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Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#31

Post by jf22 »

mcsolid wrote: post #26
muzani wrote: post #20

I find 1 week ideal without the overhead. Remove unnecessary demos or retros. You need the feedback cycle but often 1-3 months is fine, and 2 weeks is only useful for a beginner team. You do need planning, context, and meetings to discuss the context. We moved these to two days a week where anyone is free to interrupt anyone else and call for a call right now. Nobody expects to be in flow on these days. But as we got…

Saying this probably indicates more problems but they also insist on demos each week and demos/retros every 2 weeks. Also they want metrics/retros to track team velocity. How much time per week do you have dedicated to sprint meetings? Another issue we have is requirements are always lacking because it’s always fires (and everything is P1).

Useless metrics, lacking requirements, tons of P1s and emergencies...

Sounds like normal career in development to me.

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#33

Post by datadrivenangel »

Is the team/company's engineering culture decent otherwise?

Ultimately, someone at the company wants to have software that makes them more money or keeps them from worrying about losing money or going to jail (compliance.

Someone at the company thinks they can improve the state of software maintenance/delivery by changing the process. Maybe this is a VP accommodating a micromanaging CEO and doing something so that they can be seen doing something, but it could also be a well-intentioned change, in which case they want either more productivity -- with the theory that more software sooner results in more value -- or more predictability, with the theory that managing teams more closely results in less surprises and delays.

Identifying the root motivation may help propose alternatives, so it may be worth talking 1-1 with someone in leadership to try to understand the motivation. "On team X we're going to move to 1 week sprints. For my contextual awareness to better help implement this change, are we primarily hoping to increase predictability, even if velocity ends up decreasing, or should we focus more on increasing velocity even if work ends up carrying over?"

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#34

Post by mcsolid »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #33

Is the team/company's engineering culture decent otherwise? Ultimately, someone at the company wants to have software that makes them more money or keeps them from worrying about losing money or going to jail (compliance. Someone at the company thinks they can improve the state of software maintenance/delivery by changing the process. Maybe this is a VP accommodating a micromanaging CEO and doing something so that th…

I like focusing on the root motivation. I haven't been able to get to it based on previous conversations. It seems to be perceived velocity because of the increased visibility from what I've gathered but the fact that we don't even have the option to experiment leads to a bigger issue IMO. The teams just aren't empowered to adjust course.

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#35

Post by scarface_74 »

ManlyBread wrote: post #18

The worst thing you can do is to try and make it work. Do everything in your power to make that idea fail, since that is the only way your management will change their minds.

Yes they may change their minds about keeping him employed

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#36

Post by datadrivenangel »

mcsolid wrote: post #34
datadrivenangel wrote: post #33

Is the team/company's engineering culture decent otherwise? Ultimately, someone at the company wants to have software that makes them more money or keeps them from worrying about losing money or going to jail (compliance. Someone at the company thinks they can improve the state of software maintenance/delivery by changing the process. Maybe this is a VP accommodating a micromanaging CEO and doing something so that th…

I like focusing on the root motivation. I haven't been able to get to it based on previous conversations. It seems to be perceived velocity because of the increased visibility from what I've gathered but the fact that we don't even have the option to experiment leads to a bigger issue IMO. The teams just aren't empowered to adjust course.

See if your manager knows what's going on. They may be just as oppressed as you feel!

And they may be willing to go along with smaller secret team-level experiments. Maybe Kanban will result in even better visibility and performance! (And satisfaction)

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#37

Post by mcsolid »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #36
mcsolid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like focusing on the root motivation. I haven't been able to get to it based on previous conversations. It seems to be perceived velocity because of the increased visibility from what I've gathered but the fact that we don't even have the option to experiment leads to a bigger issue IMO. The teams just aren't empowered to adjust course.

See if your manager knows what's going on. They may be just as oppressed as you feel! And they may be willing to go along with smaller secret team-level experiments. Maybe Kanban will result in even better visibility and performance! (And satisfaction)

Yeah, unfortunately I did and have been declined several times to experiment. I've also suggested Kanban too since it feels more in line with the pace and the lacking requirements and also shut down several times.

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#38

Post by thiht »

muzani wrote: post #20

I find 1 week ideal without the overhead. Remove unnecessary demos or retros. You need the feedback cycle but often 1-3 months is fine, and 2 weeks is only useful for a beginner team. You do need planning, context, and meetings to discuss the context. We moved these to two days a week where anyone is free to interrupt anyone else and call for a call right now. Nobody expects to be in flow on these days. But as we got…

> Remove unnecessary demos or retros

Remove the 2 most important meetings in a functioning team?

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#39

Post by quintes »

mcsolid wrote: post #10
quintes wrote: post #7

They just want faster delivery? Or more meaningful progress tracking? Usually I find I want improved traceability of the work, and so that means clearly calling out: planning, defining, scoping and building. If those on the left are poorly completed that in the right will suffer.

Yeah this is exactly what we’re seeing too.

Perhaps then a gentle conversation about the entire pipeline that feeds the SDLC is necessary.

Are there agreed plans or do they change? Are they feasible.

Are sprints hap hazard with story changes, poor quality (and measured against what criteria) or team changes? Are resources sufficient and skilled?

There are many more questions but hopefully you get the idea

Re: Ask HN: My company is forcing 1 week sprints. What should I do?

#40

Post by mcsolid »

scarface_74 wrote: post #35
ManlyBread wrote: post #18

The worst thing you can do is to try and make it work. Do everything in your power to make that idea fail, since that is the only way your management will change their minds.

Yes they may change their minds about keeping him employed

Yeah it’s already failing which is why I’ve been trying to change the thinking.
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