How to create an Incentive system for IT team (not working in an Agile way)

Hi Bogdan, 

In this case, I will try to implement Sprint (not the traditional Agile sprint that is 30 days), but the Sprint, created by Jake Knapp. That is 5-day approach and then you repeat.

The main characteristics are that you know what you do clearly every day. The most useful thing out of it is that instead of group brainstorming, you want everybody to think in his/her own comfort and share his/her ideas afterwards. The team is selecting 3-5 ideas that will try initially. Thus, after each 5-day round, you can have clear ideas that work and based on them you can:

• praise the individual/s
• sponsor training 
• sponsor team travelling
• sponsor perks for the employee ( and his/her family)
• offer a home office or flexible working hours

 

The whole thing works like that:

Monday- Map

Tuesday- Sketch

Wednesday- Decide

Thursday- Protopype

Friday- Test

 

The main rules are:

 

1. There is one facilitator who is in charge of the schedule. (similar to project manager)

 

2. There is one decider who makes the tough decisions (basically that is the sponsor of the project).

 

3. Choose 3-5 ideas that you to start with.

 

4. The customer (internal/external) proves to you what works and what not.

 

5. 5 customer interviews are enough to reveal big patterns. You will show the interviews to the team.

 

6. At the end of the 5-day sprint you and the team will know what to do next.

 

This is a really powerful method because it makes the team works fast and to achieve faster customer feedback. At the end of the day, the customer is always right. When the customer recognises and praises the work of the IT team, any incentives are welcomed, but now they will be tight to real results, rather than some targets.

 

Hope that might be a better solution for your team. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Marieta