This document outlines Team Health Check, a process for regularly checking the health and well-being of development teams based on the Spotify Squad Health Check model. It involves anonymously surveying team members on topics like code quality, feedback, work-life balance, and overall satisfaction. Results are analyzed for trends and used to initiate improvements. When done correctly and anonymously, it can help identify issues, improve key areas, and reverse negative trends. However, it warns that the process should not be used to judge or punish individuals, or handled in a way that starts gossip.

1. Team Health Check
Refined edition

2. Pavel Kamyshov
Agile Coach
3 companies behind, ​10+ projects completed​
8 years in IT
QA => QA TeamLead => PM => Agile Coach/Scrum Master
Professional path:
EPAM: Scrum Master for SAP
Scrum Ukraine: consulting several clients
Agile Coach at “EPAM” and “Scrum
Ukraine”
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PSM1, CSM, CSP, ISTQB, KMP1, SAFe 4.5 Agilist
Certifications:
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3. Successful project
What is it?
Expected scope delivered within schedule and
budget. With built-in quality.
Project is delivered
Who can get a value out of the delivered product
Happy customer
Not burned out and motivated to overcome new
challenges
Healthy team
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4. • People got demotivated
• People left from project
• There were too many problems
• We failed sprints from time to time
• It was unclear are we fixing project
issues faster than they appear
Visible problems
How it’s started

5. Project problems
Time to put everything together!
Your Text Here
Your Text Here
The loudest one’s
The most
common
problems
Easy to fix
problems
The most
serious
problems

6. Spotify: Squad Health check model

7. Spotify: Squad Health check model

8. EPAM’s edition
• Detalization:
On person level instead of team level
• Topics:
Created together with a team (50%/50%)
• Anonymity:
Data is depersonalized
• 1 to 1 conversation:
Once per every 1-2 months.
• Note: You don’t always need to ask person
directly.

9. Project characteristics
Created together with teams
We are learning a lot of
interesting stuff at work.
Professional growth
to client’s site.
Business trips
Feedback to developer
from TO/SM. On a
regular basis. Unofficial.
Regular feedback/recognition
Are proud of our code
quality, satisfied with test
coverage and code
review process?
Codebase health
Our dev process helps
me to do my job in a most
efficient way.
Suitable process
Internal
Team atmosphere
How do you evaluate our
project?
Overall project satisfaction
What have we forgotten
to ask you?
Comments

10. Q3 2017 Q1 2018

11. What we’ve got
Of teams/persons’ “health indicators”
Full picture
Of what is happening on a project,
both horizontally and vertically
Visible trends
Created several initiative groups
who worked on vertical issues
Negative trends reversed
Code Base health, Suitable Process
and Overall Project Satisfaction
were improved
Key areas improved
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12. How to fuck up?
That’s easy!
Make it just for a “show”
Judge or punish persons
Compare teams or engineers
Ask and collect information
Start gossiping
Resolve everything by your own
with direct “yes”, “no”
based on their project feedback
among each others
don’t share results
about other’s private feedbacks
instead of delegating to teams

13. Useful links
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Squad health check model
https://labs.spotify.com/2014/09/16/squad-health-check-model/
How to lose your best employees
https://hbr.org/2018/04/how-to-lose-your-best-employees
Learning curves in a team
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rodgerdeanduncan/2018/04/21/w
ant-an-a-team-its-all-about-learning-curves
Let’s connect in Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/pavel.kamyshov88

14. Thank you
Will be happy to answer your questions!