How To Eliminate Burnout And Make Agile Teams More Productive

Ever since COVID-19, the impact of the 'always on work' culture has started taking its toll. This is where the word 'burnout' comes into the picture. Organizations have started adopting the Agile work system in today's highly competitive world. However, the increasing work pressure on today's generation demands them to perform everything perfectly and quickly.

Agile methodology helps developers find better ways to work in a team, adapt to change, and increase market speed. However, often, the workforce misunderstands the Agile methodology, resulting in unwanted problems such as fatigue or burnout. When your workforce starts developing the symptoms of Agile fatigue or burnout, it affects the work quality and deadlines.

It can happen due to many things, such as office politics, appraisal, promotions, etc. However, one of the biggest reasons causing Agile fatigue or burnout is wrong estimations, targets, and deadlines. Opting for the best Agile certifications will aid you understand the concept better.

What is Agile Fatigue?

Burnout or fatigue is work-related stress, which has become a major health issue in fast-paced work environments. However, what exactly is Agile fatigue or burnout? Agile fatigue is physical or emotional exhaustion involving a feeling of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.

COVID-19 pandemic has led to the rise of remote working, where employers have implemented the Agile work system. Employees find it difficult to take a long break from work at such times. This may adversely affect their ability to relax and refresh their minds.

During Agile projects, the workforce starts feeling overwhelmed by the work, resulting in them becoming mentally drained with lowered potential. This is why many employees have started facing extreme fatigue or burnout due to increasing stress levels. Sometimes, this can negatively affect the employees' mental health, resulting in poor work performance.

For instance, in an organization using the Agile methodology, a Scrum Master announces a ballpark estimate to clients. However, the Scrum Master may not know much about the work process. At such times, the IT team must deal with the project's tight deadlines, resulting in extreme work stress. This work stress is what is called Agile fatigue or burnout. Thus, lack of clarity and visibility among the employees leads to extreme burnout or fatigue in an Agile work environment.

A recent survey shows 57% of Tech Workers are burned out by work. Likewise, there are several independent surveys have been carried out which depict the unfortunate part of tech life. A major contributor to burnout involves wrong estimation and deadlines. There are other parameters also involved which comprise Office Politics, Repetitive work for a long time, Appraisal, etc. Let's keep aside the other parameters and talk around the major contributors to burnout which are-

• Wrong estimation, and
• Deadline.

It often happens that a non-technical person, say for example, a Non-Technical Manager or Scrum Master or BA or Sales Team, without having visibility around the actual work proposes a ballpark estimate to the client. Often there is a situation where a client does the auction for the project. Hence IT giants in order to get the project give less estimate. Once companies get the project and execution for the same gets started then the member of the team who executes the project is exposed to a tight deadline and hence suffers from burnout. This, in turn, impacts their mental health and life.

From a business standpoint, getting clients holds the highest priority. But a general thought which keeps on bugging me from time to time is "why should an employee suffer because of management?".

Ideally, before giving the ballpark estimate to the client, a realistic estimate should be collected from engineers who would do the work. There are different ways of coming up with an unbiased realistic estimate.

Techniques for Unbiased Realistic Estimate

Some of the popular techniques are outlined below.

Planning Poker

This is one of the effective ways of coming up with the estimate for a story. It’s been religiously followed by a team which truly works in Agile methodology. Each member of the team is highly involved in the estimation process. Getting everybody in the team involved in the estimation process is critical to come up with an accurate estimate.

Planning poker: For a simple Sprint and easy Estimates

Planning poker is a game that team members play during Sprint Planning meetings to ensure that everybody is contributing and his or her point of view is considered during estimation. It starts with one of the team members(#Moderator) reading the story/requirement and giving high-level info around the ticket.
 
The team focuses majorly on the WHAT part instead of the HOW part.

To start with, each team member is given a set of cards or sticky notes with a number on them. This number represents story point, ideal days, hours or any other units in which team estimate. It is suggested to use Fibonacci, but it is not necessary, one can use a specific sequence which may suit for a team. Our team used sticky notes having hours written that would be needed for the story.sub-task, starting 0.50h, 1h, 2h, 4h and so on. It worked for our team. Once the high-level requirement is read aloud and a team has the visibility around “What” needs to be implemented, then starts the game.

The fun way for Agile teams to guide sprint planning.

Team members are requested to pick up the card with the number written on it. Initially estimates from members to members can vary a lot, and as a result, estimates can be present all over the graph. Once all the members have voted, members having highest and lowest estimates explain their understanding behind coming up with their estimates. The expert having detailed knowledge about the implementation part can point out the hurdles which the team might face while implementing the story. Above discussion among the members brings up the clear picture around the requirement. Post discussion, based on everybody’s agreement, the Scrum master concludes the discussion and assigns a story point to the task. Through this process, members of the teams have clear visibility around the parameter list that needs to be considered while giving the estimation.

T-Shirt Sizes

This mode of estimation is quite popular these days within an Agile team. At times, it becomes difficult to estimate a large backlog having relatively large items. Especially when multiple Scrum teams work on the same product. Stories are estimated on the basics of t-shirt sizes: XS, S, M, L & XL. Like Planning poker, a Moderator reads the story and team focuses of What part. Post understanding What needs to be implemented team comes up with a size written on the card based on their understanding. Similar to

Planning Poker, members of the team collaborate among themselves and come up with a mutually agreed estimate.
In addition to the above workflow, T-shirt scale also demands extra effort on the part of the person coordinating the Agile process. Since sizes cannot be put on the story, hence sizes need to be converted to numerical values for the sake of tracking effort over time and charting an estimated velocity for the team.

Bringing it all together

By using the above estimation techniques, we can come up with an achievable estimate and can accordingly communicate the same to the client.

However, from the business point of view, to get the project from the client, we can propose a different figure to them (like it been carried out currently which I feel is wrong). As we have a clear visibility around the estimate, so we can add the buffer resources that will be required for successfully delivering the project. Hence coming up with a realistic estimation with the help of different estimation techniques and proper planning will result in minimizing the burnout of team members and help them live a happy life.

How to Spot Burnout in Agile?

Explained below are the symptoms of spotting Agile burnout in your workforce.

Employee Exhaustion

Exhaustion is one of the very first symptoms of Agile burnout. The employees start getting tired after working for hours without breaks, resulting in energy exhaustion.

Lack of Motivation and Confidence

Another symptom of Agile burnout is pessimism. Agile burnout starts making the employees question their potential to complete tasks. This can result in changing a positive mindset into a negative one. Further, this may result in a lack of motivation and confidence to work on something new. Employees may also find it difficult to begin their work shift positively. Moreover, they won't feel satisfied with their achievements.

Lack of Concentration

Employees struggling with Agile burnout will find it difficult to pay attention or concentrate during office meetings and working hours. You may observe the respective employees zoning out frequently or constantly failing to retain new information.

Frustration

When an employee gets exhausted easily during work hours and loses concentration and confidence, it causes them to get frustrated. They start getting impatient and irritated when working in a team or with their co-workers. This is why they may find it difficult to work on collaborative projects.

Health Issues

Employees suffering from Agile burnout may face health issues such as unexplained headaches and stomach problems. Any other physical complaints, such as back pain, neck pain, etc., may also develop.

Uneven Quality of Work

An employee suffering from Agile fatigue or burnout may not always deliver the same quality of work. Sometimes, they miss out on deadlines. Other times, they may make some mistakes. In short, the employees suffering from Agile burnout may lack the energy to be consistently productive during their work hours.

Conclusion

Agile work environments speed up work and improve stakeholder satisfaction. Therefore, a lot of employers have started adopting Agile methodologies. However, Agile teams start experiencing burnout sooner than traditional teams due to increased work pressure with tight deadlines. Agile burnout or fatigue is a serious mental health issue that needs immediate attention.

However, this does not mean that the Agile methodology is toxic to employees. The Agile work system is one of the best methodologies to work effectively in a highly competitive world. The thing is, it needs to be implemented properly, along with taking care of the employees. Employees must support each other, collaborate, communicate, and set reasonable goals to leverage their skills and bring effective results efficiently. In addition, employers must find new ways to energize and constantly refresh their teams throughout the year. Taking the Knowledge Hut CSM certification training will help you get trained by globally renowned CSTs.

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