Case
Study 1:
George is an extremely
friendly manager working with the IT production support team. He has a 10-member
team. He is 15+ yrs. Of experience in the IT infrastructure support function.
He is a 100% people person who always spends time with the team. The team has
been working for the last several years on this production support ticketing
and troubleshooting assignments. George is associated with each team member at
the personal level. They regularly visit outside office parties and enjoy life.
There is some attrition every year and new individuals join George’s team. But
he preserves the same traction, support with the team. Technology has changed
fast in the last couple of years, so there is a lot of pressure on the
production support team owing to IT automation. Management wants to reduce
headcount and 24/7 support through automation. This establishes a lot of
pressure on George to increase pressure on the team members, reduce headcount,
and deal with the latest competency issues among team members. George
constantly inspires teams, though there is production support late at night,
work at the weekend to satisfy the customer needs, but George manages
everything to make happy his team members and constantly learns something new.
What few of the
suggestions you would like to give to George to make him ready for the upcoming
automation world?
Case study 2:
What problem
we are solving?
I have been
coaching many teams. I have been looking for a formula that can guide me to
know what exactly I should be doing when I start preparing for a High-performance
team.
What are the
parameters I should be looking for when I start thinking about a team?
Most of the
time I have seen it has to start with an assessment and followed by a working agreement
with the team and next having a coaching session to improve the specific
scenarios.
Let us
explain a use case
A team that
is developing a specific feature for the Mobile camera. The team is trying to
improve the image quality once the photo has been taken. Though in the night
photos have to be taken and it will be dark, but the image quality should be
automatically improved.
The team has
a 6-member team. Most of the team members are experience ranges of 4-7 yrs. of
experience. Most of the team members are very sound in technical term about
this domain.
None of
these team members have any knowledge of agile ways of working. They know how
to write better code and deliver their own solutions individually. The team
lead is also a technical person, there is tremendous release pressure to meet
the deadline. The team has defined their KPI based on the code check-in with respect
to time. Every one of the team members is running to meet the deadline, whoever
is reaching the deadline fast will get a very good hike. Though it is a team,
and they support each other, but huge importance is given to individual
delivery and execution speed.
The team is
having attrition issues. The work was very good, complete innovating work. Team
members are also willing to learn and do.
As a team
coach, what do you think we should improve for this team? What are the few
questions you will ask?
Case Study-3:
Team Alexa
is having trouble with delivering committed features for the AI/ML Project.
Team members are struggling with communication, competencies, and many other
team issues. John is the lead for this project. He has 30 people working on
this release. He is wondering what he should do for the upcoming days, which
can help to improve the team's overall situation. John approaches various of
his friends to guide him to chalk out a plan for the future. Scully has been
appointed to coach the team to improve the overall situation. John and Scully
have been frequently meeting and have started preparing a coaching strategy to
address the situation. If you were Scully, what would be your few top 10
actions for the upcoming 3-4 months? What are the various team contexts you
will look for to start your journey and improve the situation?
Case Study – 4:
Debolina is a
new scrum master who joined this Scrum team named REG-Bank. Teams are
functioning on important, tight regulatory requirements. There are many team
members who are fresh into the team and there are team members who have been
working with this team for a long time. Debolina can quickly spot
conflicts among team members. The product owners are from Finland. There is a
sync issue among PO, managers, and team members. There are many production
issues that require fixing on an everyday basis. Priya is the coach for
the team. The team is not effective at dealing with the release pressure. What
are some of the steps as a coach Priya should take? What Debolina should
glance into? What context should they look for?
Case Study – 5:
Sourav is working on
a team that is developing an algorithm to optimize the memory footprint of mobile
photos. There are many challenges with the team connected to competency. The
algorithms are new, and it has to refine with data for several round processes
is laborious and ambiguous. There is a timeline pressure to release the app
into the market owing to competition. The manager of this team comes from a
testing background in the network domain. He does not understand the underlying
work. The team has many freshers from renowned engineering colleges, but
attrition is extremely high, so the knowledge build-up is going down every 9-12
months. The product management team is in Hong Kong and all the technology
directions are coming from the Hongkong team. There are cultural and
communication barriers. This team also requires establishing themselves to
continue performing and demonstrating they can achieve the remarkable
milestone. The team has 5 members, 3 are freshers and 2 are experienced
employees. You are a team coach and want to help the team by exercising the
attitude of the team and enhancing ways of working.
What
are the few steps you will pick up to challenge the prevailing conditions and
improve?
Case Study -6:
You have started a
coaching assignment with a team, and you have discovered the below situation in
the team context.
One of the team
members was profoundly motivated to accomplish a high-quality outcome, though
two others were content with merely just gaining a pass, i.e., they were
thrilled to put in minimal effort. This mismatch of expectations caused many
complications and frustration for team members.
Two other team
members were extremely competitive on this team, which neutralized the
development of an interdependent team environment. They were extremely concentrated
on our own tasks and were not sympathetic in helping others who may have been
having problems.
The team showed
little concern for each other and gave almost no assistance to others in
troublesome times. Team members seemed unfamiliar and greatly surprised that
they had upset other team members with their commentaries. They seemed to have
not recognized they were hurting other’s feelings by their comments and the
propositions taken to solve team problems. Comments made by team members
demonstrated that peers were inconsiderate of their situation and problems, and
were not inclined to review problems, as they would merely invite criticism and
negative feedback. This resulted in team members not communicating freely or
examining their problems that had potentially crippling effects on the team;
this team was formed randomly. Three of the original team members had a quick
discussion on the project and decided to make a team, and another few team member
arrived a week later, so the team agreed to accept them in their team, as they were
required to make a team of nine. Expectations and skills were not deliberately
analysed; – the project manager happened to be the youngest in the team and
didn’t command the respect needed. Team members often complain about team
meetings being a waste of time, and also of team members being late or
contributing effectively. One team member felt that he was not included in
decision-making and did not receive all communication regarding the progress
and development of the project from the project manager. The overall management
of this team was realized to be unproductive by most of the team members.
What
are the few steps you will start taking to improve the team coaching?
What areas to focus on for
Exercise?
Case study 7:
Team UxMaximier
is supposed to deliver the working software at every certain interval. But
deliverables are not happening at the right speed. The team is composed of 7
members, but most of these members are not up to the mark in terms of domain
and technical knowledge. The required skill set is significantly lagging. The
conflict among the team members is high as they are not able to solve the
problem on time. The manager of the team is trying hard to resolve issues by
sitting with each one of them. But it is not good enough. The team is
undergoing a reskilling drive, but motivation is lagging. Team members are
lethargic to take on the work.
Team member’s
experience levels are right set. There is a mixture of junior and senior team
members.
The support from
top seniors’ leadership is not so good. They are constantly pressurizing and
blaming the team for not performing at the appropriate level.
The Manager of
the team trying hard but still getting the blame from senior leaders. The team
members are not owning the overall responsibility. They have been with the
company for 10 + years and they know the tricks of the game!
What do you
think as a High-performance team coach, a few steps you will start?
How do you
define your short-term and long-term goals to improve the team outcomes and
output?
Case Study 8:
Team Diagnostic
Monitoring is employed in developing an algorithm that should optimize the
search. When voice search enables, the accuracy based on the accent has to be
improved. The team consists of 4 members team. The scrum master and product
owner are both goods in domain and technology. The team includes extensive
attrition. The team members own the end-to-end product development. The team
dynamics are appropriately set. There is a reasonable and learning environment.
The share and care are properly distributed. But the team members are going out
for a further opportunity. The new members are joining the team and overall
delivery speed is coming down due to the immense learning curve. Team leadership
is very good and servant leadership styles are visible.
You are the
coach for this team.
What are all the
varied actions you would prefer to pick up to improve the situation?
All the
project-related meetings are followed in a well-crafted manner as SM and PO are
extremely mature and they are the finest in the organization.
Case study 9:
One of my
colleagues has recently joined one of the huge complex programs.
Let me explain briefly about the program.
It takes 10 yrs. To get the first drop of oil from an oil well.
The chance of obtaining the first drop of oil from the oil well is also 1 in
10. If we dig 10 oil wells, we may get 1 or 2 rigs where we will get oil.
So, what is the complication we are talking about? It takes several dozens of
numerous expert engineers to function together for many years to get the
initial drop of oil.
So what? How can an organization make money? The country’s jurisdiction is also
playing a substantial role here. The geopolitical atmosphere also contributes
to or risks to the business.
So what problem are we talking about? How can modern digital technology aid us
to speed up the oil exploration business? Can we use big data technology? Can
we use cloud technology? and we use UX to build solutions? Some of the question’s
organizations have been asking for the last several years and have started
building solutions around those.
So, my friend
joined the team where 150+ varieties of engineers are functioning together to
deal with this complex problem.
Exploring by
employing digital technology, can we build the solution?
It is a multi-year program, and he has joined as a scrum master for 3 different
scrum teams to take care of.
It is a globally
distributed team.
By reading all
these parameters, what thoughts come to your mind? How do you want to guide my
friend to start up his journey in a smooth and rapid manner?
What are the numerous team factors he should examine for the first month, 4
months, and 6 months’ timeline?
If you are a team coach, what would be your advice for him to embed him into a High-performance
team?
Case study
10:
You are the Agile Coach of one of the freshly created teams.
ScrumMaster is new, the Product Owner is a consultant, and also new to this
team. Most of the team members are joined recently by this team. Some of the
team members are subject matter experts and they have deep domain expertise in
the system. The organization is making to develop a product that will solve a
complex customer problem. The concept is not yet established. The product owner
is also not too certain how the product will be expanding and introduced into
the ecosystem where the data will be obtained and dispatched. The complete
system is emerging. There is too much turmoil at the team level including the
product architecture level. Everyone prefers to contribute and monopolize the
meeting. The ideas are widely divergent, and we do not get to any conclusions.
The team is a global team with many nationalities working with diverse cultures
and backgrounds. You are the team coach for this team. Leadership is calling
for help to uphold the team to traverse this perplexed state. Few team members
are from the conventional world, and few team members know agile ways of
performing.
What are the few steps you will start to reinforce the team in this forming
stage?
What is your vision for this performing state?
What activities are you thinking of for the 3-month timeline?
Case study
11:
Ram is the team
leader and manager for an old team that is taking care of the product, which is
the center of the business transaction. The system takes care of everyday
transactions and reconciliation. There are 40 people work in this team.
The system is
primitive and outdated, and the team is struggling hard to maintain the system.
But there are fractures in the team as well as the system.
There are many
issues in the team.
Most of the
time, when many incidents take place, Ram loses his emotional control to fix
the issue faster as every second’s cost is huge. As Ram as a leader is
terrified, team members follow it.
Ram’s task
accomplishment, the ritual of role, interpersonal relationships, and power, all
are at stake.
Ram is supposed
to show how to contribute constructively by taking care of key details, and by
showing up to the wider purpose of the company, but it is not the case. Ram
could not establish a sense of shared credit with others for achievements and
likewise could not present an obsession with learning from impediments.
Ram is, as a
leader, not competent to clarify boundaries between responsibilities, both
horizontally and vertically. Most of the time, he is micromanaging. Ram cannot
make sure that systems and procedures are designed by the people who use them,
and all join in learning from others’ successes and failures in handling
complex tasks. Ram turns an ignorant eye when people bend or ignore rules, formal
channels, and procedures. It creates turbulence in the team. Team members are
not able to share sensitive information about their personal encounters; are
not apt to share with others. Which creates disturbance among team members. Ram
is not accessible most of the time and does not provide enough attention to the
team’s needs.
You are the
team coach for this team. What coaching stunts will you create for this team to
improve team performance?
