I start this post by clarifying that I voluntarily put Scrum in parenthesis because I think that it is applicable for all kinds of team, whether they are Scrum, Waterfall or other.
It is not necessary to be completely transparent about everything in your team, but it remains important to share the information or the feedback that everyone must have in their possession, at the same time, to achieve team goals. Most people tend to withhold much more information that they should.
A few examples that come into my mind about what kind of useful information that should be communicated with each other to reach the level of transparency required for a successful team:
- Failures
- Estimation of workload that blown up
- Any concerns: Sprint (or plan) goals, way of doing it, someone’s behavior, …
- Impediments
- Actual work progress
- Potential changes to the upcoming Print (or planning)
- And most of all, successes, of any size, even small!
Try to always shorten the feedback loop
Don’t save you feedback for monthly one to one or annual performance reviews, make discussions about what someone did well, and what he or she could do differently.
Bad news does not get better with time. The more time you wait to share the information, the bigger the problem will be at the end. Bigger the problem is, more time and energy will be needed to fix it. Also, the stress level will be much higher.
The feedback loop is our friend, it accelerate the learning process.
Sprint’s (or iteration) duration
For most teams, I strongly recommend a two-week Sprint.
Compared to a one-week sprint, the Stakeholders are more likely to come to the demo every time and there is enough to show (we have built enough to get their attention).
Compared to a four-week sprint, it enables faster feedback because the bad news does not get better with time.
“Transparency” is not “gossiping” and complaining about your colleagues behind their backs.
Gossip, even by any other name, is still a destructive communication strategy that negatively impacts individuals, teams and the whole organization. By stopping it in its tracks, choosing healthier and more helpful methods of communicating what’s not working, and engaging in collaborative problem-solving, relationships and organizations can flourish. Deborah Grayson Riegel
This article is merely my own personal opinion based on my experiences. Do not hesitate to contact me and share your own experiences on this subject in order to refine my article if needed.