MOTIVATION¶

Knowing the motives¶

People's motives are as diverse as their professional qualifications [87]. In an agile project, success is essentially dependent on a well-functioning team; in Scrum, for example, this is the Developers, who must be able to work together smoothly [88][89]. Incentives are a prerequisite for goal-oriented and motivated teamwork. Team members need to believe in the project and be sure that their involvement will bring them personal benefits.

These benefits can include job security (because the project will help the company stay in business), knowledge building, career advancement, a financial bonus, honest praise in front of the whole team, or a personal tribute from you, the project manager. It is always best if a project team member can derive personal satisfaction or benefit from the success of a project.

However, opinions differ on the real motivational effect of management incentives. It's doubtful whether incentive schemes (e.g. bonuses) have a lasting positive effect on people's long-term attitudes to their work. Similarly, sophisticated motivational techniques may mean that incentives need to be continually increased in order to motivate employees who gradually become immune to them. Other possible side effects of individual incentives are interpersonal problems such as resentment or envy. Ideally, people should be personally motivated and managers should encourage this process.

Within the Scrum framework, the Scrum Master is in charge. Since they have no disciplinary influence on the developers, they can only use positive motivators. For negative motivators (threats, warnings, etc.) only the Line Manager is responsible.

To identify the different motivators for project members, a motivation matrix [90] can be used. In general, there are intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing people, which can be positive or negative.