Sustain Status Of work
Sustain Status Of Work
To understand our progress effectively we need to ensure that the status of our backlog items accurately reflects the progress that is made. Accurate status updates allow us to gather effective metrics about our work performance as a team. This data supports activity by the team to inspect and adapt, improving its way of working.
In A Nutshell
As we undertake our planned work, we need to ensure that the backlog item we are working is updated to accurately reflect our progress. We must avoid pre-emptive updates that exaggerate the progress being made as well as failing to update the status in a timely fashion as work is performed.
Progress of work is the fundamental mechanism by which the team creates value. An accurate understanding of the pace of progress through each work item is equally fundamental to the team’s knowledge of its efficiency and effectiveness.
When it possesses accurate progress data, the team gains an invaluable tool. It can review the data to understand where problems arise in the flow of work. Coupled with techniques such as root cause analysis, the team can identify changes to ways of working to remove or reduce impediments to the flow of work.
When we use a virtual Kanban or Scrum board, updates to the status of work will be reflected automatically simply by moving the work item across the board. If the board is physical we may have to use techniques such as dot-counting in order to track the rate of progress. It is incumbent on the team to ensure that work items are moved in a timely fashion so that the data recorded is an accurate reflection of the team’s progress.
Related Practices
The Sprint Retrospective is a Scrum event. Its purpose is to allow the team to inspect and adapt its way of working, the functioning of the team, the working context and all other factors which may impact the team’s ability to deliver its goals. Some factors the team have direct control over, other factors will require external influence to change.
Stop the Line is a practice in Kanban. Whenever a defect is detected downstream of the point where it should have been eliminated, the line is stopped. The team take time to identify and explore the reasons for the escape of the defect. They decide what action to take to prevent defects of the same type escaping in the future. Best practice also uses Stop the Line to identify and reinforce modified practice that brings performance benefits to the work of the team.