I have been working on a team for nearly a year, and this is an account of the last couple of weeks. Essentially we ended up behind plan, I guess that is a whole different story to tell. With some drive and passion for success we were able to accomplish some pretty good stuff.
Early on the team was able to build some core values before we were up against a deadline. Code reviews were mandatory for everything. JUnit tests were required for all work we did. Fitnesse tests were also developed in appropriate areas. I knew we had a good culture when I wasn't the only one who asked about scheduling a review or where the tests were.
So we finally realized we were kind of behind with 3 sprints left. So I challenged the team to rev up up our output. It was a straight forward challenge deliver 50% more points each sprint and we would do a happy hour every two weeks. I would kick in $50 and I challenged the product owner and manager to each match the $50.
There are a lot of reasons that these gimmicks don't work. There are also a bunch why they can work. First it gave the team a challenge to do the impossible. Lets face it as IT professionals we like to do the impossible. It also gave us an opportunity to socialize as a team outside of the team room.
So what went right? We were able to have our first two happy hours. We are sure we are going to hit our last goal, because we ended up ahead of plan. Our management team is happy and the team feels great about what it has been able to accomplish. You would expect corners were cut to get the extra output, but because we had already changed the culture, the core values stayed strong. So rather than cut corners there is only one way to get extra output. Yes, lot of extra effort.
What stuff didn't work? First I ended up sick. I guess going on 4-6 hours sleep for 2 or 3 weeks really isn't great for the body. We ramped up our development, but non-developer testing has been more difficult to to match the increase. So we have a bunch of stories waiting for acceptance from our QA team. Can we deliver the work without testing, no. We still need to fix this. I didn't say we were perfect yet. Lastly I hope my boss doesn't expect the impossible on a monthly basis.
I still like the fact we are going to hit our deadline with quality. I would rather be drinking beer and making better friends along the way. I guess we would have been better off bonding as a team earlier in the release. Then again we needed to trust each other to accomplish our lofty goals.
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