Agile Teams:

Advocating Quality When Collaboration becomes

Groupthink

Gerie Owen

What you will learn• What is groupthink and how to identify it

• How groupthink can make an agile team less effective and compromise quality

• How to counteract groupthink using organizational behavior theory and practice

Once Upon A Time...

What is Groupthink?

What is Groupthink?

• Groupthink - A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.- Irving Janis. Victims of Groupthink. 1972, p. 9

Characteristics of Groupthink

Groupthink in Agile Teams• The illusion of invulnerability

• Velocity and capacity overestimated, yet agreed upon during Agile estimation sessions

• The team is consistently in agreement with little discussion during daily standups

• Collective rationalization and self-censorship during meetings and team discussions, especially when voting on Retrospective discussion issues

GroupthinkHow and Why

How does Groupthink Happen?

• Informational Signalso Group members withhold differing

information out of respect for information that has already been provided

• Social Pressureso Group members withhold contradictory

information because they fear disapproval or sanctions

• Influence of Strong Leaders

Why does Groupthink Happen?

• Group members’ mindsets impede critical thinking

• Group interaction amplifies individual biases

• Group Discussions dissolve into Deliberation Failures

MindsetsGroup Members’ Mindsets Impede Critical Thinking

What is a mindset?• Developed by psychologist Carol Dweck• How we mentally approach life and its challenges

oWhy brains and talent don’t bring successoHow they can stand in the way of itoWhy praising brains and talent doesn’t foster self-

esteem and accomplishment, but jeopardizes them

What is a mindset• Broadly categorized in one of two ways

o FixedoGrowth

Characteristics of a fixed mindset

• We are either smart or dumb• We have to continually prove ourselves• Failure is a personal reflection on our intelligence

Characteristics of a growth mindset

• We can work to improve our intelligence and abilities• What we have now is only a starting point• We accept failure as a learning process

Implications of a fixed mindset• I did my job right; someone else screwed up• That’s not a bug, so I didn’t miss it• My test cases are complete• You can’t ship this software

Implications of a growth mindset

• I always have more to learn• I missed that bug, and I worked to understand

why• I can adapt my testing approach to new trends• I advise decision makers on risks of release

software

Fixed mindsets can lead to groupthink

Groups Amplify BiasesGroup interaction amplifies individual biases

Groups Amplify Biaseso In decision making• RepresentativenessoPeople tend to make judgements about situations based on how similar the situation under consideration is to others with which they are familiar.

• Confirmation BiasoPeople consider on the information which supports what they have decided is true.

Groups Amplify BiasesoPlanning projects:• Sunk CostoPeople tend to make decisions on additional spending based on how much has already been spent.

• Planning FallacyoPredictions of how much time will be needed to complete a task display an optimism bias and as a result, are underestimated.

Failures in Deliberation

Cascade Effect• Because of the human desire to conform, group members will agree

with the views of the initial speakers without critically assessing their own and later speakers ideas.

Polarization• Group members may start out with moderate views on an issue but

as opposite points of view emerge, moderate views tend to move to extremes as members focus on only the information supporting their initial view.

Groupthink in Agile Teams

• Agile self-organized teams are cohesive units o Usually physically insulated from the mainstream

• Despite agile servant leadership, Informal leaders emergeo Different personalitieso Different leadership styleso Differing types of influence

• All these factors set the stage for groupthink

Groupthink Impacts Quality• Focus on Quality is often the “minority” view

o Those advocating are:• subjected to social and leadership pressures• Impacted by cascade effects and polarization

• Biases Amplify a Lack of Focus on Qualityo Planning Fallacy

• Time constraints placed on testingo Framing

• Risk of limited testing is presented in a way that the group accepts limited testing

Managing Groupthink

Managing Groupthink• Individually

o Manage our own biases and mindsets

• Internallyo From within the team

• Externallyo From outside the team

Managing Groupthink Individually

• Listen to team memberso Listen 80% of the time, talk 20%

• Listen to yourselfo What bothers you about this decision?o Voice it?

• Manage Your Mindset

Once Upon A Time...

A Tester Asked...

Is this a bug?• We filed a bug entitled “Can we say f*** in an

application?”

Manage Groupthink Internally• Establish a Group “Growth” Mindset

• Rotate responsibility for leading the discussion so that those with the strongest opinions or the most information are not always heard from first.

• Withhold discussion until each team member has given their opinion

• Use Scrum Planning Poker

• Appoint a “devil’s advocate” for all decisions including testing.

Advocating quality From Within the Self-Organized Team

• Become a Quality Evangelist o Be the Anxious Leader by Focusing attention on Risko Instill a responsibility for quality among ALL developerso Challenge ALL Developers to be critical evaluators of the quality of

the work producto Include Testing Requirements in the Definition of Done

Manage Groupthink Externally• Managers can influence the team’s self organization

• Glenda Eoyang based CDE theory on organizational behavior

• CDE or Container Difference and Exchange are factors that influence teamso How a team self-organizeso Thinks, ando Acts as a group

The Container• The container is creates the bounds within

which the system forms• Agile Team Containers:

o Physical spaceo Scope of Responsibility of the teamo Size of the teamo Department/Division within the Companyo Professional Communities of Practice

The Difference• Difference refers to the individual characteristics

of the team members and this affects the team’s interactions.

• Agile Team Differences:o Technical backgrounds and specializations of the developerso Domain knowledge, length of service in the Company, gender, educationo Individual approach to learningo Individual approach to problem-solving

The Exchange• The exchange is how the group members interact

among themselves and with their stakeholdersoAgile Team Exchanges:• Who provides and receives information• How information is provided and received

oFor example: Active and respectful or Passive and dismissing

Using CDE…Evaluate the Factors

• What containers, differences and exchanges affect the team?• Are these containers, differences and exchanges appropriate in terms

of size, scope, level of influence?• What impact does each container, difference and exchanges have on

the team?• Is the impact positive, negative, neutral?• What container, difference or exchange is causing the biggest

negative impact?• What change or changes can be made to that

container/difference/exchange?

Examples of CDE• Changing the Container

o Professional Community: Groupthink may be occurring because the team is not exposed to cutting edge ideas on testing

o Send team members to conferences, user groups etc. to instill the importance of quality

• Changing the Differenceo Groupthink may be happening because one team members has a strong personality

and is not committed to quality and others won’t express opposing opinions. o Add an equally strong-willed team member or remove the team member from the

team.

• Changing the Exchange:o Groupthink may be happening because the team is not getting enough feedback on

quality in the sprint reviews. o Make sure the stakeholders to whom quality is most important are invited to the sprint

review meetings

Summary• Groupthink is a danger for any specialized and close-knit group

• When Agile teams engage in groupthink, quality may be compromised.

• Managers and leaders can counteract groupthink by using CDE to influence the team’s self-organization

• Collaborate as a group, but think as an individual

Meet Davis

References:Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck, 2006.

Facilitating Organizational Change, Olson and Eoyang, 2001.

Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum, Cohn, 2009.

Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman, 2011

Victims of Groupthink, Janis, 1972

Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter, Sunstein and Hastie, 2015