Improving Quality Nuggets: Rule 4

This one rule in a multipart series. Please see the intro article for the full list of rules.

Rule 4: Friendly competition in the team is a great motivator to achieve high delivery quality

One strategy that I have used to get the members of a high performing team even more motivated and having fun is gamify our progress reports. We represent the efficiency of the development according to the agreed estimates of the work. This requires us to have completed a solid estimation of the work to be performed and a detailed tracking of the progress.

In one project for a Japanese electronics manufacturer that operated out of Long Island in New York we estimated the functional work in 3 blocks that we assigned to team leads. We also had a data and infrastructure layer on the project. Each team had estimates and tracked its progress against plan.

We looked week-by-week at how the teams were making either a surplus or a deficit. The team that made a surplus were given accolades because they would finish early and leave budget on the project to be absorbed by any team running a deficit which kept the overall project on time. It was a cheerful but competitive way to work and served as a fun way to motivate the team.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are solely mine. They do not necessarily reflect the view of any of my employers nor relating to their business or policies.