Agile approaches were developed to address the challenges associated with high rates of change, uncertainty, and complexity in projects. They provide a range of tools and techniques to tackle issues that often arise in predictive approaches. In this article, we will explore troubleshooting possibilities for common pain points encountered in agile projects. Refer to Table 5-1 for a comprehensive overview.
Table. Agile Pain Points and Troubleshooting Possibilities
| Pain Point | Troubleshooting Possibilities |
|---|---|
| Unclear purpose or mission for the team | Agile chartering for purpose–vision, mission, and mission tests |
| Unclear working agreements for the team | Agile chartering for alignment–values, principles, and working agreements |
| Unclear team context | Agile chartering for context–boundaries, committed assets, and prospective analysis |
| Unclear requirements | Help sponsors and stakeholders craft a product vision. Consider building a product roadmap using specification by example, user story mapping, and impact mapping. Bring the team and product owner together to clarify the expectations and value of a requirement. Progressively decompose roadmap into a backlog of smaller, concrete requirements. |
| Poor user experience | Involve users early and often in the development process through user experience design practices included in the development team. |
| Inaccurate estimation | Reduce story size by splitting stories. Use relative estimation with the entire team. Consider agile modeling or spiking to gain a better understanding of the story. |
| Unclear work assignments or work progress | Foster self-management within the team. Utilize kanban boards to visualize the flow of work. Conduct daily standups to track the progress of tasks. |
| Team struggles with obstacles | A servant leader can help remove obstacles. If the team requires guidance, consider involving a coach. Escalate unresolved issues to higher levels if necessary. |
| Work delays/overruns due to insufficiently refined product backlog items | Facilitate workshops between the product owner and the team to refine stories. Establish a “definition of ready” for each story. Consider breaking down complex stories into smaller ones. |
| Defects | Implement technical practices suitable for the project environment, such as pair work, collective product ownership, pervasive testing (test-driven and automated testing approaches), and a robust definition of done. |
| Work is not complete | Define a clear “definition of done” for each story, including acceptance criteria. Incorporate release criteria for projects. |
| Technical debt (degraded code quality) | Address technical debt through refactoring, agile modeling, pervasive testing, automated code quality analysis, and adherence to the definition of done. |
| Too much product complexity | Encourage the team to embrace simplicity by continually asking, “What is the simplest thing that would work?” Apply the agile principle of maximizing the amount of work not done to reduce complexity. |
| Slow or no improvement in the teamwork process | Focus on a maximum of three items to improve during each retrospective. Seek guidance from the servant leader to facilitate integration of these improvements. |
| Too much upfront work leading to rework | Replace extensive upfront work with team spikes to gather necessary insights. Measure work in progress (WIP) at the project’s outset and explore alternative approaches to deliver value. Shorten iterations and establish a comprehensive definition of done. |
| False starts, wasted efforts | Integrate the product owner as an essential part of the team to align efforts effectively. |
| Inefficiently ordered product backlog items | Prioritize backlog items based on value, considering the cost of delay divided by duration (CD3) and other value models. |
| Rush/wait uneven flow of work | Plan work according to the team’s capacity. Discourage multitasking and encourage team members to dedicate themselves to a single team. Explore pairing, swarming, or mobbing strategies to balance capabilities across the team. |
| Impossible stakeholder demands | Leverage servant leadership skills to collaborate with stakeholders and address their demands effectively, alongside the product owner. |
| Unexpected or unforeseen delays | Increase communication frequency within the team. Use kanban boards and work in progress (WIP) limits to monitor the flow and impact of demands on the team. Maintain an impediment board to track and address obstacles promptly. |
| Siloed teams, instead of cross-functional teams | Encourage individuals involved in projects to self-organize into cross-functional teams. Employ servant leadership to help managers understand the benefits and necessity of cross-functionality in agile. |