Imagine you are part of a bustling software development team working towards a significant product release. What would that team look like? How would it behave? How would you choose to measure progress and success? Here, the concepts of ‘Agile Team’ and ‘Agile Team Management’ open up a new perspective.
I believe the ideal team would be diverse in skills and united in purpose. The team might use “traditional” agile methodologies like Scrum or SAFe, but only as a means to an end, focusing on an adaptive and fluid style guided by Lean-Agile principles. The workspace would be a hive of collaboration, where fixed roles blur, and dynamic interaction is the norm.
The team would prioritize customer needs, frequently revisiting and adjusting their goals, ensuring that their output is not just a collection of features but a meaningful solution to real-world problems. They would rely on metrics that promote the flow of work, value, and, most importantly, market learning rather than get mired in the agile trap of story points or velocity.
The team’s approach would foster a culture of continuous improvement, keeping the team aligned with the evolving needs of their project and stakeholders.
So, how do we get to this ideal state? This post, ‘What Is Agile Team Management?’ will take you on a journey through the dynamic world of Agile teams, delving into the core principles that make Agile teams stand out, including their key characteristics, advantages, and ideal behaviours.
We'll explore how these teams operate with a laser focus on customer satisfaction, employing iterative processes and a commitment to constant learning and improvement. You'll also discover the critical role of radical transparency and adopting various Agile practices and frameworks that enhance team dynamics and efficiency.
Furthermore, we will discuss how Agile teams work and provide practical tips for forming effective Agile teams. Plus, we'll discuss the best tools to succeed in Agile environments and examine the pivotal roles within an Agile team. Now, let’s dive into it.
What Is An Agile Team?
An Agile team, as discussed in my book, ‘Organizing Toward Agility,’ is a dynamic and adaptive group that operates on Agile principles and practices.
In other words, an Agile team is defined as a flexible, responsive, and collaborative group focused on delivering high-quality, customer-centric solutions. Indeed, they operate transparently and iteratively, continually adapting and improving their processes to achieve optimal results.
My book on Agile Organizational Design is based on the premise that a resilient organizational design is built by scaling out agile teams, and putting structures in place to support those agile teams. What do we mean by an “Agile” team, and why would we want to use this concept as our primary unit of organization?
Here is my attempt to describe the why and how behind agile teams. My description will be devoid of any particular methodology or framework, so we can focus on the underlying structure and behaviors.
Like this article? Download my book on Agile Organizational Design.
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Teams need an outcome, a mission, a mandate, a reason for being. They need ownership and autonomy to achieve that outcome. They need the freedom to experiment, to both succeed and fail. Some teams are give a direction, and some teams create their own, but with a purpose, all other attributes of a team are worthless.
Teams! Team! Cross functional Teams!
If our primary organizing principle is to place people into teams, then we want those teams to have cross functional capability. What this means is that the team is in possession of, or can very quickly get access to, everyone and everything they need to achieve on the outcomes they are trying to achieve.
The concept of cross functionality applies not only to the team as a whole, but also to how individuals in the team grow their skills over time, from highly specialized to T- shaped people. We want people to be able to play many roles on the team.
Team Membership is a full time commitment!
In the traditional working world, the concept of a team is ephemeral and vague at best. People in a team are only there part time. People are part of many teams. The team is never really together at one time, and the team, well never actually does any teaming.
Gelling doesn’t occur, alignment doesn’t happen. An Agile team is made up of full timers, who are dedicated to the team. The majority of a team member’s time is spent working with the team. Not spent with their functional group, not spent with their boss, but spent with the team.
Team Members Need to be Teaming
Team is not just a noun, ie my team. It’s also a verb. Teams need to be Teaming! yo. Teaming is the act of gelling, bonding, norming, and forming. The act of becoming a real team, one that exhibits real teamwork. Teaming takes trust, teaming takes shared experience, teaming takes time.
Teaming is a lot easier when team membership is stable. If the roster is constantly changing, it becomes really hard to establish norms, we don’t get to understand how to work with each other.
The Customer is Part Of the Team!
A truly cross functionality team will be made of people responsible for doing the work, as well as made up of people who represents the customers of the work. In the software world this means at a minimum, both business and technology people are part of the team. Better (much better)would be frequent interactions with real users! One of the things customer representatives do is help the team prioritize work by sorting value increments into a highly visible backlog. But really, we want a lot more from our active customer(s). Co-creation, evaluating problem and solution fit, prioritization, and evaluating outcomes are also part of the package.
Small Number of Things That Are Small!
The team tries to work on only a small number of increments of value at a time. This helps the team increase focus, and minimizing the time it takes to get an increment of value delivered to production, or minimally get the work to a production ready state. Typically teams will break work down into small increments in order to promote fast feedback and learning. Working on a small number of items that are small helps make problems obvious, and exposes opportunities for the team to improve.
Minimize the Leakage!
In order to foster an environment of effective teamwork we try to ensure that the team can deliver value with independence. Independence from other teams allows decisions to be made while minimizing the impacts to other teams. We encourage people to try and organize around outcomes, not around functions (eg testing team, product team). This allows teams to start evolving into little independent, micro organizations. These types of teams can start to own the planning, delivery, and operational activities required to realize their outcomes, and do so in a way that minimizes dependencies on other teams
Make It Visible! No, Really Make it Visible! Stop What you Are Doing and Make It Visible!
The team will often take advantage of visual work management. Teams often visual their backlog, as well the work they are currently doing. Team events are used to add further transparency. Events can include some form of team planning, demos of accomplished work to customers, daily coordination and impediment discussions , and periodic team improvement sessions. Teams do this to create radical transparency for themselves, and their stakeholders. When team members strive for greater awareness of the what and why of each other’s work, they are more able to effectively hold each other accountable to the outcome they are trying to achieve.
If you aren’t changing it, you aren’t doing it!
Events, work visualization, team performance metrics and market oriented metrics are used by teams to inform a constant and virtuous cycle of continuous improvement. The team uses small experiments to frequently plan, execute, and adapt both the way the team is working as well as determine what value the team should focus on delivering.
Now for a little dose of reality
Uh oh, out comes the agile skeptic in me.
It turns out there are some very real dragons in these hills. I have only seen a few cases where agile teams neatly fit into this definition, and many more cases where they do only partially, into a couple of the points I mentioned.
The reality is that very few organizations of any scale are religiously operating according to my pure definition of agile teams, and when they try they often start encountering some very real, almost intractable problems.
In my book on Agile Organizational Design I discuss some truths about organizing people into agile teams, in order to help you avoid some of these common traps. I’ll recap this as part of my next post as well.
Characteristics of Agile Teams
The core characteristics and functioning of an Agile team structure can be summarized as follows:
1. Small and Stable
A healthy agile team has two common traits. Small teams stabilize relationships and deepen understanding, which results in better communication and more effective collaboration. The stability of an agile team allows for the development of trust and a sense of psychological safety, which is critical for high performance.
2. Cross-Functional
This ensures that the team has all the necessary skills and abilities to deliver value without relying on external dependencies. The blend of different expertise enables a team to tackle complex tasks effectively.
3. Self-Organizing
Self-organizing teams are given the autonomy to decide how best to achieve their goals. This encourages ownership, innovation, and responsiveness, as the team can adapt their approach based on direct feedback and changes in their environment.
4. Act with Radical Transparency
With an open exchange of information, team members are well-informed. They can align their actions with the broader goals and needs of the organization. This transparency fosters trust and a shared understanding of the challenges and the path forward.
5. Contain Frequent Feedback Loops
By regularly engaging with the market and stakeholders, teams can validate their assumptions, learn from real-world interactions, and pivot as necessary. This reduces waste and ensures the team's efforts align with market needs.
6. Possess Shared Metrics and Goals
Teams succeed or fail together, and measuring performance based on team outputs rather than individual inputs encourages a collective approach to problem-solving and value delivery.
7. Regular Cadence of Operations
Rhythmic practices like planning, stand-ups, and retrospectives provide a steady heartbeat for the team's activities, ensuring consistent progress and opportunities for reflection and adjustment.
8. Teaming as an Activity
Teaming is dynamic, requiring continuous effort and adaptation. It’s an active verb, not a static noun. The act of teaming encompasses forming, storming, norming, and performing, as identified by psychologist Bruce Tuckman.
In essence, teams are the core because they are more than the sum of their parts—they are adaptive units designed to navigate complexity and uncertainty, capable of responding to change with agility while focusing on delivering tangible market value.
These characteristics and guidelines depict Agile teams as dynamic, collaborative, and adaptable units, crucial for navigating uncertainty and responding effectively to market needs. They emphasize the importance of transparency, cross-functionality, and frequent market feedback in Agile practices, underlining the shift from traditional organizational models to more human-centric, team-oriented approaches.
Advantages of Having An Agile Team
Within "Organizing toward Agility," we also go over the advantages of having an Agile team:
- Agile Teams Excel During Times of Market Uncertainty
Agile teams are defined as groups pursuing greater self-management using Agile principles, practices, and methods. They are essential in addressing market uncertainty, enabling autonomy in decision-making, and focusing on delivering value through direct market contact.
- Enhanced Adaptability to Change
Agile teams are designed to be highly adaptable, allowing them to quickly respond to market conditions, customer needs, and technological advancements. This adaptability is critical in today’s rapidly evolving business environment.
- Increased Collaboration and Transparency
Agile teams operate in an environment of radical transparency, promoting open communication and collaboration. This leads to a more cohesive team dynamic, where every member is aligned with the project's goals and can contribute effectively.
- Improved Customer Satisfaction
By focusing on frequent market feedback, Agile teams can better align their deliverables with customer needs and expectations, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Enhanced Problem-Solving Capabilities
The cross-functional nature of Agile teams brings together diverse skills and perspectives. This diversity fosters innovative problem-solving and creative thinking, enabling teams to tackle complex challenges more effectively.
- Efficient Use of Resources
Agile teams, prioritizing work and maintaining a sustainable pace, ensure more efficient and productive use of resources. This approach minimizes waste and maximizes value creation.
- Faster Time-to-Market
Agile teams work in iterative cycles, continuously delivering small increments of value. This approach significantly reduces the time to market for products and services.
- Higher Quality Outputs
Through practices like continuous integration and regular testing, Agile teams maintain a focus on quality. This results in higher-quality products and services and reduces the likelihood of costly errors or rework.
- Employee Engagement and Satisfaction
Agile teams offer a more dynamic and engaging work environment, which can lead to higher employee satisfaction and retention. Agile work's autonomy and collaborative nature often lead to more fulfilled and motivated team members.
- Effective Risk Management
Agile methods and practices allow for the early detection of issues and potential risks. By addressing these promptly, Agile teams can mitigate risks more effectively than traditional project management approaches.
- Continuous Improvement and Learning
Agile teams are structured around learning and adapting. This continuous improvement mindset fosters a culture of constant growth and development within the team and the organization.
In summary, Agile teams offer significant advantages in terms of adaptability, efficiency, collaboration, customer alignment, and overall quality of work. These benefits make Agile methodologies attractive for organizations looking to thrive in a complex, fast-paced business landscape.
How Agile Teams Work Best
The most critical building block for a modern organization is the self-organizing team—this is the nucleus of agility. Teaming is not just a status; it's a dynamic activity. The crux lies in creating small, stable, cross-functional teams that embody radical transparency and autonomy, allowing them to swiftly adapt to market feedback and iterate toward success.
This shift from traditional command-and-control structures towards team-centric ecosystems is a radical move for many organizations but essential in today's climate of constant change. These teams are not just groups of individuals working together; they are cohesive units with a shared understanding, operating norms, and regular cadences that allow for both the development of social bonds and the consistent delivery of value.
This emphasis on teams over individual department workers reflects a fundamental belief that value delivery to the market is best achieved through collective effort. In summary, a modern organization's most crucial building block is its ability to foster and rely on the intrinsic motivation and collaboration of self-organizing teams.
Here are some other guidelines that will improve the performance of agile teams:
- Frequent Market Feedback
Agile teams focus on frequent market feedback as a corrective mechanism to ensure alignment with market needs. This approach involves delivering smaller increments of value and adapting based on feedback.
- Dedicated Team Space and Operating Norms
Agile teams benefit from having a dedicated team space, whether physical or virtual, designed for co-creation and shared work, facilitating dynamic collaboration and frequent interactions to achieve team goals. Establishing operating norms like regular planning, review sessions, and daily stand-ups is also crucial.
- Stability and Dedication
Stability in team composition and dedication to the team's goals are important for fostering solid social bonds and effective teamwork.
- Small and Socially Dense Teams
Keeping teams small and interconnected enhances communication and effectiveness, supporting complex problem-solving and decision-making.
- Functional Departments vs. Agile Teams
Functional Departments vs. Agile Teams differ from traditional functional departments by focusing on delivering value rather than growing expertise. Functional departments should concentrate on developing capabilities while teams handle value delivery.
- Teaming with Kanban
Kanban is highlighted as a valuable method for fostering teaming, focusing on visual workflow management, limited work-in-progress, and continuous improvement.
Tips for Forming Agile Teams
Forming Agile teams requires a thoughtful approach, incorporating several key practices and principles outlined in our ‘Organizing toward Agility.’ Here are some tips for forming Agile teams based on the insights from the book:
- Start with Radical Transparency.
Create an environment of radical transparency to foster shared understanding and trust among team members. This involves visualizing work processes, goals, and progress to ensure everyone is aligned and informed.
- Develop Cross-Functional Teams.
Assemble teams with a mix of skills and capabilities to ensure they can handle various aspects of the project independently. This cross-functionality enhances team autonomy and the ability to respond effectively to challenges.
- Foster Continuous Adaptation and Learning
Agile teams should be flexible and adaptive, continually responding to and learning from market feedback. This iterative approach helps align the team's output with market needs and expectations.
- Ensure Small and Stable Team Size
Maintain a small and stable team composition to develop strong social bonds and effective communication channels. This stability is crucial for the team to become cohesive and perform effectively.
- Establish Clear Operating Norms.
Define and regularly review team norms and practices, such as planning sessions, stand-ups, and retrospectives. These norms help in maintaining a consistent rhythm and structure for team activities.
- Encourage Autonomy and Team Ownership.
Empower teams to make decisions related to their work. This autonomy encourages ownership, motivation, and a sense of responsibility towards the project outcomes.
- Create Agile Team Spaces for Collaboration
Set up dedicated spaces (physical or virtual) for teams to collaborate, brainstorm, and work together. These spaces are vital for fostering a culture of co-creation and shared work.
- Utilize Agile Practices for Teaming
Agile methodologies provide various practices and frameworks that facilitate teaming and collaboration. Utilize these practices to enhance team dynamics and performance.
- Focus on Value Creation and Avoid Siloes
Aim to form teams that are aligned with creating value for the organization and its customers. Avoid creating siloes where teams work in isolation without contributing to the overall organizational goals.
- Promote Continuous Improvement.
Encourage teams to reflect on their work processes and outcomes regularly and seek improvement opportunities. This culture of continuous improvement is fundamental to Agile methodologies.
Implementing these tips can help form Agile teams that are well-equipped to handle the complexities and rapid changes of modern business environments.
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Agile Team’s Roles
Many Agile methodologies outline an essential structure and foundational roles for an Agile team. It is important to note that these roles are often shared amongst the team and do not belong to one person. Typical roles are listed below:
The Product Owner (PO)
The Product Owner is responsible for defining the product vision and prioritizing the work backlog, ensuring that the team delivers value to the business.
Scrum Master
The Scrum Master facilitates Agile practices, removes impediments, and supports the team in facilitating problem solving and teamwork.
Development Team members
Agile Development Team members are those who actually do the work of creating the product, including developers, testers, and other specialists. However, it's important to note that these roles are just starting points. Agile emphasizes flexibility and adaptability, encouraging teams to evolve and define their roles over time based on the specific needs of the project and the organization.
It is worth repeating that Agile teams often adapt and expand their roles in response to the dynamic nature of project work. While teams may start with standard roles like Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team members, they should be prepared to redefine and expand these roles based on their unique challenges, project requirements, and team dynamics. The ultimate goal is to foster a collaborative, adaptable, and efficient team environment where roles are not rigidly defined but are fluid and responsive to the needs of the team and the project.
When Should Agile Teams Make Time for Innovation?
Making time for innovation is essential for continuous improvement and staying ahead in rapidly evolving markets. Agile teams often integrate innovation into their regular workflow in the following ways:
- During Sprint Reviews
In Scrum, the Sprint Review allows teams to showcase their work to stakeholders. Based on stakeholder feedback, this event can also serve as a platform to discuss innovative ideas or improvements to the product.
- Sprint Retrospectives for Process Innovation
The Sprint Retrospective is where the team reflects on their work process. While the primary focus is continuous improvement, this is also an ideal time to brainstorm and discuss innovative approaches to enhance productivity, quality, or team collaboration.
- Dedicated Time in Sprints for Exploration
Some Agile teams allocate a specific percentage of their sprint time to exploring new ideas or technologies. This can be a part of each sprint or periodically scheduled. For instance, allocating a day or two at the end of a sprint for team members to work on innovative projects or learn new skills can yield valuable insights and advancements.
- Innovation Sprints or Hackathons
Occasionally, teams might schedule entire sprints dedicated to innovation. These 'Innovation Sprints' or internal hackathons encourage team members to focus solely on new ideas, experiments, or prototypes without the regular sprint workload.
- During Regular Backlog Refinement Sessions
When grooming the product backlog, teams can also discuss innovative features or improvements to the product. This ensures that innovation is continuously considered in the planning phase and integrated into the product roadmap.
- Continuous Learning and Training Sessions
Regularly scheduled learning sessions or workshops can foster innovation. Encouraging team members to stay updated with industry trends, tools, and techniques can spark innovative ideas and approaches.
- Spikes for Research and Exploration
In Scrum, a 'Spike' is a time-boxed activity to research a concept or create a simple prototype to explore new ideas. These Spikes can be scheduled during sprints to investigate innovative solutions to complex problems.
In Agile environments, the emphasis is often on delivering customer value iteratively and incrementally. Balancing this with the need for innovation requires a deliberate effort to create space and time for creative thinking and exploration. By embedding opportunities for innovation into the Agile process, teams can ensure that they remain dynamic, competitive, and continuously improving.
Conclusion
This blog has comprehensively explored what constitutes an Agile team, emphasizing its dynamic nature, adaptability, and commitment to continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. The discussed characteristics, such as small and stable teams, cross-functionality, and self-organization, highlight the essence of Agile teams. These elements, combined with practices like radical transparency and frequent feedback loops, improve internal dynamics and align closely with market needs.
Critical components like the Agile team charter foster a sense of identity and purpose, which is crucial for team cohesion and effectiveness. Moreover, Agile events that support relentless improvement, such as retrospectives, play a pivotal role in sustaining the team's momentum and adaptability.
Understanding the advantages of Agile teams, from enhanced adaptability in uncertain markets to improved customer satisfaction and efficient resource use, illustrates why they are vital in today's fast-paced business environment.
As Agile methodologies continue to evolve, they remain a cornerstone for organizations seeking to navigate complexity and uncertainty. By fostering an environment where teams can thrive through collaboration, autonomy, and a shared focus on value creation, organizations can leverage the full potential of Agile to drive success and innovation in an ever-changing business landscape.
FAQs on Agile Teams
Now, you have comprehensive information about agile teams and their benefits. However, there are some common questions that many professionals ask.
1- Which two quality practices apply to agile teams?
In Agile teams, numerous quality practices can be applied to ensure the delivery of high-quality products or services. Two critical quality practices stand out:
1. Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD).
Continuous Integration (CI) involves regularly merging code changes into a central repository, after which automated builds and tests are run. The goal is quickly identifying and fixing integration errors and maintaining a high-quality codebase.
Continuous Deployment (CD) takes this further by automatically deploying all code changes to a production environment after the build stage.
Agile Relevance: CI/CD aligns with Agile's emphasis on iterative development, frequent releases, and the ability to adapt to changes rapidly. It ensures that new features, updates, and bug fixes are integrated and delivered to customers promptly and efficiently.
2. Test-Driven Development (TDD)
TDD is a software development approach where test cases are developed to specify and validate what the code will do. Simply put, it involves writing a test for a function before you write the function itself. Once the test is created, developers write code to pass the test, and this process is repeated iteratively.
Agile Relevance: TDD fits into the Agile framework as it emphasizes the importance of feedback and continuous improvement. It allows for early detection of defects and ensures that the codebase is continuously tested and remains bug-free. TDD also encourages simplicity and clarity in code, which aligns with Agile's values.
Both of these practices contribute significantly to maintaining high-quality standards in Agile projects. They help automate parts of the development process, ensure quality is baked into the product from the beginning, and support the Agile principles of delivering working software frequently and adapting to changing requirements.
2- Which agile approach helps teams improve their project cycle time by considering team capacity?
One Agile approach that focuses explicitly on improving cycle time by considering team capacity is Kanban. Kanban is a popular method used by many agile teams that emphasizes visual management, continuous delivery, and operational effectiveness.
Kanban's approach to managing work aligns well with Agile principles, focusing on delivering value continuously, responding to change, and improving efficiency and effectiveness in project management. By considering team capacity and optimizing workflow accordingly, Kanban helps teams achieve more predictable and reduced cycle times for their projects.
3- Which agile team event supports relentless improvement?
The Agile team event that specifically supports relentless improvement is the Retrospective. This event is a fundamental part of the Scrum and Kanban frameworks, two of the most popular Agile methods.
The Retrospective occurs every couple of weeks, either at the end of each sprint (a time-boxed period during which specific work is completed). It serves as a dedicated time for the team to reflect on their recent sprint and identify areas for continuous improvement.
4- What describes the relationship between agile teams and project requirements?
The relationship between Agile teams and project requirements is characterized by flexibility, collaboration, and continuous refinement.
In summary, the relationship between Agile teams and project requirements is dynamic, collaborative, and user-focused. Agile teams are expected to work responsively and adaptively, emphasizing stakeholder collaboration and iterative refinement to ensure that project deliverables meet the customers' and business evolving needs and expectations.
