Being Agile: Team Got To Know Its Limitations

#SridharPeddisetty #Agile #BeingAgile #Scrum #Motivational #ProjectManagement #Management #AgileBestPractices #Team

"A man's got to know his limitations”, a quote made immortal by Clint Eastwood in the 1973 movie Magnum Force. I am not a movie buff but do like to rewatch classics once in a while and the inspiration to write this blog came right after watching Clint deliver his famous one liner. While adopting Agile development practices, its often seen that Organizations have a great deal of passion and good intentions. But unfortunately the intent alone is not enough if the attempt involved either the adoption scope to be too large or at a pace too fast for the organization, whose culture is not ready. 

For successful adoption of Agile across Organization, its important to start with one or two pilot teams. For the team to be successful in adopting Agile practices, its important to get to know its limitations. Intimately knowing and addressing team limits, a lot could be truly accomplished. Below are my tips in identifying team limitations and playing to their strength for successful adoption of 'Being Agile'. 

#1. Deep philosophical understanding of Agile: In my earlier post An Agilist Needs More Than Training To Succeed, I had shared that getting trained in Agile does not necessarily mean that we have started thinking ‘Agile’. After training, it is important to work in your Org towards bringing in changes including predictable delivery by taking small steps in developing an environment, which fosters a collaboration culture with a shared vision across the Org. 

#2. Get familiar with individual team skills: Agile encourages team to consist of self performing & cross functional team members. Its important to understand the skills of each team member including front end, back end and other needed skills in the sprint (or) project. While grooming or planning, its essential to identify and play to the strengths of individual team members.  While finalizing the team, one needs to be very clear what the objectives are and what they need to deliver individually as a member and collectively as a team.

#3. Set clear goals for the team: Its vital for each member to understand how their individual goal fits into the overall objective. For a team to be highly productive, its vital for them to understand what they are delivering as a team and how the deliverables are going to be measured. A team, which understands the importance of what they are delivering will always be highly productive and will adhere to much higher standards than one with no clear purpose. 

#4. Provide team the necessary tools: Performance of any project team is only as successful as the weakest link in the team. So we need to constantly nurture the individual team members while providing the necessary tools to be productive. For instance, once we have identified the weakling, its necessary to plan the mitigation either by pair programming or mentoring by cross training or guiding. Keep in mind that a happy team would automatically take care of keeping your client(s) happy so its important for the team to be equipped with right & necessary tools.

#5. Build in culture of continuous improvement: Its essential to create a robust environment where feedback is encouraged, appreciated and taken (or) given on a standard basis. Without proper guidelines, measurements and feedback, it is very easy for team to fall into a spiral trap of stress, demotivation and rapid disintegration. When the right culture of continuous improvement is put in place, it always guarantees a well-functioning, highly motivated and goal-driven team. 

Summary

While the practitioners of Agile are still divided into teams that are highly productive ‘Being Agile' and teams that are not. In my experience, team is successful in adopting Agile when it understands well its limitations and plays to its strength within the known constraints while continuously striving to improve. Teams that usually fail in adopting Agile successfully or struggle in their adoption are the ones that are usually leaning towards why something will not work rather than working on finding solutions to the constraints. 

Share your thoughts in the comments sections to the best team management practices you employ while practicing Agile. 

Previous posts you might be interested in

• Active Listening Is Key For A Successful Delivery 
• Kanban & DevOps - Forming A Perfect Alliance
• An Agilist Needs More Than Training To Succeed