Not Playing With Scrum
I witnessed a developer on one of our Scrum projects today. He was called on first and spent 5 minutes not answering what he was working on for the day or how many hours were left on that task. Instead he:
- Twisted the shoelaces on his shoes.
- Stared at the floor.
- Said ‘umm’ maybe 20 times.
- Asked several times could you just tell me how many hours I said for that task.
Everyone got the feeling the developer really didn’t want to be there. The funny thing is this person is a pretty good developer who really contributes to the project. It was painful enough that other developers tried to answer for him after a few minutes. He finally agreed to 8 hours more on his current task after 5 minutes.
Some good observations from our Scrum coach on the situation: (She had picked up on the same vibe from the developer.)
- We’re following a rule that the daily standup reporting starts with the person to the left of the ScrumMaster. Since this is often the same developer who hasn’t bought into the process it starts the whole standup off on a down note. So change up the starting person so that this person is near the end and doesn’t bring the group dynamic down.
- Focus on the people on the project who are buying into Scrum or are at least open. You convince them of the value and then let peer pressure work on the disillusioned developer.
when i was on a project that held stand-up meetings, the only rebellion was somebody would want to stay sitting (we held them in a break room that had a counter and high swivel chairs). refusing to make a short statement of what you’re working on is just strange.
We get the sitting thing as well sometimes and a more subtle form of leaning against the walls or furniture. Still we’ve been holding to 15 minutes or less on all the Scrum projects we have. Since the result is we hold to the 15 minutes I haven’t been that worried about a strict standup.
How long do you let peer pressure work on the developer who isn’t buying into the process before you have to cut your losses for the good of the team? If peer pressure doesn’t work as expected, what can you try next short of removing him from the team? How does the rest of the team feel about working with the guy? Is his attitude having any effect on them? Any suggestions from your Scrum coach?
Teams are generally pretty supportive, as they are in this case as well. The developer is getting his stuff done and really contributing a lot.
By nature people and developers included can often be pretty resistant to change. So other than not being that sold on the process the individual is able to make solid contributions. All said the situation seems to be working itself out fairly naturally. I guess you could say the team peer pressure is mitigating the issue.