Performance Appraisals

When delivering Scrum classes I get a lot of questions. In some countries I get questions about how individual performance appraisals are delt with in Scrum.

My short answer is:

They are not!
Scrum is team based and that does not fit very well with individual performance appraisals.

The long and detailed answer is:

How to measure the individual contribution within an Agile team?

I prefer not to measure on individual level. Rather reward on team level. In the following I have listed:

some descriptions on how companies have been doing individual evaluation despite working in teams. Hopefully you find those descriptions useful. I do not necessarily agree with the opinions stated. Just wanted to give the opportunity to see different views.
thoughts on performance reviews

http://scrumology.com/performance-evaluations-and-scrum/
“The Performance Management Revolution” https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-performance-management-revolution?utm_campaign=HBR&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
http://scrumology.com/how-to-do-agile-performance-reviews/
http://www.amazon.com/Abolishing-Performance-Appraisals-BackfireInstead/dp/1576752003 “Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead”
Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing–and Focus on What Really Matters (Business Plus) by Samuel A. Culbert: http://amzn.com/B004X8WB48
http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/pljfo9 “What Your HR Department Doesn’t Know About Scrum”
http://www.agilelearninglabs.com/2012/05/agile-performancereviews-2/

Example from a Certified Scrum Trainer

I have had people experiment with a different sort of 360 review. They have had good results getting agile behavior from teams doing it this way.
Give everyone a sheet of paper with all of their team members names on the paper. Next to each name write a number from 0-100 corresponding to the percentage of your personal growth you can attribute to being helped by each team members.
So for example, a paper for John might look like the following:
Jim – 20%
Tom – 15%
Amy – 10%
Carol – 50%
Bill – 5%
If everyone had Carol as a big reason for their personal growth, then you know Carol is the most willing to help others grow and therefore invests herself in the team the most. At least that is the theory. This encourages teamwork as a way to get more money, which seems more in line with measure performance in other ways. People can argue with the fact that it is numeric, etc. I just know that I’ve seen it change behavior patterns quite quickly and the people on the teams understand what they are expected to do if they want to be rewarded.