5 Reasons Most Scrum Teams Struggle with Velocity.

One of the concerns for scrum teams is to increase velocity and minimize technical debt. There is also the need  to deliver increments at the end of the sprint. However, the push to increase productivity and meet up with the sprint goal is one of the contributing factors to high technical debt. Technical debt is a major impediment to built-in quality and should be kept under control in product delivery. Thus, it is not only important to focus on completing work by the end the sprint, but also important to ensure technical debt is kept avoided. Below are some of the reasons a scrum team might be struggling with velocity/performance:

1. Unresolved Dependencies

Failure to clearly mapped out dependencies during the sprint refinement or planning event will increase cycle time and cause stories spillover to the next sprint. If dependencies are identified late into the sprint they become an impediment (blocker) to the team’s progress.  It is advisable to always have as a point on the backlog refinement and the sprint planning agenda to check on the level of dependency amongst the sprint backlog items and how this can be coordinated to minimize wait time and the risk of stories been roll-over to the next sprint. 

2. Inadequate Technical Skills

Technical skills plays a big role when it comes to completing work on time. One of the major reasons scrum advocates for teams to be cross functional is to ensure flow and minimize bottle necks.  A common problem I have seen with teams struggling with their velocity is that they do not have all the relevant skills needed to deliver the increment at the end of the sprint, so they will have to rely on external expertise.  This is a major blocker, most especially in situations where the external team  doesn’t fully understand the value of timely delivery in scrum. 

3. User Stories Do not Meet the Definition of Ready

For a team to know exactly what effort is needed to complete a story, the story needs to have a detailed description, acceptance criteria and any other information relevant to deliver the increment. If a scrum team doesn’t not pay attention to the above requirements and consider them during refinement and planning, they stand a chance to run into blockers during the sprint. This normally results in stories spillover. 

4. Poor communication and collaboration

A team is more effective than the same number of individuals.  What makes a team effective  is not the fact that they work on the same project. The strength of a team  is in effective collaboration and communication.  This means that if communication and collaboration is well facilitated by the scrum master, it means the team is doing what is relevant for the team to be performant. If a team is performant, it will hardly have issues with completing their sprint load. Team members should be encouraged to sustain communication and collaboration offline. 

5. Poor alignment of teams

In an environment where multiple teams work on the same product, there is a need to ensure the teams are aligned to a common vision. Lack of team alignment to a common vision can disrupt the flow of business values. Team alignment helps in the identification of bottle neck and blockers that might affect built-in quality and increase time to market. Lack of alignment can also cause technical debt to greatly build up.

How can scrum master support a team to avoid  story spillover?

As a scrum master, your ability to understand the above-mentioned challenges gives you an upper hand to know exactly what to do if a team is facing challenges with completing work prior to closing the sprint. My first recommendation for any scrum master joining a new team is for them to ensure that they understand the product the team is working on. These include understanding the product vision, the road map, and the release plan.  If you are supporting a team as a scrum master and you do not have a clear understanding of how work at team level is aligned to work at program and portfolio level, it would be difficult for you to ensure that the team is building quality in the increment. 

On the other hand, the scrum master needs the support of leadership to effectively implement agile product delivery. As a scrum master, it is important to understand that scrum is a learning process and every environment should be assessed and evaluated for performance independently.