Team States
Falling Behind
State
- The team’s backlog grows longer each week. The team is working hard but not making much progress.
- Moral is low.
- Users are unhappy.
Fix
- Hire more people for the team.
- Set expectations with users.
- Highlight easy wins and inject optimism.
Treading Water
State
- The team is able to get their critical work done but still does not have time for technical debt or new large projects.
- Moral is higher.
- Users are happier.
Fix
- Reduce WIP (work in progress).
- Consolidate the team’s efforts into finishing more things.
- Reduce concurrent work until they’re able to repay technical debt.
- Help people transfer from a personal view of productivity to a team view.
Repaying Debt
State
- The team is able to start paying down technical debt.
- Technical debt payment begins to snowball.
Fix
- Add time.
- Find space to allow the compounding value of paying down technical debt to grow.
- Find ways to support users while paying down technical debt.
Innovating
State
- Technical debt is sustainably low.
- Moral is high.
- Most work is satisfying new user needs.
Fix
- Add slack.
- Maintain enough slack in the team’s schedule to build quality into their work.
- Operate continuously in innovation.
- Avoid backtracking.
- Ensure the work the team is doing is valued.