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Addressing a situation where a development team consistently falls short of meeting the Sprint Goal requires a strategic and collaborative approach as a Scrum Master. Few proactive steps i would take
1. Identify the root cause of initiating discussions with team.
2. After identifying root cause if required to adjust sprint goal, i will initiate a discussion with product owner and collaborate with team adjust same.
3. Conduct regular retrospectives to gather feedback from the team and have open communications to identify improvement areas in order to achieve sprint goal.
4. Identify any skill gaps within the team that may be hindering their ability to meet the Sprint Goals and facilitate trainings for same.
5. In case , we identify team morale is low. Acknowledge the challenges openly, recognize the team's efforts, and express confidence in their abilities to overcome obstacles.
6. Seek external support, such as bringing in an Agile coach or consultant in case team is not able to solve the issue internally.
@mohit0524 , adjusting to Sprint Goal within a Sprint is not recommended as per Scrum Guide 2020. So, you may want to put some example where you had to make it happen. You could discuss with stakeholders also to understand how can you address their concern while team is working on retrospective ideas.
Few actions I would take as a SM:Â
@gazalasayyed , good and elaborative answer. Would have appreciated connection between points. For example, after point 2, point 7 should have been done. Response a bit lengthy so making it crisp and packed would have helped.
This is a very common scenario with the Scrum Team and I have been part of many such situations.
One such situation was when I was working with a large finance company last year. The situation was similar, ie. the team was frequently missing their Sprint Goal and this led to shallow team morale. And to add to that, the escalation of stakeholders was not helping either.
To address the situation, I called out for a mini-retrospective with the team to identify the root causes of why we are missing Sprint Goals. I was cautious not to let this meeting go down the blame game route and focus predominantly on problem-solving.
Through collaborative discussion, we identified a lack of clear Acceptance Criteria and refined User Stories as predominant reasons for such frequent misses.
Once the issues were identified, I collaborated with the team to devise actionable solutions, such as refining user stories and breaking down tasks. I took them through a User story-splitting workshop and planned for a workshop with stakeholders on how to write effective User Stories and Acceptance criteria.
Simultaneously, I engaged with stakeholders to provide transparency about the challenges we face and the steps we take to address them. This transparency helped build trust and alignment between the team and stakeholders, reducing concerns and improving communication and collaboration between Stakeholders and the team.
To address slipping morale, I focused on boosting team morale through recognition, and support. This involved celebrating small wins and fostering a positive and supportive team environment.
Throughout this process, I emphasized the importance of empiricism. By implementing effective solutions, inspecting progress, and adapting as needed, the team gradually regained momentum and worked towards consistently achieving Sprint Goals.
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