivation (for those regions, where regular night attacks leave u no chance to recharge urself)

mental instability (3.6 years already, Karl!)

Literally. Every. And working with people, who either had a sleepless night, or just returned from another funeral, or struggling from social isolation, cause they were forced to leave their homes and move somewhere safer (as under company's request), or are losing their mind without leaving house - might sound challenging, but... when u have no choice - u just adapt & keep going despite anything

U don't need to invent another funny icebreaker: ur regular becomes a simple one, like "Are u ok? How noisy it was in ur neighborhood.. today?"

U skip that retro (or any other useless additional meeting), cause guys don't wanna reflect on anything. They had 3 night attacks in 5 days. Air alarms hit Kyiv every day, for couple of times as a minimum (sometimes, it's like 7 sirens, sometimes - more), especially - at night. All they want is a 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, but not ur fucking "lets go to our Miro board and play some shitty games".

U try to change the team's constantly negative mood by changing their focus and starting to ask questions like "tell me something good that happened to u recently?" (in one team it worked, and people even established a habit of focusing on good moments at the end of each standup, in another it failed - sad to hear honest silence in return)

U start promoting therapy and mental health support, cause people are depressed, anxious and living in constant fear (of another night lottery or being kidnapped from the street)

U know everyone's location (up to district and street name) and check up on everyone. After every attack. Always

...and it used to seem to be so normal for me. Until I was offered another team to take under my wing, that had nothing to do with war. They were so.. happy, always joking, discussing future plans, travelling, getting married, enjoying their lives in full. From work perspective - they were open for new, agile, motivated (in the right way) & innovative. That experience brought me back to the reality: Ukrainians live in survival mode (and it has its consequences)

(Don't get me wrong, Ukrainians are also motivated, but only because holding a job for them - is the only land of stability left in their lives. The IT market has fallen sharply due to obvious business risks and companies don't wanna hire and/or invest in Ukrainians. People are devoted to the jobs they have, having a fear to be not able to find another one)

There's another category of people - for those, who had relocated somewhere (legally or not). Yes, they are not afraid of walking the streets, but believe me, they are still worrying about their relatives and friends, left in Ukraine. They have other fears (like to lose the refugee status), feeling loneliness and so on

So, to wrap it up:

If u have Ukrainians in ur team - be patient with them (u have no idea what they are going through)

If they complain on something - suggest it to be a huge gesture of trust (cause they don't wanna look weak, desperate or utterly tired in client's eyes)

If u wanna support Ukrainians - no need to pity them, just offer a job. Believe me, they'll do their best despite missile attacks, sleepless nights, blackouts or any other disaster. They'll just do it

Stand with Ukraine

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #6: Non-supportive managers

Reflections on why there are so few adequate managers and where poor leadership might lead to

Awwgh, I've seen this shit. Even too much

By poor leadership I mean:

maintaining a "better picture" (when he avoids hard talks and truth in particular, cause it's easier to pretend that everything is ok instead of admitting failure or bad decision or bad situation and do something)

I've had a line manager, who could expel my part of collected statistics only cause "they were bad and spoiling the overall picture". No desire to have a closer look, no desire to take actions. Just a pursue of looking good in the eyes of his managers, keeping the illusion all is fine & constantly blaming (when no one sees)

showing disrespect in any form (and using the occasion to take it out on subordinates)

I've had a CEO, who enjoyed yelling at people on the meetings (he was using CAPS and swear words in messages) whenever he was in a bad mood. He could argue, humiliate, call names and considered this to be a normal working dynamic (on the other hand, being in a good mood, he could be really polite and even sweet. But that rarely happened) His mood switches were so unpredictable, that people were terrified to reach him out. I could spend hours (hours, Karl!) calming someone down after another short call with him

being manipulative and selfish

I've had a CTO, with whom (at least, I thought that we really were) good.. friends, like, u know.. we shared same goals & sense of humour, doing best we could for the product, working closely 24/7. I felt so comfy around him... till the moment he tried to sexually harass me. And, after obvious rejection (he was married and I had a boyfriend and, honestly, never considered him in a romantic way), decided to make my life hell, so I had to quit (yes, that's another fun story of my life)

being inconsistent (when words don't match actions)

I've had a manager, who also played "friends", was trying to build out-of-workplace connections, was attentive and fun. She was always saying that she was here for me and that I could always rely on her. Till the moment I really needed support & faced an issue - she didn't give me a right to speak up, and share my side of the story. I was offered a choice: either I shut my mouth, or my contract will be terminated. No buts. This whole "we're friends" side disappeared within a second

I can go on with this list.. I've worked with so many jerks for years so I couldn't even believe that good managers, true leaders.. exist

Until I've met one

SPOILER: it's gonna be a good story

He was quiet, like "less words - more actions instead", that type of a guy, u know. Never pretended to be someone else, never ashamed to ask questions. Never hesitating to admit a mistake. Always supporting, carefully listening. Consistent

He was that rare type of a leader, the servant leader - the one is described in all those books. He valued his people. And people knew that. He appreciated everyone's input. He supported in full any initiative or idea. He always took the side of his people (even when people failed) He was there not to blame, but to find a way out. Together. He was their attorney and shield (despite anything!) Genuine and truthful. And deeply respected for that

The saddest thing is that for my 11 years working career (8 in IT), he's the only true leader I've had an honour to work with. I really miss him. Now, I'm taking him as a living example of how it should be :D

Others - suck

And that's really, really sad

P.S. There's an awesome example of how a true leader should behave - just watch New Amsterdam on Netflix. Dr. Max Goodwin shows his attitude from the very first episode by asking a great question "How can I help?" - and this is what a true servant leadership is about.

Just watch it.

U'll enjoy

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #5: Scrum by default

A fuckup overview on cases, where Scrum was forced as a square peg into a round hole

SPOILER: don't do that. Scrum - is not a solution for any project. It's not a trend that everyone should follow just because it's cool to be agile and say that "we have scrum too".

So.. Case #1:

They (the client) had a well planned scope (everything was clear and sequentially, in a classic waterfall way: first - development, then testing etc) Every teams' move had to be approved and submitted by their Manager (God forbid a self-management growth), they never shared any end-user feedback (not sure if they ever conducted such). And they wanted a 2 weeks Scrum, despite the fact that it was a complete waste of my time

there was no increment every 2 weeks. Not even 4. Not even after 3 month (cause they were sequentially following one step after another, and no, they didn't want to hear about iterations and increment. not their gam)

they were initiative-sensitive and prohibited any attempt aimed to make ANY change to their initial plan (like, seriously? and what about agile then..?)

they just wanted their waterfall plan to be done. In a "scrum way": with 2 weeks Sprints. And blamed me for my bad work done, cause it surprisingly wasn't working there.

I advised them to try Prince2 (and Prince2 Agile, as an option if they wanted to have "agile" somewhere there indicated) and requested the project change

Case #2:

A POC-phase of a new small outsource project. All requirements were clear. Demos were requested twice a week, on a client call. And.. their manager shared a scrum board to maintain 2 week Sprints, classic.

On my logical questioning - like.. WTF? - I received a surprised: what? we're ALWAYS working this way (and a completely no clue why did I dare questioning such a default option)

with such intensity of regular demos there's no sense in shaping the ongoing work in a Sprint-way and wasting time on board maintenance (starting/finishing Sprints etc)

it's a short-term project, 5 weeks max.. so, should we expect 2.5 Sprints then?

despite being inspected so frequently, no actual feedback was provided there. Just a strict following the initial plan

I suggested to use Kanban here... and at least was heard. There were a lot of other non-agile things happening.. but, at least, I didn't have to play that stupid game "U're a Scrum Master, so let's have a 2-weeks Sprints"

P.S. And yes, btw, there could be a good scrum implemented, but in a bit other way. But the client wasn't interested in it

Case #3:

Teams workflow changed after final release. The new supporting phase faced new challenges: more unplanned work, less expected features to be created. There was no need in Sprints anymore - guys were updating documentation, fixing post-release bugs (mostly), adding some occasional improvements to the existing functionality

The good news - the client agreed to switch to Kanban there (it was that type of the customer who didn't give a shit how the team arranged their work - they needed results and performance, so at least I could help my teams with lowering the number of additional meetings and make their life easier in Jira)

So, let's wrap it up. Scrum - isn't a solution for everything. Just a framework for product development. Strictly in complex and/or complicated cases (for more information - check Cynefin framework) If ur product is simple (clear) - then leave it simple. If ur product is in URG_URG_ALARM_SATANA mode (chaotic) or temporarily disordered, then do whatever works, and do not try to scrum it.. it just won't work, u'll lose precious time (and u'll be the one to blame afterwards) If u don't have valid feedback loops and permission to make changes (cause we have a plan already!) then.. don't even think about it. Respect Scrum. It's a luxury, not a mass market thing

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #4: Inability to communicate

An educational story on how one jerk rotten apple can spoil the barrel

Every team has a jerk. Like, there's always someone toxic, abusive, passively (or actively) aggressive, sociopathic, manipulative or just with no developed emotional intelligence. That's a rule (I'm sure, there should be a Murphy law on this)

After so many years of working with people, I've developed a strong gut feeling for spotting troublemakers. I quickly identify, pick a suitable strategy to handle their behavior, clean up the mess they've created and prepare conditions, to avoid this situation in future

But among all dork cases, I had one - ICONIC

SPOILER: no happy ending there, just a story of another fail

Let's call him.. Riley. Riley was hired to double down on specific aspect of work, which used to be covered by 1 engineer in the past 5 years. Quiet, shy, rarely made eye contact. He seemed like any other new arrival. But it quickly became clear, that something about him was wrong: No one could get along with him. Like AT ALL (including me)

He didn't agree to anything. Like literally. Nothing. Dissatisfied and often irritated, he couldn't find common ground with that one engineer he was expected to partner

They've spent half year (6 month, Karl!) arguing on how frequently their syncs should take place (he insisted on daily calls for just 2 of them) and on how their work should be divided (he rejected all processes and approaches that used to take place and was against sharing any scope), he was concerned of being left behind, so he insisted on tracking every move everyone takes (like creating a story for "creating stories" and shit like that). When he wasn't getting what he wanted - he could abruptly leave the meeting

Yes, he was a fucking control freak with inability to communicate, and yet, he was quite capable on the technical side

I started suspecting him to be autistic, so decided to step in as mediator to smooth things over and help him with comprehensiveness, cause he was definitely perceiving reality differently

*just for the record: I have no issues with autistic people - I'm on spectrum myself and have ADHD as a bonus. (2 years of therapy. I do really know, what it's like. I'm with u, guys)

I attended all their meetings, sitting and breaking down every point addressed to him. I tried to find a connection with him. I mentored others, explaining better ways for treating people on the spectrum..

But nothing helped. Everyone was suffering. That engineer (who used to have a great life until Riley appeared), their PO, plenty of people from other teams, me

Every minor thing turned into unending argument without common sense. Work wasn't done at all. Everyone, except Riley, was mentally exhausted (seeking a reason to skip another meeting with him)

So, I've escalated their issue to the Engineering Manager and HRBP level...and, u know, what? 4 month later - still nothing changed (it's just now 5 of us are forced to be present on every meeting of those 2 engineers. Every fucking day. Can u imagine the scale of this fiasco?..)

P.S. I'm a strong believer that there are no bad people. There are just plenty of people in the wrong place, role or conditions. And it's completely fine to make mistakes while hiring (I did them too - we're all humans). But if u find urself by an epic fail - u should be brave enough to stop pretending that everything is ok and instead: admit the fuckup, make conclusions and, finally, FIX IT

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #3: Role misunderstanding

A selection of gems from Scrum Master's job descriptions with contemplations on the timeless

It's like another circle of Hell for any Scrum Master seeking a new job

Have u seen those expectations?

Facilitate all Scrum events: Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Retro and Demo

A very common point. Every second vacancy starts with it. But it's originally wrong. Scrum Master's role is not about facilitating or leading events - he's not a M.C. Scrum Master's main task is to teach the team how to succeed without him. So, if the team doesn't know how to handle any of the events - he can show, explain, mentor, suggest tools or new approaches, or support in any other way the team would require.. but he's not doing everything on his own, all the time. Otherwise the team will never learn. It's like if he was a driving instructor . He won't be the one sitting at the wheel all the time. He's the one sitting next to the driver and assisting when necessary

Ability to deliver within each Sprint by Product Roadmap

I have no idea why do people expect Scrum Master to be able to deliver.. something? (they even didn't bother to explain what exactly) within each Sprint. Read the Scrum Guide! It's a team's responsibility. And Scrum Master cannot be responsible (and guarantee somehow) that some group of people, hired before him will be delivering within expected iterations. They might not be a team even

*just for the record: a group of people that was gathered together to perform some duties - it's just a group of people. With proper guidance they might become a team someday. Might not. Depends on quality of hiring and Company's devotion to precise values

And that's just a first component of the successful dish. I'm not mentioning the competent PO's part that should be done properly too

Provide support to the team using a servant leadership style whenever possible

Gosh, It's funny. How can anyone be a servant leader.. whenever possible? How should it look like? It's like: oh, it's a minor stuff, so, I'll be acting as if I was here for u, but once things get taughter, I'll be authoritarian and ruthless?.. How would this ever work out? Go back and reread the Scrum Guide (yes, again. It took me couple of years to actually understand what every line stands for. Take ur time) Courage. Respect. Openness. Servant leadership -is not a leadership "style", it's a mindset. An attitude. A set of values that u either accept and cherish, or fail to simulate the very first crisis occurs. There's no tumbler there. It's all-in. Always

Strong sense of ownership for projects and team performance

I don't get it. Honestly. Scrum Master doesn't "own" projects or team performances. Projects are on PMs, team performance is on team. Scrum Master will definitely keep eye on it, track it (in his own way), adjusting if necessary. But team's performance - is not his responsibility. It's on team

Whenever I come across such points in job descriptions - it makes me feel so sad. Why is Scrum Master's role so misunderstood?

Scrum Master - is not a PM. His area of responsibility is people and processes. He's not team's secretary, chairman or superhero

He's not the one to take Memos after each meeting (he should explain to the team why development of this skill will benefit their productivity and teach how to do it properly)

He's not just someone reminding the team that every event should be timeboxed (he should explain why time matters and help the team to practice focusing)

He's not just a guy playing games on Retros (he should cooperate with the Team Lead or Senior and prepare for each retro by defining its goals and providing the later with applicable options depending on the team's maturity level and needs)

He's bringing to the table Big picture view (strategic, impediments free), he shields the team, foresees potential issues, mitigates crisis, gives a room for failure (and helps to learn from it), encourages to become mature and practice self-reflection, promotes psychological safety, preaches agile values. By example. Always. He does everything possible from his side to make team's (domain's, department's, or company's) life easier, and more productive

*just a kind reminder: we're already working in the complex, complicated or chaotic environments. There's enough complexity there. Our role was created to make things simpler

P.S. This post will be updated with new stupid requirements whenever I find them

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #2: Velocity obsession

A bunch of cries for help philosophical reflections with no answers rhetorical questions on METRICS

I have soooo many questions:

*Why do managers are so obsessed with tracking someone's busyness?

Why do they pray for Velocity like.. it's a #1 metric (and the only one) for any agile project? Like.. seriously? Who told u that?

They are initially unreliable, measuring the basic team's activities, might be useful only for internal forecasting (MIGHT, but definitely not SHOULD)... they are so easily adjustable - like, "we've doubled our velocity by increasing our estimation grade".. and still Managers don't get it and even keep on comparing teams, based on their velocity (cause it's so convenient), extracting personal velocity (my favorite!), building forecasts and unrealistic expectations (cause it's so silly to expect no changes on initially unpredictable environment and tell everyone, that u're "agile") Gosh

*Why do managers pay so much attention to the outputs, but never try measuring actual outcomes, the real value?

I have a story about that. I was on a project, where main measure of success for my teams was.. Predictability rate (Planned vs. Delivered) Every quarter I was providing my PM with results of my 3 teams. Team A reached 3 out of 4, Team B had 4 out of 5 and Team C completed just 1 out of 5... and my Manager called me out and requested a detailed list of reasonings on why is my Team C so low-performing? I was accused of the Team C spoiling the overall score in the domain for up to 20%... and the thing is - they weren't The thing is - all 3 month Team C was involved into the post-release troubleshooting and had spent 76% of their capacity on fixing critical issues. And thanks to my own system of measuring - I had numbers to prove the Teams' actual value. Yes, they didn't manage to deliver all expected features, but on the other hand - they kept production line stable. What's more important after giant release?

Have I tried to initiate any changes on that? Surely. Did it succeed? Partially. On Domain level - yes, on Company level - no

So, let's get back to the question. Why do managers prefer staying stubborn and seek outputs instead of bringing effort to check qualitative insights, process flow and customer value?.. Like being busy is good, but being productive is much better, isn't it?

Yes,

It takes time

It requires deeper involvement and collaboration in the company

It requires motivation and proper leadership

It requires consistency and shared understanding

But there are sooooo many cool things u can do when u're facing the right direction:

Lean Flow metrics (high five, Kanban!) with a wide range of its variabilities, based on Throughput, WIP, Cycle & Lead time

Quality metrics, like Test Automation coverage, Defects Cycle time, Mean time to recover, Deployment Frequency

Value-oriented metrics, like Customer Satisfaction Gap, Usage Index, Potential Market Share

Ability to Innovate metrics, like Technical Debt, Time spent merging code between branches, Innovation Rate

Team health & Culture metrics, like Kniberg's health checks or eNPS

There's whole list of awesome frameworks and multi-level approaches created already, like DORA, SPACE or Evidence-Based Management (my favorite).. then, why not to use them?

WHY?!

[reasonswhyagilesucks]

Reason #1: Lack of trust

A story about a PO with Trust Issues and Micro-management Nano-Management skills

When this guy joined our team I was truly happy. It felt like.. FINALLY

The PO spot was empty for last 8 month and my teams really needed one. New blood. Believing in what he does. Passionate. And he seemed to be that guy. At least, at the beginning: he was curious, not afraid to ask stupid questions, 100% involved, seeking connection and comprehension..

BUT

in couple of month I've started noticing weird things happening

The number of additional meetings wasn't lowering.. u know, this painful topic of "this meeting could be an email", he kept being unsatisfied with state of transparency and constantly requesting detailed updates on every move each team made - despite the fact my teams were mature and organized enough to keep him posted on every input (the boards were properly maintained, all statuses updated, comments added, issues linked and so on) Still he wasn't satisfied with all provided information and arranged additional meetings where he could go through the comments and just keep on TALKING, on and on

And it started killing me

I've tried to highlight the problem on our agreed feedback sessions (he mentioned many times how open and ready to accept any constructive feedback he was..)

SPOILER: he turned to be open, indeed. The problem was that he listened, but didn't hear

I've tried to coach him, but it failed from the very beginning (cause coaching might take place only upon clear request, and he saw no problem in his own actions)

SPOILER: he didn't get why teams were unhappy being interrupted many times during the week and why the hell they needed to repeat same things all the time, cause it's so cool - to have another meeting. AGAIN

I tried to mentor and suggest other tools and tactics to help him increase the clarity he was lacking (in the way that would be suitable for him)

SPOILER: he had no idea what would be enough for him, therefore, this initiative failed too

So, after numerous attempts to reach him out (I tried different ways), and after running couple of experiments within my teams to try to please him (I even organized a free subscription on a therapy platform so, at least he could start his healing journey)

SPOILER: they all failed

The moment I've realized that I'll be unable to reach him out or change his attitude in any way (it's just time and energy-consuming and brings no outcome) I've decided to change my strategy from "help him be more productive by trusting his teams" to "protect my teams from unnecessary switching by any costs"

It frustrates me as a Scrum Master. But at least.. it works

It's like... I'm not his therapist to deal with his insecurities, and it's not my problem that he cannot trust anyone and he needs to micro manage nano-manage his teams on every step they make 3 times per day even if they provide all needed information in full

For those managers reading this, PLEASE, don't underestimate context switching as a minor waste. It's crucial for staying focused.

And u can check all recent neurobiological studies that show dreadful consequences of constant context switching for proper brain functioning. Even when "it's just a quick call"

Take care of ur engineers, do not disturb them cause u feel lonely and wanna talk. Provide them with instructions - on how to better keep u updated, reduce the number of meetings "that could be an email" and just give them space to do their job

And work on urself instead, go to therapy