Scrum Teams Speak Out or Lose Out! With Eric Landes

Agile Coaches' Corner

In this episode, Eric Landes addresses the challenge of getting team members who are inclined to be quiet, reserved, or “introverted” to collaborate for the betterment of the team and the product.

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Key Takeaways:

In the software development world, you may have noticed that many coders tend to be more introverted. If your Scrum team includes many of these personality types, your Scrum events might be quiet.

The Scrum guide does not specifically have anything to say about personality types in the Developer accountability. However, it does say - "The specific skills needed by the Developers are often broad … Developers are always accountable for:

• Creating a plan for the Sprint, the Sprint Backlog;
• Instilling quality by adhering to a Definition of Done;
• Adapting their plan each day toward the Sprint Goal; and,
• Holding each other accountable as professionals."

The fact that developers are accountable for the Sprint plan, and quality speaks to the need for good collaboration. Also, adapting the plan means teammates must speak up when something changes. I believe that good collaboration is needed in Scrum, so I recommend that Scrum masters help self-organizing teams ensure that all voices are heard.

If you have an introverted team, here are some suggestions for helping team members' voices be heard. Use anonymous methods. For instance, have team members use whiteboards to place post-it notes on a board, then read through them. Virtually this could be using a Miro board for a retrospective. Give team members a fixed time to post their notes, then ask for feedback and explanations when needed.

This helps voices be heard, even when they refuse to speak to their own notes. Another method is to have a one-on-one with all team members on a regular basis. Make sure to bring up any items mentioned in the one-on-one in an anonymous way at the appropriate Scrum event.

How do you encourage team members to find their voice in collaboration?

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