The Daily Standup

Why a Spillover Habit Is So Harmful - Mike CohnWelcome to the second email in the spillover series. We’re talking today about why habitual spillover—the phenomenon of unfinished work piling up and carrying forward sprint after sprint—is so harmful to teams.
As a reminder, 

• Last week, I explained why spillover happens
• This week, I’ll describe why habitual spillover is a problem
• Next week, I’ll give you some ideas for how to break your team’s rollover habit
• Finally, I’ll talk about what to do with unfinished work when spillover happens

 Why is Habitual Spillover a Problem?
As we talked about last week, teams will sometimes miss their sprint goal, especially when that team is ambitious and aiming high. And that’s OK.
But teams that develop a consistent pattern of overcommitting and then carrying work forward cause problems for themselves and for the organization as a whole.
Teams That Deliver Routinely Are Predictably Dependable
The main problem with habitual spillover is Lack of Predictability / Dependability.
Every organization benefits from some level of predictability. I worked with a company once that was preparing for its IPO. Despite the tremendous pressure to meet revenue goals prior to going public, the CEO told me he’d happily trade some revenue for greater predictability. Being predictable is that important.
Predictability shouldn’t be the primary goal for an agile team, but it should be a goal.
It’s the same in sports. Basketball players strive to make every free throw. But a player who sinks the ball in the basket about 80% of the time is considered a high performer. That player can be reliably counted on to make most of their free throws.
Baseball players also strive to get a hit every time they’re at bat. And believe it or not, they are considered great, highly predictable hitters, if they manage a hit about 35% of the time—reflected in their .350 batting average.
Like those sports players, agile teams are expected to try to deliver everything they think they can, every time. But realistically, if an agile team achieves its goal 60–80% of the time, they are providing a high level of predictability.
Teams That Demonstrate Frequent Progress Are Happier & More Creative
A second, related reason your teams want to finish what they’ve started most of the time is a phenomenon called the power of small wins. In a 2011 study, Amabile and Kramer found that tangible, visible progress is a key factor in people’s enjoyment of work, and by extension their level of creativity.
It’s almost impossible to get a true sense of progress on “mostly done” work because until it’s fully done, you can’t really gauge the amount of work remaining.
This is known as the 90% syndrome. Software projects are 90% done for 90% of their schedule, and that’s hard on everyone.
When progress stalls and work rolls over, teams lose their sense of accomplishment from making measurable, demonstrable progress. (Want to know more? Read this blog and discover several reasons why it’s so important for teams to get to done.)
Teams that routinely fail to deliver on their goals lose trust with the organization and miss the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing. That’s why next week’s tip will be things you can do to help break your team of the spillover habit so they can succeed with agile,How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Did We Fail Agile? Shame On Us!!For decades, developers were trapped. They couldn’t bare the situation any longer. Following requirements that resulted in features customers didn’t use demotivated everyone, and a revolution was necessary.At the beginning of the 2000s, we finally realized that we could not predict everything upfront. A plan would fool everyone and yield pointless results. It was time to break silos and boost collaboration. Move from features to results, from plans to goals, from fragmented responsibilities to autonomous teams.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

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Do you feel like you have to hover over your team?Leading a team is sometimes a work for a herding dog. You need to gather, herd, and protect your team.On top, you need to monitor almost every detail of their work, and frequently intervene in tasks or decisions because otherwise, the needle does not move.Exhausting.When the lack of accountability creeps into your team, someone has to do it. Sadly, people quickly get used to it and let leaders make decisions and count them for mistakes...How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠⁠- [instagram] ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠⁠- [facebook] ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

A key agile principle is the value of getting work done by the end of each iteration.
Yet one of the biggest complaints I get from agile leaders is that teams never finish what they say they will during a sprint. Instead, teams consistently let the unfinished work spill over (AKA roll over or carry over) from sprint to sprint.
Spillover is such a prevalent problem for agile teams that I want to devote several tips to talking about it.
 

• First, I’ll explain what spillover is and how to know if it’s a problem
• Next, I’ll describe why habitual spillover is so bad
• Third, I’ll give you some ideas for how to break your team’s rollover habit
• Finally, I’ll talk about what to do with unfinished work when spillover happens. After all, while spillover shouldn’t be a habit, every team will occasionally have unfinished work at the end of the sprint

 

• Team members were too optimistic and brought too much into the iteration
• The team was interrupted more often during the sprint than expected
• Some of the work took longer than expected

• Externally: A boss or important stakeholder can exert pressure by telling a team what must be done or by establishing unrealistic expectations.
• Internally: Some teams allow their optimism and high expectations of themselves to create pressure to do more than is reasonable.

What Is Spillover? Why Does It Happen?
Spillover is when a team arrives at the end of one sprint with some unfinished work that needs to be finished in a later sprint. It happens when a team overcommits to what they can achieve during the iteration timebox. This is usually because:
 
Spillover is not a bad thing in and of itself. It’s unrealistic to expect a team to finish everything it starts, every sprint. In fact, it’s normal and desirable for a team to occasionally aim a little high for what they can accomplish in a sprint, and come up short.
 When Does Spillover Become a Problem?
Habitual spillover, though, is different. Habitual spillover is when a team almost always commits to more than they can finish in the sprint. These teams rarely finish what they think they will.
As a result, the end of the sprint becomes an arbitrary date, and work is just carried over into the next sprint as if it’s no big deal.
It is a big deal. (I’ll talk more about why it is a big deal in next week’s tip).
The most common reason teams develop a habit of taking on more work than they can finish is pressure. That pressure can originate:
  One Thing to Do This Sprint
One thing you can do right away to help stop habitual spillover is to make the problem visible.
At the next sprint end, make a note of how many items the team committed to versus how many were 100% done. Even better: look back and do this for a handful of prior sprints.
Bring this information to the retrospective and ask the team why they think unfinished work has become a pattern for them. Then ask them for one thing they could try next sprint to prevent it from happening.
Don’t forget to hold them accountable to trying that idea (whatever it is) during sprint planning and as the sprint progresses.
While you’re doing that, I’ll be getting my next tip ready for you. Next week I’ll be writing about why spillover is such a bad habit to fall into and how breaking that habit can help you succeed with agile.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠⁠- [instagram] ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠⁠- [facebook] ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

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How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

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How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

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How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

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