Seema Sonkiya: Getting Sign offs on Project Deliverables

Article based on PMBOK 4 and agile (SCRUM) methodology recommendation of Verify Scope process and Sprint review meeting

Team produces various project and product deliverables mainly during execution processes to complete the work defined in the project management plan and to satisfy the approved project and product specifications.

 During life of the project team produce many interim and phase deliverables, which need to be approved by project sponsor and customer. Deliverables whether key deliverables of phase or any interim deliverables that is completed from team point of view need to be sign off formally and it is considered very critical process.

Why we need formal Sign-Off on project and product deliverables:

1.       Project deliverables are produced as per the approved specification even though these deliverables need to be signed off to reconcile any differences or deviations from the specification.

2.       Agile methodology is adoptable to changing business and technical conditions, when deliverables are completed sponsor and customer feedback is accommodated in next increment which is core of evolving environment to make process adoptable to continuous changes without any hindrance of forward accomplishments.

3.       Formal sign off of completed project and product deliverables protect the interest of all the stakeholders involved in the project.

4.       It ensures that all the stakeholders carried along during the life of the project.

5.       Retains focus and accountability for the outcomes to customer while make responsible project manager for the means of achieving outcomes. This accountability and responsibility distribution is very critical for project success.

6.       Risks are shared by both the customer and service provider so that both parties stay accountable for the success or failure of the project.

Example project and product deliverables that need to be sign off:

1.       Project Charter, product backlog, sprint backlog, acceptance test cases.

2.       Project management plan which may include design specification of approved sprint backlog stories (project scope statement using rolling wave planning tool), schedule which may include detailed schedule of current sprint and high level for remaining stories in product backlog, duration and resource estimates, quality management plan, scheduled inspection details, human resource plan, communication plan, risk management plan, and procurement management plan.

3.       Working software which is completed from team point of view, means unit test, integration and acceptance test cases have been performed by team.

4.       Other supporting documents like user help files.

5.       Key phase deliverables at the end of each phase for accepting the closure of a phase in a multi-phase project. Terrace

All of the completed deliverables are need to be formally signed-off whether phase or any interim deliverable. Sign offs are critical throughout all processes in the project management cycle because they ensure that stakeholders are carried along with the progress of the project. In normal cases project manager first gets formal acceptance of internal project sponsor after then from project customer.

Project and product deliverable Sign-off process: Some time getting sign-off become very difficult as clients are reluctant to sign off on project and product deliverables because they feel obligated or bound to its contents.  It makes them responsible if there are any issues which affect the project in the long run.  Clients don’t want to be held accountable for affirming something that could potentially have an impact on the project, the organization or even their employment.

Company should have procedures to make client educated about their involvement for project and product deliverables verification process and sometime included in the project contract.

1.       Project manager need to establish purpose of sign off of each deliverable and it should be properly communicated to manage the client through the process until project closure is completed.

2.       Establish authority and accountability to get sign off for each deliverable in advance. For example senior manager (to whom project manager reports) is accountable to get sign off of project charter, Project manager is accountable to get sign-off of project management plan, Product owner is accountable to get sign-off of product backlog.

3.       Identify key deliverables which need to be sign-off for each phase of the project, project manager need to ensure that this information is properly communicated to team members, sponsor and client from the initiation so they all know the expectations and purpose of sign-off.

4.       Describe key inputs in advance on which basis deliverables need to be formalizing acceptance of completed deliverables, any deviation of feedback from the approved inputs from customer simply billable change request. For example working software of each increment is accepted using approved specification, design and acceptance criteria.

5.       Describe tools that will be used to verify completion of deliverables. PMI recommends Inspection tool which bring together both parties to measure, examine and verify the completed deliverables. Project manager need to establish communication medium and method which will be used to bring them together.  

6.       Project manager need to ensure that clients appoint key individuals who will handle sign off at each process or phase.  Carry these individuals along during those phases and ensure they properly understand the information contained in the documents and deliverables.

7.       Whenever possible, we should try to provide abridged or summary documents for review.  Clients can get overwhelmed with bulky documents and it might dissuade them from actually reading and understanding the information presented in the document.  Summary/Overview will highlight key information that is relevant to the client and easy to assimilate.

Agile methodology always deemphasizes bulky documents provided along with deliverables. For each deliverable acceptance criteria are developed normally.

As a project manager we need to establish trust with client. If we have missed our targets or milestones most of the times or having poor delivery rate then chance of getting sign-off becomes difficult. Always escalate delays in sign-off in issue/risk register and formal letter to key decision makers on the client side can get the effective feedback.

Seema sonkiya

Seema Sonkiya: Difference between Project Manager and Business Analyst

Article based on PMBOK 4 recommendation of project management; this article gives insight in difference between role of Project Manager and Business Analyst.

Project manager and business analyst both are important and key role for any project. Both of these role share many responsibilities so some get confused about what differentiate in their roles. Difference lies in their accountability. Project manager is accountable for successful completion of project which is measured by if objectives of project have been achieved. Business analyst is accountable for the product scope of the project which is defined correctly and delivered.

Project manager lead the team for all aspect of the project (scope, schedule, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk and procurement and their appropriate integration) while business analyst lead the team for the product scope.

A project can survive without business analyst but it cannot without project manager, main differences are:

1.       Project manager is responsible for both project and product scope while business analyst is responsible for product scope.

2.       Project manager is responsible for project change management while business analyst responsible for requirement change management.

3.       Project manager is responsible for project risk management while business analyst is responsible for product requirement related risk management.

4.       Project manager is responsible for project communication and business analyst is responsible for requirement communication.

A business analyst serves to the project manager and plays a partner role with project manager in following areas:

1.       Project definition, objectives, risk and scope for product

2.       Obtain & maintain consensus on solution

3.       Business, stakeholder, solution requirements

4.       Estimates for BA activities

5.       Management of significant number of stakeholders

Both work together with emphasis on working smart and moving fast. Project manager is focused on all the aspects of the project so there is a need who is focused only product requirements definition, management and delivery as product scope is the foundation of further project and product management. So if project manager is involved in other activities even then correct product scope definition will not be overlooked.

Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that the product is delivered to the customer on time and within budget. The Business analyst is responsible for ensuring that the product is built according to the requirements and is built correctly. This difference in focus is the reason that having both roles on the team is critical. The product will be built correctly, according to requirements, on time and within budget!

Fundamentally, the project manager manages project resources (human resources, suppliers and cost) and the business analyst manages the business stakeholders. Business Analyst reports to the project manager on his or her progress on the tasks in the work breakdown structure (WBS) in relation to requirements. Usually at the beginning of the project the Project manager and Business analyst work very closely together and often work on the same tasks.

Later as the project gets going, they each focus on their particular responsibilities and talk frequently to share their progress. Excellent project managers and Business analysts work hand-in-hand to make the most of each other.

Both roles also have an ongoing dialogue with the technical team members: the business analysts working with the technical architects to design a solution, the project manager watching the progress of the team and adjusting the plan as decisions are made.

Environment where I am working agile methodology is used and product owner and business analyst roles are shared.

Seema Sonkiya

Seema Sonkiya: Handling Project Team Personal Problems

Article based on PMBOK 4 recommendation of project team management; this article gives insight about how to solve team members personal problems.

Often project managers needs to deal with project team member’s personal problems. Sometime it becomes a good challenge to deal with personal problems while maintaining balance between personal troubles and project goal.

It is very important to deal with problem efficiently and effectively, key is to how we handle the problem. Efficiently means our emphasis is to show that there needs are taken care by showing empathetic attitude rather than sympathetic. Problem handling should be effective means it should leave a right impact to other team members and should not contribute to any hindrance to project goals.

General Steps to solve personal problems:

1.       Whenever a team member comes to project manager with personal problems, we should try to listen it carefully. Initially when team member start to come they often think that the position we are in, we will not care. We need to build trust among team members to promote open and free communication. It is very important and may help to discover problems which may be considered project risk or issue.

2.       when a team member comes to us with a personal issue the first thing we should do is bring them to a place where their privacy is secure and once they feel comfortable let them tell the situation.

3.        While listening, we need to identify any connection with work or affecting other team members. May be person having a conflict within or outside the team in the company. We need to understand the problem fully.

4.       Sometime problem is related to outside of the work, we need to work on different options, Sometime we need to deal with emotional issues, or other personal problem that are related to their home.

5.       So simple tip is listen problem carefully, identify the source of problem and get the right people involved. Like for other team related problems, we may need to involve human resource manager i.e. harassment by other employee outside of the team. In case of other problems we may refer to employee assistance program like day care facility for their kids, late night drop facility to home in case of night client call especially for female staff members. Sometime we may need to suggest a way how they can find solution outside of work.

6.       In case of giving advice for personal problems related to their home, we should avoid direct advice. This can lead to major problems. Advice team members to analyze the situation and find solution for the betterment of his/her and family life.

7.       Personal problem that occur due to same project team then project manager is accountable to solve them, for example some team members do not want to work together due to personal conflicts. If possible we can put them on different modules, in case it is not possible then we need to counsel them and need to use appropriate conflict resolution techniques like smoothing, compromising as per the situation. I am remembering a Hindi movie ‘chak de india’ in which coach Shahrukh khan found during hockey match that two team members were not use to pass ball and Australian team was planning for taking advantage of it. Shahrukh confronted both of them and advice how their personal issue affecting to country and  if  both of your motive is to give value to your personal rather than playing for country then only repeat this situation. Problem confronted easily and India won the world cup. Of course, team was in performing stage so it worked, otherwise he could use other strategy like ‘forcing’ in which one of team member could be removed from the team as country has higher priority than team members personal problems that are not easy to resolve. Similarly for a project manager he/she need to balance between team member personal and project goals.

8.       In conclusion problem can be categorize as following:

a.      Problem within team

b.      Problem outside of team

c.      Team member need help from employee assistance program

d.      Team member having problem related to his/her personal life like quarrel with husband, life partner living in different city. In these cases project manager need to analyze how much these problems affecting to other team members and hence to project.

These problems are extremely difficult to solve than others as it is outside of the project manager domain and he/she need to be involved to show empathetic rather sympathetic and to ensure project suffer little.

9.        Project manager should make sure that team members not start to take advantage of being empathetic so he/she should also emphasize to develop decision making skills and educate how to deal with problems. If problems inside the control of team member then he/she should be involved actively to resolve the issue and finding solution.

As a project manager our ultimate job towards human resources is to make our team members feel comfortable so they can be productive and we need to be involved to achieve that goal.

Seema Sonkiya

Seema Sonkiya: Team Performance Review

Article based on PMBOK 4 and agile methodology recommendation of project team management, this article gives insight about how to provide team collective feedback and individual staff feedback as well.

As a Project Manager we need to tell to team that what did we achieve together and where did we fail; means we want to convey the collective feedback. It is equally important to communicate individual staff member feedback.

When project team members acquired, there are two important processes related to human resource development and performance appraisals i.e. Develop Project Team and Manage Project Team. Develop project team work for overall team performance, competencies and interaction, and then project manager focus goes to individual team member which is included in Manage project team.

Teamwork plays an important role in achieving project objectives, so project manager emphasis should be first overall team performance after then individual performance should be collected and communicated. This strategy center that each team want to become efficient and take responsibility of each other team member performance and issues are escalated to team first.

Team and individual performance is collected and communicated using both formal and informal methods.

Performance Measures:

1.       Objective methods: These are based mainly on results of metrics. I would like to give one example. When we use pareto analysis and produce documented results and analyze these results using Quality Assurance process, during identification of vital few’s it may be discovered that most of problems in vital few’s are related to deliverables for which accountability is set to one or few specific members. Then there is need to discuss those team members’ results of those objective methods. Other example of metrics like DRE, No of changes successfully implemented.

2.       Subjective Methods: General subjective measures of performance are based on the evaluator’s judgment, intuition, and feelings, e.g., attitude, cooperativeness, initiative, aggressiveness, flexibility, friendliness, and openness. Informal performance reviews depend primarily on subjective measures. In small businesses, where supervisors and team member know each other well and interact often, feelings toward each other often override objective measures of performance.

Some key result areas are set based on role like Key result areas for a Team leader i.e. application experience, solution design expertise, leadership, problem solving etc. These key results areas are rated either subjectively or objectively based on specific key result area nature. Each key result area should be defined to explain which method will be used to rate them.

Performance measures both subjective and objective are communicated through formal and informal methods.  Formal methods are scheduled explicitly at regular intervals.

Team members not receiving regular formal reviews of their performance are still being judged subjectively by their immediate reporting person, project manager and co-workers. They are simply missing the benefit of concrete measures of how they are doing, which parts of their work are best, and which parts most need improvement

Realistically, subjective measures cannot be avoided. The challenge, therefore, is to effectively combine objective and subjective measures. All deliverables can have some objective measures of performance Like EVM, Burn Down chart and tools of Quality Control and Quality Assurance processes.

When to distribute Team performance:

1.       Informal Performance Distribution: Following are the tools that can be used for informal team performance distribution:

a.      During daily stand up meeting when performance is on track, exceeding or deviating using analysis of burn down chart or EVM report.

b.      During risk reassessment meeting and during analysis of block list.

c.       During face to face conversation during requirement work shop, developing project scope statement and during monitoring and controlling processes using observation and conversation.

2.     Formal Performance Distribution:

a.      After Verify scope process when we have delivered the increment or sprint. It may be part of sprint retrospective meeting. Where emphasis is on to discover what went well and what could be improved while working on sprints.

b.      After final project completion and during final sprint retrospective meeting.

c.      Anytime when performance is deviating or exceeding from normal expectations.

My recommendation is that arranging too many meeting for the sake of communicating performance or to motivate to enhance performance honestly hinders project team performance. Meetings should be structured and planned and should be designed for a time boxed period.

If project manager first emphasis is to improve team performance then it will also leads to individual performance to good extent. We should educate team that it is very important to take responsibility of each other performance even though team mate do not have authority over other team member performance. A second step can be a review of individuals with emphasis on contribution to team success, increased ability to contribute to team goals, and fitting into the team. No matter what is done in individual reviews, teamwork increases peer pressure. In true teamwork environments, satisfying teammates becomes more important than satisfying a supervisor.

After some attempts of successful communication of how team is performing, now it is time to think to deliver how each team member is doing. Yes performance data is collected for both team and individual simultaneously but in normal scenario individual performance should be distributed after few team performance communications. It is very important in promoting teamwork.

If individual performance communication is performed prior to team then that particular team member could imagine that he/she is responsible for team good work or team problems – our objective of teamwork is defeated.

When to distribute individual performance:

1.       Informal Methods: Informal review occurs when required. Continuous and open communication is very important with team members.

a.      Project manager work to prevent problems and solve them as those arises. Depending on team building stage appropriate problem solving techniques are applied, i.e. during performing stage project manager or team lead confront problems as they arise, question are asked as they arise.

b.      When team member work good then he/she should receive praise as it is earned using defined communication methods.

Both project manager and team members work to create an open environment that emphasizes mutual support. Little or no paper trail is generated.

2.       Formal Methods: Formal reviews take place on a regular interval, i.e. once or twice a year. Immediate reporting person usually fill out a form to rate subjective performance measures. Objectives measures are usually brought from analysis of documented results of metrics.

In case of 360 degree review peers, sub ordinates also given a chance to rate a team member for subjective measures,

A team member file includes paper trail of training, progress, retraining, and development and in some cases disciplinary action for the formal review time period.

Team member usually have a chance to comment or respond to the evaluator’s assessment. Basic purpose is to helping the team member through career interests and opportunities can be incorporated into supervisor/team member discussions.

Discussion usually involves team member, immediate reporting person, project manager and functional manager human resources i.e. HR or resource manager.

The basic objective of performance appraisal and communication in terms of feedback improves team member’s performance, decrease staff attrition, motivates self improvement, build trust, competencies and create a paper trail useful in litigation in case of formal method.

Few people complain about having too much information about their performance. Few people complain about receiving too many sincere compliments and too much thanks. Therefore, everyone should be reviewed including members of the management team.

Starting with reviews at the top of the organization is best. Set an example. It helps for the person being reviewed to know that the person doing the review has already had his or her review.

 Seema Sonkiya

Seema Sonkiya: Maintaining & Managing Team Motivation

Article based on PMBOK 4 and agile methodology recommendation of project team management and challenges to manage & maintain motivation of team members.

A project is started to achieve stated objectives, overall success of project is identified by how successfully project objectives have been achieved, which is directly influenced by team member’s commitment towards project goal and which is honestly related to team motivation.

PMI emphasis on proactive approach and care should be taken to ensure that team members remain motivated and never or less burned out or bored.

A project manager main focus here is to create an environment to meet project objectives so he/she need to understand project team member’s needs, expectations, background, goals and objectives with the project and with the overall career. Establishing and maintaining team commitment to achieve project objectives, it is necessary that their needs should be taken care of.

As a project manager we need to differentiate between hygiene factors and motivating agents. Every team members need satisfaction for hygiene factors, these are base elements to work so do not contribute towards motivation. As these are basic essentials so absence of these factors leads to de-motivation but their presence do not add to motivation.

I seen many project managers who only work for hygiene factors and claim that they take care of project team members motivation. Some example of hygiene factors:

1.       Taking care of personal life issues

2.       Salary hike when appraisal time come

3.       Security

4.       Status

5.       Relationship at work

6.       Working conditions like good chairs, cool environment, Breakfast, Dinner arrangement.

A project manager should not impose work to team members without analysis of their interest level, expectations. Each team member depend on different element to remain motivated. For example:

1.       Some team members always seek for challenging assignments, where they can utilize their skills and also can enhance them, because they like recognition.

2.       Some team members like power and have the ability to get others to cooperate towards common goal.

3.       Some team members seek only stability regardless of work assigned, may be considered as less motivated.

4.       Some team members work best when co-operating with others.

5.       Some team members seek for achievements and growth, continuous learning, attention and appreciation.

Efforts should be made to recognize team members in one or more of above mentioned categories and develop a strategy accordingly to get them to cooperate towards a common goal.

Work should be assigned after analysis of skills, availability and to which category(s) team member belongs. There should be appropriate combination for a team for all the categories.

A reward system should be implemented and efforts should be made to develop rewarding people so that planned system of reward system’s use can take place to maintain and enhance level of motivation.

Different team members have diverse needs of rewards which if influenced by the category to which they belong. Analyze them and develop reward system accordingly, because reward is useful only when it is valued by team members.

Rewarding team members are developed using Training, team building efforts, co-location of team members whenever possible, and using other interpersonal skills like leadership, communication, influencing, and negotiation. During development of team members their category is identified and updated in stakeholder management strategy which is developed first time during project initiation.

 People who love to accept challenging assignments, they are highly motivated and their responsibility and authority should be updated accordingly. People who are socially oriented rather than personal oriented then efforts should be made during Develop Team process to refine their leadership skills. Team member who tend to work best when cooperating with others they are recognized good team members who bring other peer members towards common goal when they feel that things are going well.

So strategy should be to develop rewarding people according to analysis of their identified category, this identification is continuous process as interest level may get change with time. During requirement workshop, sprint planning meeting and during sprint execution these things are observed. When work assignment is going on for a sprint, after analysis of required skills and needed availability interest levels are asked, means team members are asked to which tasks they would like to work. After appropriate resolution of conflicts of interest levels work is assigned to team members and used as a tool to identify or update to which category team members belong.

Efforts should be made to analyze team members using predefined meetings and processes, no unplanned meeting should take place because indirectly it may demotivate team members and they will not effectively contribute in these meetings. Use of spontaneous meeting highly contributes to demotivation. Communication planning, Requirement work shop, work assignment after sprint backlog, daily stand up meetings should be used as a tool as these are all planned and structured meetings.

If project team members are assigned on maintenance project then to avoid getting them burned out or bored work rotation after cross training can be used as a tool.

 Seema Sonkiya

Seema Sonkiya: Managing non productive team members

Article based on PMBOK 4 and agile methodology recommendation of project team management and challenges to manage non productive team members.

Managing non productive team members is very common problem and I do believe that every project manager has faced it.  Project manager is accountable for all aspects of project and human resource is one of important aspect of project which needs to be integrated with rest of other elements of project.

Human resource integration with other aspects (i.e. scope, cost, schedule, quality, communication risk and procurement) becomes a real challenge when some of team members are not performing as per defined and approved project management plan.

Team members are not performing means other pieces of project are not integrated well, because all the pieces of the project are interrelated. Project Manager is role is defined as project integrator and he/she pulls all the pieces of project into cohesive whole, so he/she should be accountable for timely action for any deviation in any piece or aspect of project.

I would like to mention here how other aspect will be affected when some of team members are not performing:

1.       In agile methodology project team members are also involved in QFD development for the purpose of release planning, if team members are not willing to meet their commitments then it will be very difficult to define quantified and prioritize requirements in timely manner. – What is included and what is not included (project and product scope) definition will be affected. Project and product scope is base of further planning, so during scope definition team member’s commitments towards project are very important.

2.       Project schedule and cost will tend to increase.

3.       How we will deliver stated project and product features (Fitness for Use) - forms the basis of project and product quality, it will get affected if it is not properly defined or implemented due to non productive team members.

4.       Project communication will be hindered; there may be lack of communication to some of important stakeholders in timely manner.

5.       Non performing team members may be not willing to discuss uncertainties involved in the project. Risk identification process may be affected and project management plan will no longer realistic.

6.       There may be lack of management with the supplier from which we brought services or goods, may contribute to delay and increased cost.

Here we can see that any problem in anyone factor of project, it may drastically affect other remaining factors.

So it’s very important to deal with human resources skillfully and cautiously. Developing team environment to meet project objective is very important and if one or few team members falling behind can have a cascading effect on other team members, easily resulting in schedule delays and cost overruns to the project and missed opportunities to the business.

Non-productive team members should be helped as soon as the pattern of non-productivity is revealed. The remedy should start with the team itself.

I would like to discuss first the proactive approach to solve this issue. Proactive approach is to make efficient team, effective leadership and team building result in team work and that leads to efficient team.

An effective team wants its members to do well, team members should be educated to take initiative to find out why a team mate is struggling. One important fact that a team mate doesn’t have the authority over the non productive team member can be what opens the door to needed conversation. A team member is likely to have best context for a situation and can bring fresh viewpoint. A team member who doesn't take the initiative because it's not their job is not performing as a team member. Taking responsibility for each other’s performance is at the heart of what differentiates a team from a work group.

Problem is escalated to the project manager after team, then non-performing team member immediate reporting person. After reasonable attempts have been made to help a non-productive teammate, and before the teammate's performance hurts the morale or work product of the team, the project manager should become involved.

Problem should be resolved using direct and collaborative approach but not beyond the tolerance of the project otherwise it will be contentious for other performing team members.

Some guideline for the resolution of the problem, but are not limited to:

1.       First step is to identify whether problem is within or outside the control of team member. We need to identify the root cause of the problem.

2.       To identify root cause, open discussion with non performing team members is performed along with his/her immediate reporting person. Approach should be collaborative and performed in private.

3.       Other peer team members and their immediate reporting person may also be involved in open discussion but in absence of not performing team members.

4.       Efficient communication skills are required to questioning, probing situations to ensure better understanding. Listening actively and effectively is very important in order to finding fact to identify and confirm information.

5.       Problem should be probed including their understanding of task at hand, dependencies on other tasks, prioritization of work, management of time, accountability or interpersonal conflict.

6.       The discussion may reveal broader issues within the team that should be corrected.

7.       Conversely it may lead to a recognition that the team member is not likely to deliver the needed performance, in which case the project manager must proceed with corrective action. And it doesn't have to be contentious.

8.       When root cause has been identified, attempts should be made to correct it

a.      After root cause analysis, we need to be clear about where the responsibility lies. If the issue is within non-productive team member control then be clear about it and expect it to be fixed. If the problem is outside the control of team member then project manager should look for to fix it.

b.      If non productive team member having some personal temporary  problem then project manager need to be empathetic and seek to provide necessary support whatever possible in his/her hand without hindering project overall performance. Project Manager should show sincere regard of his/her performance which he/she shown in recent past and an honest desire to guide him/her for the needed performance. Same efforts are also needed when root cause belongs to lacking skills to carry out the assigned tasks.

c.      Some extra coaching by a team lead or a specialist may be a good investment and result in an appreciative and loyal team member. Alternatively, there might be a less critical position that would allow the person to acquire the skills without putting the project at risk. Care should be taken while coaching and mentoring as the performance of the team usually cannot be slowed while one person gains needed skills. And the project manager cannot make a personal project out of mentoring one person

d.      It is equally important to encourage the non-productive person to think about ways to solve the problem, while we are doing the same. They are in as good a position to know what would work as us.

e.      While issue is in process to resolve after successful identification of root cause, ask team lead to communicate with him/her frequently face to face. When it is discovered that team member is not performing intentionally then some time micromanagement may be required. In some cases the non performing team member may be paired with highly performing team member. Care should be taken that non productive team should not become parasite to the performing one.

f.        Team lead should be educated and he/she should not wait task to be completed. He/she should go to his/her seat, talk friendly, ask indirectly what he is doing and give his/her suggestions. At the same time realize him/her that he/she is the important valuable member of the project team and we have lot of expectations from him.

g.      In case of intentional deviation of performance, be clear that what is expected from him/her. Team lead / Scrum Master should not wait for status report, communicate frequently with team and remind their final goal and step by step sub goals. Daily scrum meeting is perfect for this purpose. In these meetings appreciate team members who are doing good work.

h.      Burn down chart is good communication medium to discuss what is expected and where is deviation and communicate that we are very clear about the expected performance.

i.         We need to identify when to take disciplinary action of course it should be last when all the reasonable attempts have been made to discern the problem and no viable results have been found, it may be time to consider a transfer back out of the project and into their prior position or another position in the business-as-usual environment. Not all problems can be solved within the tolerances of the project. If we've exhausted all reasonable avenues, cut bait. Decisive action on an unrecoverable team member will benefit the team member, whether he or she understands it or not. And it will very likely be encouraging to the remaining team members who are wanting to hit the higher level of performance needed by the project. But at this time care should taken to make sure that other team members should understand why and how decision has been taken to maintain their morale, daily scrum meeting could be a direct communication medium to clarify how the decision was made.

Project manager need to be persuasive to perform desired actions and make understand them they need to work smarter rather than harder.

Seema Sonkiya