From Zero To Maturity

      Serving as the scrum master for several teams, one of the challenges that you might face is maturing a new team while maintaining a very senior, mature, independent Scrum team. 

While it may be obvious to use the experience of the senior team to mature the new team, there is a danger of inhibiting the senior team’s velocity, predictability, and independence as well as causing frustration to the senior team. 

There is also a danger of damaging the potential of the members of each team from ever working together in the future should any harsh feelings develop. At the very least it may prolong the period of time that any future Scrum team would spend going from Forming to Performing.

          One method that I find continual success with is to give the new team a "zero sprint".  Where their only task is to observe the other teams in Scrum ceremonies, listen to conversations that take place during development, and write down any questions that they may have, what some may call shadowing.

It is imperative that the new team experiences every Scrum ceremony during the zero sprint. As the sprint continues I encourage the new team to contribute their input , especially in the latter ceremonies of the sprints.

I do this in a manner that may resemble a musical crescendo, starting with what might seem imperceptible and ending with the new team having almost full autonomy during the sprint retrospective.

          This will inevitably impact the senior Scrum team, but that impact can be greatly mitigated and frustration avoided by planning for this during release and sprint planning. 

          As a rule, team members only commit for 80% of their capacity, so they can attend ceremonies, etc. without feeling stressed out or over committed. During the team’s zero sprint, the mentoring team is only scheduled for 75% of their capacity. This will avoid frustration for the senior team as the sprint wears on, and will maintain the team’s long established predictability.

In the later week(s) of the sprint, members of the new team sit in and team up with the senior team, keeping in mind the crescendo approach.  (This is a fantastic way to teach developers new to Agile about XP.)  

It is important that each new team member has a purpose so they feel valuable to the team.  As they participate with purpose their desire to make meaningful contributions and to serve the team will increase; this serves to help overcome any natural resistance to learning a new methodology. 

It is also equally important to give the senior team appropriate accolades for their contributions to the new team. The senior team must know and feel that their efforts of mentoring are both noticed and appreciated so that they do not become resentful. 

     When the new team has their first sprint, there is an innate desire to perform at a level that is par to their mentors. Such a strong desire decreases the overall amount of time that it will take the new Scrum team to go from "sprint zero" to maturity.

Written By David Port, ICP-ACC, CSM, CSPO, PMI-ACP