Individual performance in a team game.

Individual Performance in a Team
Game
Ajay Kabra
Sr. Director – Agile Transformation

❖ On my last trip to China, I was asked a question, that I most frequently hear and
that was "How do I do performance management for agile teams"?
❖ I wasn't surprised that this was a question, but it's not usually the first one that
comes up when people start to talk about making agile work in their companies.
Where did this all begin?

❖ Performance reviews and compensation questions are frequently on the front
seat in every organization, so it should be no different in an agile oriented
organization
❖ It is possibly one of the most deeply rooted problem to get rid of when working
with agile teams.
For Starters…

“Tell me how you will measure me and I will tell you how I will behave.”
– Eliyahu Goldratt
Hawthorne Effect – that which is measured will improve.
Measurements & Behaviors

Performance Evaluation:
• Innate intellectual ability
• Subject matter expertise
• Individual performance ratings
• Ratings against others!
People Emphasis:
• Subject matter expertise (SME)
• Heroics
• “Individual Contributor” roles
• Individual training needs
Traditional Approach

Performance Evaluation:
• Innate intellectual ability
• Subject matter expertise
• Individual performance ratings
• Ratings against others!
People Emphasis:
• Generalizing specialists
• Collaboration skills
• Customer focus
• Teamwork – mentoring, helpfulness,
approachability, personality, etc.
Agile Approach

Measurements dictate behaviour.
Measuring the wrong things can cause unintended consequences!
Measurements & Behaviors

❖ A Scrum Master recently asked me if he should take over responsibility for year-
end performance evaluations since he was closer to the work than the functional
manager for the team.
❖ One need to understand that Scrum Masters are in service to the team; they don’t
manage the team
Outside View

❖ Most HR professionals do not seem to be aware that modern research has shown
that the most popular performance management systems in use today actually
tend to produce net negative results.
❖ Managers are required to determine who is performing better so they can be
rewarded more than others who are judged to be doing not as well.
❖ Also, managers are required to do performance appraisals because that is what
everybody at the company is required to do.
But we live in a Real world that has different rules…

❖ Agile practices and values put the emphasis on
collaboration and communication. The
performance appraisal creates an agenda
divide as the employee uses it to try to
highlight his or her performance in order to get
raises and promotions.
❖ The appraisal fosters low trust competition in
the team rather than self-organizing to meet
customer needs.
VS.
Do we really collaborate?

Be real & face practical emotions of people

Techniques to Perform
Performance Appraisals for
Agile Team

• Here's a tip that is perfectly workable: Give all of the members of an agile team the
same performance goals:
• By giving each member of a team the same goal, you have just implemented a
team goal.
• When you do this, several things happen. First is that you find that you have to
establish goals that are higher level than the individual goals that you are used
to.
Performance Review – Should be regular

❖ Performance review of an Agile team should be done at a regular interval, rather
than it be a once upon year event.
❖ Review should be cross functional and cross section (see future slides)
Performance Review – Should be regular

FROM: Customer TO: Team
Overall customer satisfaction score
Additional comments:
<enter additional comments here>
<sum/4>
Project: < Name of the Project>
Sprint #: < ## >
Sprint Dates: < From and To Dates>
Sprint Review Date: < >
Measurements Score (0 - 100)
Value of delivery in terms of quantity, business value?
Do committed Stories work as expected?
Was the time frame commitment met?
Is the UI intuitive, professional and pleasing?
Sprint Report Card – Customer to Agile Team

FROM: Product Owner TO: Team
Overall satisfaction scoreAdditional comments:
I thought the team overall did pretty well on this project. The team had some members new to this
area so it took them a while to get up to speed and contribute at a high technical level. Also there
were a few times where I felt the team was not truly accepting ownership of the customer desires.
95
Project: Clicker Software for Student Response System
Sprint #: 05
Sprint Dates: 9th March – 20th March 2018
Sprint Review Date: : 20th March 2018 @ 4.30 pm
Team's "mojo" (teamwork, collaboration, helpfulness) 100
Team's ability to deliver to their commitment 95
Team's overall technical abilities 95
Team's ability to react to changes 95
Team's ownership of customer needs 90
PO Report Card to Development Team

FROM: Team TO: Product Owner
Sprint #: 05
Availability to team
Understanding of customer requirements
Product Backlog organization, prioritization, and maintenance
Speed of answers to team
Leadership skills
Development Team Report Card to PO

FROM: Team Member TO: SM
Overall satisfaction scoreAdditional comments: 88
Sprint #: 05
Ownership of impediments 90
Ability to solve impediments 90
Coaching Skills 90
Knowledge of Agile / Scrum methods 90
Ability to effectively facilitate the team meetings 80
SM Report Card – Development Team to SM

FROM: Jain Smith TO: Sam Dean
Does not communicate effectively his impediments & stalled progress. He has the potential to
be really good due to his technical prowess, but he needs to understand the team concept
better. Several times I was hoping for much stronger collaboration.
70
Sprint #: 05
Feedback date: 20th March 2018
Collaboration skills 70
Helpfulness to rest of team 60
Ownership of the team's deliverables 70
Technical expertize 80
Ability to meet the said commitments 70
Team Member Peer Review Report Card

Individual performance in a team game.

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