Another Team Parable: Quality and the Self-motivated team

Nearly a month ago, I called the team together to discuss defects. I wanted their feedback on an idea that I had.

I started the sentence with “What if…”

Someone said “uh-oh” and some eyes began to roll.

I said, “What if we stopped committing to and addressing all defects during a single 30-day sprint and instead committed to addressing them only in overtime. That way, we’d continue to maintain our zero defect count, but we’d be able to deliver more features, sooner.”

“What do you think?”

My team has always hated overtime with a passion.

As always, they thought I was crazy and told me so…

“This is not Agile,” they said. “This will not work. We’ll be coding into the late hours of night. We’ll be exhausted. Quality will decline.”

The sky is falling. That’s what they said.

I then said what I always say in times of change. “It’s your decision. You are a self-managed team, but I would appreciate it if you would at least give the idea a try. If it doesn’t work, say the word, and we can go back to the old way or try something new.”

And with that, my team elected to trust me enough to give the idea a try.

As I said, that was nearly a month ago.

Yesterday, the Scrum Master who most opposed the overtime idea was in my office for our monthly one-on-one.

He said…

“I’ve noticed something really odd lately. We seem to be creating very few defects lately. Now, even the guys who want to work overtime are having trouble finding something to fix.

“We’re coding the way we always have. We didn’t change our processes at all. We code as fast as we always have, and we test the same way we always have. I just don’t understand what changed.”

I said…

“That is bizarre. It’s almost as if the team found some reason to be more attentive to their work. Perhaps, it’s a testament to your leadership?”

He looked at me a moment and said only, “Isn’t it time for your next meeting?”