#4 Team Not Sticking To The Plan

Symptom: The team are doing other things rather than what was agreed at the start of the iteration or sprint

Probable Cause: One root cause for this can be not referencing the iteration plan or scrum backlog during the daily standups, which can impact a team's ability to stay on track and keep to the team commitment for the iteration.

Suggested Resolution: Try to make the iteration or sprint backlog present when doing daily standups. This improved visibility can be a reference point for the team and provides a context when they are talking about what they have done, what they are doing next and what impediments they are experiencing.

If you use a notice board or white board to hold the iteration or sprint backlog, try to have the daily standups around the board and then it can be updated as people are providing their updates.

When using an electronic board such as a spreadsheet or a web application for example, it can be very easy to close it down after an update, which means that any visibility is lost. Try to find a way to keep the visibility either by printing it out after every daily standup or keeping a dedicated pc with a large screen just to display the iteration or sprint backlog on a permanent basis.

The key point here is improving the visibility of how you are tracking against what you said you were going to do at the start of the iteration.

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