By Rafael Nascimento
One of the challenges in the use of Scrum is to predict how much of functionality a team is able to deliver each sprint. Many try, in a vague attempt to create a metric, to assign a story point a certain amount of work to be delivered, rather than looking how a team play their roles and perform their deliveries. For example, a story point is equivalent to a CRUD with 8 fields that accesses a table in the database. This approach does not work, because a team is made up of people with different experiences, perceptions and problems (personal or professional). Individually and collectively, a team always has different emotional and technical characteristics from other teams. Team members never take the same time that members of Team B took to adapt to each other. Teams will never manage exactly the same conflict situations or have the same productivity. Finally, in sets filled by human beings, there may even be a statistical standard for productivity, but never an industry standard, accurate and predictable. There will always be a margin of error. Then comes a question for reflection: is it better to draft a plan and make your team follow this plan at any cost, in favor of a contract or corporate goal? Or would it be better to identify a target and track the performance and growth of your team, guiding it toward its mission, enjoying a harmonious, happy and highly productive environment, and make necessary adjustments to the project plan for the sake of your customers’ satisfaction, offering them transparency, with no surprises?
