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Sample Coaching Plan

IVR2 - Payments & Specialty Functionality Team
New Coaching Plan
Team Transitioned to Ziphorah Kim:
IVR Team 2 - IVRPSF project in JIRA.
Team meets daily, 8:30 - 9:00 PT, 888-549-3557 5758604.
The IVR Scrum 2 Team is a thriving and engaging team. When I first picked up the team, there was a large miscommunication and lack of understanding of what the individual team member roles were. Many worked in silo, and there was a strong sense of resentment. There were times when team members just refused to speak to each other, and some would even hang up during the meeting due to frustration. I had members who mentioned that they were unhappy with the team and for the first time in the Wells Fargo career wanted to look for a new job. All of this I experienced where disconcerting to me, but I knew that there was hope as it was just a matter of getting the team to communicate, empower them to take control of the team. This is their team, and it is vital that they understood this, and know that the survival of the team lies within their doing and no other external factors, to an extent.
The team has since shifted their mindset. They have learned to work with teach other. Ask the right questions, utilized the ceremonies efficiently. Most importantly, communicating quick and often. As a result, I see that they are learning to self-organize and taking issues to their own hands, and taking initiatives to move progress forward.

SName
Observations
Coaching Actions
IVR Scrum #2
The team is focus on getting MVP1 out of the door, although they are finishing up their sprint commitment on time, they are still over extending their capacity.
Have to strictly adhere to the historical data. The team understand that they should only be taking on what they can handle, but do to concerns from what upper management may think, they are taking on more than what capacity can handle. My goal is to encourage them to use the historical data to push back and stand their ground. The team can always take more in, but it's better to under commitment and bring more tickets in, then over commit and have the bulk of the work role over. Moreover, it's more accurate in terms of understanding velocity if they commit to what they were able to accomplish in the past.
Sprint Schedule
Sprint schedule is on a 3 week cadence.
Sprint kickoff on wedensday
Sprint grooming the following 2 Wednesdays
And Sprint demo/retro/planning on the last day of the sprint.

We reorganized the sprint cadence to make it more understandable and predictable. Prior to this, the meeting stated on the calendar was 2x/per week, and it just said team meeting. I was never able to figure out what meeting I was going into. In this case now, I know exactly what meeting the team is going into, and who should be facilitating based on the what is listed on the calendar. It took us a few weeks to get this cadence, but it proves to be working very well.
Effective Retrospective
Sprint retro has proven to be a great platform for team to discuss what they did, what they did well, and what they could do better. Again, this was not something that was happening. No one spoke, and people were usually angry with what happened during the sprint.
I have coached the team to speak up even if something frustrate them. If we don't know what's going on, we can't solve for it. Furthermore, I have coached the team to take down the action items from the retro, and follow up with the items during meetings to make sure that we are constantly trying to improve ourselves and the team. This will ensure that we help hold each other accountable. I think it is also important that team member can ask questions about the updates on the action items as well.
Grooming Ahead
We groomed and fit the sprint to three sprint at a time. I noticed that this was not working for the team. Now we groom the backlog in general and as a team, and during the second grooming session we decide what we think can go into the next sprint.
I try to discourage them to do the 3 sprint ahead. I know that some of the teams at Wells Fargo are doing the 3 sprint ahead, but after observing my team, and seeing how the feel as though they get pigeon holed often. I just ask that simply focus on grooming the back log in general, and as the time come we can decide as a team as to what we can pull into the upcoming sprint. This helps reduce the overwhelming sense.
PO prep
The prior PO was not organized with the stories. It was poorly written. The new rule is that the PO must have the stories written for grooming
I have spoken to the PO to make sure that the stories are well written to the best of her ability in order to not waste time in grooming. Grooming is for the rest of the team to give feedback and suggestion, but not for the team to help the PO write the stories. I have encouraged the team to push on stories that are poorly written with no AC.
Inter-Sprint priorities and WIP
Team is encouraged to focus on the current sprint with no exception. If there's a blocker let the SM remove it.
Dev team focus on sprint stories, anything outside will have to be transparent to the team, and if we need to shift priorities, we will have to do it as a team, and determine the risk together.
Dev-QA handoff
"Hand-off" mentality / language in completing coding before testing starts.
Discuss with primary Dev and QA. Hand off have improved tremendously. I have changed Jira to be more explicit with the columns, and thus, it also has become more visible for the team to know where certain stories is at. Sometimes we struggle with subtasks, but it is a work in progress that will take time.
Story slicing anti-patterns
Story slicing was a huge problem with MVP1. The story was written in a way that all the bulk of the work was done in one story.
Team is breaking down the stories into smaller stories. They are utilizing the workflow process. Where they have a beginning and an end to get too...but within that there could be several ways to get to the end. Each ways are separate stories. I see that the team is utilizing this method efficiently. Matt Struck has a lot of experience with agile, and he really has stepped up to help shape the stories and lend a hand to the PO on this front. Thus, the team is finishing stories, and working on stories that are more consumable for each sprint.
% complete
SM was asking for a "% complete" on Stories during the Stand-up.
When I took over from this team, I asked them to shift the focus on instead of figure out the % complete - why don't we ask what the blocker is and remove it. Based on what we decided as a team to take on velocity, that should be the prediction, there is no need to try to push people for daily %.
ET resource mgt
SG discussion on adding more ET 'resources'. Motivation for this unclear.
Understand ET capacity, and triggers for adding more 'resources'. ET already extensive. I am encouraging the ET team to join us for stand ups and ceremonies.
Old Coaching Plan
SName
Observations
Coaching Actions
Effective Retrospective
S2 Retro was devalued by the approach and facilitation. Setup as one more agenda item during regular Team meeting. Discussion curtailed - completed in 12 minutes.
Coach SM to have this meeting “set apart”, with the right environ. for valuable discussion. Suggest Esther Derby, and recommended timing in Scrum Guide.
Grooming Ahead
Middle of S3, and team (SM) is tracking the drafting of Stories for S4.
Discuss with PO and SM. Backlog Refinement and readiness for Planning → Sprint Planning, 3+2. Lead time, and Design work early at Feature level (i.e. SAFe Program interaction)
Team Grooming
Cancelled the Team meeting (grooming) because everyone wanted to focus on current development
Follow-up with SM, validate facts, and emphasize value of grooming.
Inter-Sprint priorities and WIP
Devs are jumping around, working on Stories at will.
Discuss with primary Dev: Story Prioritization and lean focus during Sprint execution. Have discussed with SM and AL.
Dev-QA handoff
"Hand-off" mentality / language in completing coding before testing starts.
Discuss with primary Dev and QA. Use QA slide for cyclical collab vs. Linear "Hand-off". Discuss ET members and realtime communication and interaction.
Story slicing anti-patterns
There was a move to create separate Stories for QA work when it looked like they would not finish QA in S3.
Coach them to keep the (feature) Stories whole, and carry-over rather than pursue artificial Story ‘completion’
% complete
SM asking for a "% complete" on Stories during the Stand-up.
Understand her need / motivation for this.
ET resource mgt
SG discussion on adding more ET 'resources'. Motivation for this unclear.
Understand ET capacity, and triggers for adding more 'resources'. ET already extensive.
Last Sprint Retrospective - Sprint 2
What worked well?
1. Being more respective of everyone's time, less meetings, ability to focus on tasks and work that needs to get done.
2. Amount of work completed by everyone was wonderful, better at getting work done and handed off to QA.
3. When work is touching team 1 and 2, finding ways to work through that better.
4. adapting and better ability to revise stories between teams
5. Planning Of work for API's, we can integrate into the call flow and work on VUI's
What didn't work so well?
1. Coordinating work between teams, getting better but had some things to work through
2. Getting used to and adapting to the process, better as we understand the overlap between teams.
3. be better at planning so we have fewer surprises ahead of us
What do we want to do differently for the next Sprint?
1. Shorten meetings if possible, sometimes not possible but would be great if can meet only when needed.


Team Members
Name
Roles, Roles, Roles
Notes / Comments
Tracy Welbig
SM (PM)
sits in SD
Terri Johnson
PO
sits in IA
Terri Johnson
AL
sits in IA
Matt Struck
BA
sits in IA
Michael Sang
Dev
sits in CA
Paul Benschoter
Dev

Deena Hyman
QA

Neelima Vemulapalli
DEV

Majestic Achunine
QA

Sreenivas Vangala
QA Automation

Mark Swanson
Architecture
sits in MN
Marisol Delaney
Prog. Sponsor

Crystal Freeman
Prog. Manager

Carolyne Weber
ET BA
Nuance rep and IVR VUI design