Agile Software Development: Build and Evolve Agile Teams

Question 1

5 Reasons Agile Teams are a critical vehicle to deliver valuable results.

Answer 1

Focus on Value - Agile is driven by the goal of delivering maximum business value that is aligned with the organization’s vision.

Self-Organized Teams - Agile Teams have the autonomy to make some de-centralized decisions, which allows for shared ownership of the work.

Constructive Conflict Resolution - Conflicts in Agile Teams are constructively resolved because the team is driven by a shared vision.

Innovation Hub - Agile Teams, with diverse and cross-functional skill sets, are an Innovation Hub that spur solutions.

Cultivate Mastery - Time is put aside in Agile Teams for learning and growth. This allows Agile Team members to sharpen their skills.

Question 2

Agile Teams

Answer 2

teams are the organizational units through which Agile, product-based work is accomplished.

Question 3

Innovation Hub:

Answer 3

Innovation Hub: Proactively working towards continual improvement with no compromise on technical excellence and quality

Question 4

Self-Organized

Answer 4

Self-Organized: The team determines tasks and makes technical decisions about the work to be done after being given priorities by the PO

Question 5

What is Agile’ secret souce?

Answer 5

Teamwork

Question 6

5 stages of Tuckman’s team formation model

Answer 6

Forming - Agile Team comes together and the Facilitator helps the team form by explaining the ground rules, product vision, and expected outcomes.

Storming -This is where a team’s velocity is impacted because there tends to be some confusion and ambiguity around the work to be done, roles, and other product-related questions.

Norming - Agile Team members develop a sense of trust and camaraderie. There’s a healthy rapport and each team member starts to look for the collective objectives of the team’s long term success.

Performing - Once an Agile Team has successfully worked together over a few iterations they should be in a state where they have gelled together and developed a strong cross-functional work style.

Adjourning - If the business leaders realize that a product is not delivering value or is no longer needed in the market, the existing Agile Team members can be re-allocated to other more valuable work in the organization.

Question 7

Teams should immediately start delivering additional value as soon as they are introduced to Agile.

Answer 7

False: Teams need time and patient guidance to become a thriving and successful Agile team.

Question 8

Three key roles in Agile Frameworks

Answer 8

Product Owner

Facilitator

The Agile Team

Question 9

Product Owner Role

Answer 9

Product Owner - A Product Owner, often referred to as PO in short, is responsible for working with both The Agile Team as well as the business to maximize the value of the product deliverables being worked on.

The Product Owner is primarily responsible for prioritizing and managing the Product Backlog

Refine Backlog items with necessary details

Prioritized backlog for business value

sharing backlog with key stakeholders, so that it is Visible and Transparent

Question 10

Agile Team Role

Answer 10

Agile Team - Agile Teams are self-directed and self-organized.

The Agile Team members are the ones who accomplish the actual work of completing and delivering a potentially shippable version of the product at the end of each Iteration.

Agile Team members exhibit T-Shaped Skills. This means that each member have deep core expertise, but also capabillities in areas outside their experitse, which allows for role blending

manages work prioritized by PO

Question 11

Facilitator Role

Answer 11

The Facilitator is responsible for ensuring the Agile Team moves along at an acceptable pace.

Removes blockages and obstacles

The Facilitator is also usually an Agile Coach who promotes Agile practices and values.

The facilitator’s role is one of servant leadership

Question 12

Servant leadership skills

Answer 12

Active Listening:
- Empathy
- Acknowledgment
- resolve conflict and reach 
  decisions

Respect
- Treats everyone with integrity and honor

Positive Attitude:

• Essential during times of crisis and confusion
• Model desired behavior
• Contagious

Neutralize personal biases

• Establish a working agreement
• Reduce the risk of bias through role blending
• establish transparent measurable performance goals

Trust Agile Team
- Between agile team member

Raise Relevant Questions:

• with curiosity, not judgment
• Ask unbiased open-ended questions
• Hones, and collaborative

Share power and control

• Share information
• Share knowledge
• Invite others to exercise authority and to make decision

Question 13

Self-Directed

Answer 13

Team members are empowered to decide among themselves who does what and how it is to be accomplished in a collaborative manner

Question 14

What are high performing teams driven by?

Answer 14

According to Dan Pink, high performing teams are driven by Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery

Question 15

What do HIgh performing Agile teams have in common

Answer 15

Independent and self-directed

Small, T-shaped teams

Focused on the mission

Supported by executives

Question 16

building a high performing agile team

Answer 16

Inspire the Agile Team.

Build a Cross-functional Diverse Team.

Maintain Focus as Team Evolves.

Encourage Innovation and Free Thinking.

Communicate Clearly.

Work Collaboratively to Solve Problems.

Timebox Meetings.

Recognize and Appreciate.
Include Uncommitted Objectives.

Take Time Out to Connect and Have Fun.

Question 17

how can executives support agile teams

Answer 17

Create the right environment

Push for cultural transformation

Break down silos

Step back and allow teams to flourish

Question 18

Who develops the ground rules for agile teams

Answer 18

The team members

Question 19

What do we need to pay attention to when working with remote agile teams?

Answer 19

Team communication.

• limited communication can impact team bonding
• hosting virtual events like virtual coffee times or virtual game nights, where work is not discussed can help with bonding

Time Zone Differences.

Work From Home Best Practices.

• work from home adds distractions and can impact the well-being
• Set a clearly defined schedule and home office location helps to mitigate some of the challenges

Catch-Ups.
- use virtual communication tools

Lack of Team Cohesion.

• reduces collaborative moments
• ensure a clear vision and clarity on responsibilities
• frequent reminder of the value objects

Question 20

Optimal size of Agile teams

Answer 20

between 5 and 12 members

An Agile Team size of less than 5 would made it difficult to have all the competencies needed to do all the work within this one team since an Agile Team should be a cross-functional and multi-disciplinary unit tackling a common goal.

An Agile Team larger than 12 skilled resources will make it difficult to self-direct and self-organize. As the number of team members increases, the number of communications channels also increase.

Question 21

Non-Core Roles

Answer 21

Stakeholders - Stakeholders can include Customers, Users, Sponsors and others who have an interest in the product being worked on. but are not involved in the day to day development of the solution results.

Vendors and Strategic Suppliers - Vendors and Strategic Partners provide products and services that are usually not within the core competencies of the organization or Agile Team.

Center of Excellence (CoE) - Many organizations have a Center of Excellence focused on either Project or Product Delivery. A CoE often provides guidance on Governance and Reporting requirements to executives and regulators.

Enterprise Architect - Reviews technical solutions to ensure they align with the overall organization’s architecture.

Domain Subject Matter Expert - Provide valuable support to the PO and Business Analyst on domain knowledge.

Question 22

Team Coaching models

Answer 22

Dreyfus 5 stage model
ShuHaRi
The Apprentice Model
Conscious competence Matrix

Question 23

Dreyfus 5 stage model

Answer 23

Novice:
Advanced Beginner
Competent
Proficient
Expert

Question 24

ShuHaRi

Answer 24

1. Shu - Learn the rules
2. Ha - Bend the rules
3. Ri - Break the rules

Question 25

Which decisions should remain centralized

Answer 25

Decisions that span a longer time frame

Decisions that have an organization-wide impact

Rare decisions that require deeper analysis

Question 26

Agile govenarnce

Answer 26

uses a decentralized decision making model, where teams are empowered to make tactical decisions themselves, and to monitor their own progress

Question 27

Strategies that enable Agile Team Governance

Answer 27

Enterprise awareness. Enterprise awareness refers to the concept that DA teams realize that they work within your organization’s enterprise ecosystem, as do your other teams. There are often existing solutions (products and services) that should not be negatively impacted by the release of the solution they are working on. Better yet their solution will leverage existing functionality and data available in your operational infrastructure instead of reinventing the wheel. DA teams will work with other teams that are working in parallel to them, striving to leverage each other’s work. They will work towards your organization’s strategic vision. Enterprise awareness is the underpinning of effective governance.

Release planning. Early in a project, or when a product team is first initiated, a DA team will invest some time in high-level release planning. They do this to identify and think through any dependencies on other teams and often to identify a reasonable cost and time estimate for the current release that they are working on. They will keep this high-level plan up-to-date as development progresses, sharing it with their stakeholders. Release planning enables the team to answer critical governance questions regarding forecasted schedule and cost.

Team dashboard. The basic idea is that the tools used by your team should be instrumented to record important events when they occur. For example, your work management tool could record when a work item ticket is defined, when work begins on it, when the work is validated (if appropriate), and when it is marked done. Within a software team, whenever a build is run your build tool could record basic information such the date and time it was initiated, the time it took, the number of tests run, the number of successful tests, and so on. This sort of information, or more accurately intelligence, can be recorded in a data warehouse and later reported on using business intelligence (BI) tooling via dashboard technology at the team, program, or portfolio, or enterprise level. The real-time, accurate information radiated by a team dashboard enables the team to make better decisions and provides better transparency to stakeholders (including governance people).
Information radiators. An information radiator is a visible display that shows something of interest to a team or their stakeholders. Examples include a whiteboard with an architecture sketch on it, a corkboard with index cards tacked to it, and a wall-mounted monitor showing the team’s dashboard. Information radiators enable better governance by increasing transparency.

Active stakeholder participation. Active stakeholder participation is the practice of having on-site access to stakeholders, or at least their proxies (i.e. Product Owners). Active stakeholders have the authority and ability to provide information and make timely decisions regarding the prioritization and scope of requirements. This enables more effective governance through improving the team’s access to decision makers.

Demos. On a regular basis, typically at the end of each iteration for teams following an agile life cycle or on an as-needed basis for lean teams, the team demonstrates the solution to key stakeholders. The team shows completed work and invites feedback. This enables effective governance by increasing transparency and providing better opportunities for stakeholders to steer the team.

Coordination meetings. The team meets for a few minutes, typically at the beginning of each day, to coordinate their activities. The team lead facilitates the meeting and is responsible for keeping it short and focused. This practice is often called a scrum meeting or daily stand-up meeting, although neither of those terms accurately conveys the concept that the aim is to coordinate. This enables tactical governance within the team itself through increasing internal transparency and reducing the feedback cycle within the team.

Light-weight, risk-based milestones. Effective milestone reviews are as simple and short as possible. For a small co-located team a milestone review could be as simple as a few people from the governing body, or their agents, to visit the team room and have the team spend an hour walking them through whatever is to be reviewed. For larger efforts this could be upwards to half a day and be held in meeting room. Teams in regulatory environments may need to invest a bit more effort, particularly around creation and baselining of artifacts to be reviewed and recording of action items from the review. With adoption of common agile practices such as demos and team dashboards, described earlier, there will be less need for status discussions in milestone reviews. The milestones suggested by the DA tool kit are risk-based, not document based. For example, the Proven Architecture milestone is best fulfilled through development of beginning-to-end functionality that implements high-risk requirements, not the creation and review of an architecture model.
Retrospectives. A retrospective is a facilitated reflection meeting performed by the team, the goal of which is to identify potential areas of improvement. Retrospectives often last thirty to sixty minutes. Retrospectives help teams to be more self-aware and improvement focused, supporting your overall governance goal of continuous improvement.

Question 28

Blame Game

Answer 28

Blame Game: Circumstances in an Agile team where team members try to blame each other for issues and challenges rather than working together to collaboratively resolve what they are encountering

Question 29

What does the FORMING stage feel like

Answer 29

Everyone is excited. Curious. Maybe a bit nervous. There’s a new initiative to run at and you’re keen to get started. But there’s also confusion. You’re not sure who is doing what, or how to break this epic project into smaller components.

Question 30

Supporting a team in the FORMING stage

Answer 30

The team needs clarity and connection more than anything else at this stage. Don’t dive into execution mode too quickly. Take the time to call out assumptions about the work and (more importantly) how you’ll work together. Solving problems face-to-face instead of over email or chat is a good investment right now because you’ll get a richer sense of who your teammates are as people.

Icebreakers (5-15 min) – If you have a few minutes while people trickle into a meeting, then you’ve got time to start making the personal connections that help us do our best work together. Toss out just-for-fun questions like “What car did you learn to drive on?” Or, more purposeful questions like “What will the title of your autobiography be?” help teammates get to know each other and prime the brain for creative thinking. #TwoBirdsOneStone

Elevator Pitch (30 min) – This exercise answers the “What exactly are we doing, and why?” question. Creating an elevator pitch together sets your team up with a consistent and simple explanation of your work and the unique value it delivers. It’s like MadLibs™ for the office.

Goals, Signals, and Measures (90 min) – One of the best investments you can make at this stage is clarifying what you’re trying to achieve and how you’ll know you’re successful. This workshop involves brainstorming, discussion, and decision-making. It can be tough at times – I won’t lie – but the shared understanding you’ll build is worth powering through.

Question 31

What does STORMING feel like?

Answer 31

Storming kind of stinks, to be honest. There’s a lot of confusion and frustration. Everything seems to be twice as hard as you’d expect. Lots of conflict

Question 32

Supporting a Team in the STORMING stage

Answer 32

The key to moving through this stage is to make things as simple as possible. Hopefully, your team’s purpose or desired outcome is understood by this point. Now it’s time to make sure everyone understands the incremental milestones on the way to your goal, and what their role is in helping the team get there. Clarity as to what success looks like at each milestone will give your team a much-needed confidence boost.

DACI (30-90 min) – The DACI framework helps you make group decisions efficiently and effectively. The secret is to clarify each person’s role. (Who is the decider? Who is contributing recommendations? Etc.) Create a default DACI that can apply to most decisions, then adjust as needed or create a custom DACI when the stakes are high or the situation is complicated.

Roles and Responsibilities (60 min) – The name says it all. You’ll clarify each person’s role, what they’re responsible for, and any other expectations team members have of each other. Chances are, you’ll uncover some false assumptions as well – especially if your team had been cruising along in the “norming” or “performing” stage until recently.

End-to-end Demo (30 min) – A visual representation of the final product or experience makes it easy for stakeholders to provide early feedback. Your “demo” might start as a diagram on a napkin. That’s fine. As you repeat this exercise over time, it’ll become higher fidelity and help your team see they’re making progress.

Question 33

What does NORMING feel like?

Answer 33

Whereas storming is chaotic, norming feels reassuring. Your team is gaining momentum. An esprit de corps is emerging, and – dare I say? – a sense of pride.

Question 34

How to support a team in the NORMING Stage?

Answer 34

The main thing is to keep that momentum high. Remove obstacles by coordinating tightly with adjacent and upstream teams. Validate your assumptions about what your customers need, then proactively decide what you’re not doing right now so you don’t get distracted. Backlog grooming for the win.

Trade-off Sliders (30 min) – In this exercise, you’ll agree on what you should optimize for and where you can be flexible, so you can make those small, every-day decisions about your work autonomously. The trade-offs will be obvious. Cheap, perfect, and on time? Nope. You can have two of those, but not all three.

Sparring (30-60 min) – Sparring is a way to get structured, constructive feedback from peers and stakeholders. Show them a work-in-progress, then ask them to critique it, challenge it, and suggest ways to make the next iteration better. Remember: to spar doesn’t mean to fight. It means to practice.

Project Poster (3 60-min sessions) – Your poster is a living document that communicates the problem you’re tackling, why it’s worth solving, the research you’ve done, possible solutions, and any risks or assumptions. It’s a great way to keep the team and your stakeholders on the same page. I recommend building it out in three phases as you define the problem space, validate your assumptions, and get ready to execute.

Question 35

How to support a team in the Performance stage

Answer 35

Double down on building personal connections among teammates. When it’s time to celebrate meeting a milestone, consider indulging in a team dinner or day out doing something fun together. And, now that you’ve figured out established practices that help you collaborate effectively, share those with other teams.