Looking for advice on a work related issue
I'm currently a software developer consultant working as a lead developer in the fintech industry. My team consist of me and 6 other developers of various levels of expertice. I started apx a year ago in this position and the project was to take over an system built by an external company and develop and maintain it going forward. We grew the team over time, so initially there was only me, but after 3 months we'd added a couple of other developers. The most junior developer with only a few years of experience took on the scrum master role at 50%, which allowed the other of us to focus moren on dev stuff. I wouldn't have said the scrum master was a junior level developer based on them having worked for several years. That was my expectation...
After a few months we've continued to grow the team. All in all we are now 7 developers. The person that initially had the scrum master role has since opted to focus more on the dev side. We've accomodated them and since mid january they've focused soley on dev. However, the outcome of this hasn't met my expectations. Working 50% as a dev I understand (and expected) that they wouldn't pick up the domain/system as easily as simeone soley focused on the dev role. Given that they've now had a couple of months I don't really see any improvement however! And, to be clear, it isn't really about their level of output. I'd be content if they were able to show some increased understanding of the domain and/or had increased the quality of their work somewhat. I see none of this and a tendency to "hide" their work (postponing creating PRs so it's hard to judge their progress/need of help, not asking for support, dismissing offers for help when given, non participation in discussions/problem solving etc etc).
Speculating, but to me it seems they are not comfortable in their dev role and I seem to have failed in this instance to establish enough trust (either in me or in the team as a whole). I don't see this issue in the other team members though (even with the more junior people). Complicating things is that I am not their manager. So, it is ultimately not my responsibillity.
Any advice in addressing the issues? Ideally the outcome would be a situation where they have started to contribute to the team in some meaningful way. Should I be more patient? Should I impose help on them, e.g. comitt to pair with them on all work? What is a good and construcrive way to approach this (preferably without being a complete ass)?
You're not their manager but there's nothing wrong with trying to help a coworker you think is struggling. I wouldn't push it if they refuse, though. I wouldn't impose anything, and I would frame it as "trying to help", not as a punitive thing.
If you really wanted to, you could bring your concerns to their manager, but as an IC I'd just let them be, I don't have issue helping other ICs but punishment or performance evaluations are their manager's problem.
Yeah... the dynamics of the situation is a bit weird to be honest.
Preface: Ask A Manager, Alison Green's advice column, is one of the best resources for learning about how to deal with these kinds of workplace dynamics. I've been reading it for years.
What is the outcome when they post a PR? I would expect the comments/reviews/forced rework there to be the place where their deficiencies are most visible, but what consequences do they see? If they are not feeling any pain, nobody is pushing them to put their PRs in early, etc. then it sounds like they are not really being managed.
If you and the rest of the team are picking up this person's slack and making it so the manager is not feeling any pain / seeing any negative outcomes, then stop doing that so that they are forced to deal with the problem. If they refuse to, then the problem is just as much your manager as this developer, and you may want to evaluate whether this is a good place to be.
Another tack to take would be to talk to your manager about the problem. I assume that it is the same person managing you both, but if not, this advice still applies. Rather than focusing on this person's performance, which is "out of scope" for you to deal with since you don't manage them, talk to your manager about how this person's underperformance is negatively affecting your work. That's the part that's fully within your scope to worry/deal with. This is really just another way of making the consequences of this person's underperformance visible so that management can deal with it.
A somewhat unrelated thought, but how effective is your scrum practice? I don't want to assume too much from the little information in your post, but the fact that the most junior dev person was made the scrum master suggests that it is seen as "make work" while the dev work is the "real work". The teams where I've seen scrum be most effective are the ones where the person running the scrum is both the team leader and a senior dev, and they use the scrum plan as a tool of leadership. Maybe you've gotten there if you've taking this person off of scrum master duty, but it might be worth re-evaluating the team's overall process and planning strategy.
Self bias statement: I'm lukewarm to negative toward agile in general and scrum in particular. While I have seen it be effective, I think it more often devolves to making up numbers because they are visible and trackable even though they don't actually mean much for prediction. I think kanban is a lot simpler, has less overhead, still gets you the most valuable piece (prioritization). But rather than picking any named system, I think a good strategy is seeing what problems the team is experiencing and identifying strategies to fix those problems while having the simplest process that does that.
Bookmarked. Great resource and comment.
Clear definition of roles can save so much struggle and anxiety. Having been the weak manager, it’s super easy to let your more stellar team members take on the most difficult parts of managing a team. Sounds like OP has slid into the fixer role.
“Managing up” is an art. Sounds like OP has the people talent to help sort things out. Best of luck. Tread gently.
Good questions! I think the feedback loop on their work is too long at the moment.
Well, once they actually do push out a PR they inevitably need to rework it. That's not uncommon of course; there are often things that get comments in PRs (less when the team pairs of things). However, there is little consequence for having to rework things. It just takes longer to complete, which is fine IMO. But, in my view they do not seem to learn (similar issues crop up over and over)... which causes me to become extra cautios about their contributions.
I suppose that might be the case... but when they were hired they claimed to already have experience of being a scrum master and expressed interest in that (which since shifted as mentioned). A good scrum master can really benefit a team by proactively removing obstacles and steering meetings in a constructive direction.
To expand a bit on how we work, we've moved a way from pure scrum to more of a kanban approach. We've retained the IMO most important bit; retrospectives. We also formally have sprints to align our cadence with the rest of the organization. Other than that we just continually prioritize the work to be done and ensure we have enough slack to handle emergencies. Kanvan is a more light-weight process, but I actually think it is harder to do well than scrum (easy to get overwhelmed by the non-stop nature of work coming in).
Maybe this person is too conscious of not being as knowledgeable / smart as the rest of the team? Do you speak during coffee breaks? How open / friendly is this person? Have you notice any other behavioral changes after the switch to 100% dev work? I've had bad experiences of groups of "pro" devs low-key reminding me how junior I was compared to them.
It might also be that this person has plateaued and only cares about completing his share of the work.
Does your manager think this is an issue? I would feel bullied if I had someone looking over my shoulder all the time as I work, and I would definitely not learn anything that requires analysis in such a situation. I would first clarify what is expected of this teammate, with both your manager and your teammate, and then talk with them on how to achieve what is missing.
Maybe... They haven't expressed this sentiment though. They are a quite nice person when they do join lunches etc. There isn't a lot of opportunities for socialising as we are remote most of the week.
Sorry to hear that you've had this experience! Hopefully my team mate doesn't share the same. Was there anything you or someone else did that made it better?
I left the company. Actually by the time I left most other devs had left too. It was a culture issue, the whole company was like that in one way or another.
Whatever it is in your particular case, I don't think it is something that is fixable, specially if your teammate refuses to accept help. If you think it is dragging the team down, I would talk to your manager first. Maybe you teammate has some other beef with the company you are not aware of (maybe expected more compensation after switching to 100% dev or something like that).
The only thing I can really offer to this, based on the limited amount of context that can be provided, is that you confirm that your expectations are the same as theirs and their manager.
It's a situation I personally encounter frequently: individuals that expects others to work the same way or produce the same results as them. This desire for team members to mirror oneself is a common mistake, and more often than not comes from managers who are new to their role or have transitioned from individual contributor positions. Hiring/expecting people to have the same traits as you is a big mistake in terms of building trust and increase overall team dynamics and productivity.
This is good advice, thanks! I suspect they might feel like they are under performing (which does mess with ones self confidence etc etc)... I do try to lead by example, admit when I mess up (I go out of my way with this and tend to post about it in our public team chanels as to destigmatize failure and spread the learnings from it), ask others for help and bounce ideas around etc... I don't have an expectation that they will reach an equal level of productivity. I do expect that they contribute in SOME meaningful way to the team (e.g. socially, niche expertise and/or contributions) OR at least that they show some growth in some area... meh... maybe I just need to vent a bit!
As a scrum master and not a manager, your job isn't necessarily to manage that individual's performance. But if it's having a negative impact on the team as a whole, that's a problem that you might bring up with the manager. Has anyone talked to this person about their performance? Do they have any clue at all that they're not living up to your or the team's expectations? If they're junior-level, do they have a mentor or someone that can take the time to sit with them and explain things?
Honestly, as their actual manager I'd put them on a PIP and then most likely fire them in 3 months. They sound useless.