This slide deck covers the top 20 challenges facing Scrum Teams and Agile Teams.

1. Scrum Master Role
Focus on challenges.
Top 20 Scrum Masters’ challenges in 2016

2. About
 This slide deck covers the top 20 challenges faced by Scrum
Masters from my own personal experience.
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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3. ME
 I’m a scrum master with a background in Quality Assurance
and Test Automation with over 15 years industry experience.
 My work life started working on Air Traffic Control Systems.
 I love my coffee.
 I am a keen advocate of process improvements and test
automation.
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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4. #1 meet a commitment
 Are you failing to meet your commitments?
 At the sprint review meeting , allow the team to demonstrate
their work.
 If a commitment does not pass the automated tests or
acceptance criteria then “respectfully” fail it
 Discuss in the retrospective.
 Remember that the team is accountable and not the individual.
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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5. #2 estimations
 Are your estimations poor?
 Discuss how the team came up with the estimation
 Discuss complexity and effort
 What have you learned and what new things should be
factored into estimations?
 Consider not using “hours” as an estimation point.
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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6. #3 focus
 Are you working on tickets outside the spriint?
 During daily stand-ups, identify non related sprint
conversations, requests, work done.
 Is the customer emailing the developer directly?
 Is the operations team taking time away from the scrum team?
 Record this time and factor this in.
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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7. #4 polished sprint reviews
 Is your sprint review hap hazard?
 The sprint review is where you showcase the sprint commitments to the
scrum team, product owner, customer and wider audience.
 Does the showcase flow?
 Practice the demo
 Can everybody see the screen?
 Timebox and cross reference the acceptance criteria
 Run the automation tests perhaps in BDD
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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8. #5 collaboration
 Ensure that the QA/Dev and Product Owner are talking
 Look out for engagement levels in the team
 Look out for information on wiki and/or tickets
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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9. #6 info in the tickets
 Are you experiencing “not enough information in tickets?”
 Can the ticket be worked on?
 Is this a live issue?
 Can you reproduce in development?
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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10. #7 sprint scope change
 Are you experiencing sprint commitment scope changes?
 Scope change can de-motivate the team
 Manage and explain this to the team
 Introduce systems to allow for teams to multitask
 Try to deflect to future sprints
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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11. #8 nothing delivered
 Nothing delivered at the end of the sprint
 Something fundamental has gone wrong
 Perhaps, split up stories further
 Understand what went wrong
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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12. #9 motivation levels
 Look out for signs – keep your finger on the pulse
 Involve the team
 Celebrate success/ understand failures
 Allow the team to be open
 Be transparent
 Share and collaborate
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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13. #10 re-prioritize features mid-spirit
 Understand the progress during daily stand-ups
 Re-prioritize a feature and perhaps de-scope to meet a
commitment.
 Get buy in from Product owner
 Increase the Agility of the team
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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14. #11 strategy
 Share the roadmap and strategy
 Share the company dream
 Recommend to do this every 3 months
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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15. #12 backlog grooming
 Introduce a process to allow the backlog to mature.
 Provide improved estimates.
 Discuss best practices.
 Help the commitment
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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16. #13 quality ownership
 Quality is owned by the team
 Documentation, deliverables, scripts, artifacts
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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17. #14 time keeping
 Time boxing
 Keep to the times
 Watch the clock!
 Keep focus and stay on the topic
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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18. #15 introduce dev improvements
 Introduce development only improvements tickets to the sprint
 Automation frameworks integration into CI
 Tools development
 New environment provisioning
 DevOps
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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19. #16 get the team to care
 Success will come from a team that cares
 Let the team decide
 Self organizing
 Discuss importance to the business
 Get buy-in
 Dictator or facilitator?
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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20. #17 code transparency
 Introduce systems to allow for code transparency
 Introduce processes to allow for quality code reviews
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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21. #18 test automation
 Introduce systems to allow for test automation
 Think BDD
 Think Gherkin
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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22. #19 triage process
 Enrich tickets with tags and data to allow for better searching.
 Production data attached
 Do you have enough information?
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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23. #20 devops
 Think continuous integration
 Think continuous delivery
 Think one click automation
 Use virtual machines
 Think build pipelines
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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24. #21 code check-in charter
 Ensure that code is checked in daily
vireshdoshi@time2test.co.uk
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