Transparency Is the Answer

Today's posting is from guest blogger Dan Greenberg...
I just came from a daily scrum where a team complained about having to create a PowerPoint deck for an upcoming demo to a group that would not include stakeholders. When I asked who the right people to be in the room for a demo would be, they listed two stakeholders whose feedback they really wanted to get.

My suggestion: transparency! Write a user story for the creation of the PowerPoint slides required for the “required” demo and include this work in the team’s capacity, potentially knocking other valuable work into a future sprint. Hold a true demo to get the valuable feedback from the real stakeholders in addition to the “required” one. Go to the manager requiring the demo and show them the valuable work that had to be delayed because of the effort to create the PowerPoint deck. Show the two calendar events and be up front about the double booking of the team’s time to hold two demos rather than one. Stress the need for the “real” demo and the value of quick honest feedback from actual stakeholders.

If that’s how the manager wants to spend the team’s time, that’s their business. But let’s force them to make that decision with data in hand.

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