Vasko (4:17)

That's a great way to put it. The role chooses you, not you choosing the role. And Somia, of course when we are starting there are some difficult moments and today's Fail Monday here on the podcast. So we want to explore one of those stories, a story of a difficult moment. We do that not because we dwell on failure, but rather because there's a lot of lessons that we can learn from that. So Soumya, share with us that story story, that difficult story you had as a Scrum Master. We'll dive into the details and the takeaways later, but start with the story.

Soumya Mehra (4:52)

Okay, so it happened actually very recent like in the very early time of my Scrum Master role where I was just exploring it in my first company. So when I joined it, I joined as a Scrum Master for a, for a team who was pretty balanced. So I just want to let you know like what a balanced team look like in a Scrum, A set of developers who are where you have senior devs, mid level devs, junior devs, then a product owner, then a tester in it. And I myself as a Scrum Master. So I was very happy like, okay, it's a balanced team and it will be easier for me to have like in the start of my career to have such a balanced and senior people working over there. So it will be easier for me to learn the process. But immediately like after a short time I got like, okay, the two senior devs are leaving the company and now we are left with one senior dev and one mid level dev. So we thought of like what to do next. So then we thought, okay, maybe we can hire more people to fill out the gap for time being. So then we hired one person, move that person internally from the organization and we hired the new person thinking that, okay, now it will balance it out. But still, the velocity of the team was not that good. But I was giving it a benefit of doubt, like, okay, we have few new devs, so maybe three, four months they might require to, you know, adjust and learn how the things are happening. And middle level dev and the senior dev is working fine in the dailies here, here and now. I used to have these things coming from the senior dev that he's not feeling well. So that was another benefit of doubt I was giving to the senior dev that, okay, he might not be feeling well. So this is not the right time that I am in and the team is in. So that is. That might be impacting the Velocity, but the Velocity was going down. But then I started seeing the frustration in the middle level dev and even the senior dev who has internally moved into the organization and they were going more and more silent and frustrated. And then I had a talk with them, like, what's wrong? And then I got to know that the senior dev, which was like, we were thinking like, he might be contributing a lot. He's not contributing into the team. And it's been a long time. He's not. So for two years he's not doing it and nobody, you know.

Vasko (7:42)

And this was the last senior dev you had on that team and. And that senior dev was not contributing.

Soumya Mehra (7:52)

Wow. So that was something which was like, from where I thought, like, okay, there is a miscommunication, not miscommunication, lack of communication happened. So that's how I think. I think, like, I failed as a Scrum master whenever, because I was observing it in the Velocity and the Tomb mood, but I was not discussing it with anyone. It took me way too long. And when the teams morale was already gone at that time, I started taking action. So it was like too long.

Vasko (8:39)

Wow, that was really, really shocking how these things develop, right? Like we're there with the team every day, every day, discussing and talking with the team. But eventually we figured out that actually we are not seeing really what is happening. And one thing that you said which was really interesting, is that you saw the metrics, you saw how you talked about the Velocity, you saw how the Velocity was being affected, you saw how the team was not feeling well, but it still wasn't clear why things were happening. And it is only when we actually start talking, start hearing what the team members have to say that we figure out what was happening. So what eventually happened to the team?

Soumya Mehra (9:27)

Eventually. Then we started having a talk within the team. We start like I had a talk with in my one to one with the team members who were first frustrated. I started having regular talks with them and see how their mood is and assured them that I'll be talking to the senior guy and see what can be done. I had a talk with the senior guy, I gave like I and the team decide like, okay, let's give one more month to this guy if he does something. Because now we all are saying to him in the dailies. Also not like attacking him, but giving him tickets. Like okay, this was a ticket you were doing, so maybe when are you going to complete it? I'm working on some other tickets. So giving him the responsibilities of the tickets, we started giving him the responsibilities of tickets. Rather than two or three people doing one single ticket by dividing the subparts and he being okay, I can escape. We tried doing that. So what happened was team saw like I and the product owner are now actually looking into this matter and trying to improve it. And it also gave the senior dev kind of warning or something like that. I would say in a good way that okay, now it's the time for you to perform, otherwise things can go bad way. So basically what I learned from this experience was how important it is to have a communication with your team. As a Scrum Master, what is the value of having one to one with your team, listen to them? And even as a Scrum Master, if you think something is fishy or something is wrong, talk to your team. Do not wait for them to come to you. Like not taking an action is also decision. That's what we say. So that was a decision I took which cost very high to the team. Obviously we tried to improve it later on, but yeah, it costed somewhere. So now whenever I join a new team or I'm working with any team, I make sure the first thing that I'm doing is having one to one with my team members. And then whenever I'm taking a new team, I always ask the Scrum Master how the team dynamic is. Because if I would have known it from the previous Scrum Master that this is the case, this old senior dev is not working that well. I would have taken actions before things went down.

Vasko (12:09)

Absolutely. Those are two great tips, right? Like have these one on ones more relaxed, more private conversations so that you can explore what people are really feeling and how they see the team and then also ask the previous Scrum master, how was the team feeling? What were the issues that you were already aware of? Those are great recommendations. Thank you for sharing that story with us. Soumya.

Soumya Mehra (12:34)

You're welcome.

Vasko (12:38)

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