Team Norms Working Agreements

When the list of important things grew, everyone was ready to formalize them in the team`s rules as the first work agreements. While we had analyzed several ways to improve our observation of scrum values, we wanted to start slowly and only add what they all were to be there. We also agreed that our labour agreements should be a living document that has developed to reflect new knowledge. The process was simple, each person submitted two proposals that had to be considered, we voted and chose the top 10, which became the ten commandments of the team. Teams must hold each other to account. People will have differences of opinion and will have to re-examine them. “In the spirit of transparency and continuous improvement, team members should reconsider employment contracts from time to time and ask, “Should they be updated?” Don`t let things go too far. The brief answer to “When should my team establish an agile teamwork agreement” is now (if you don`t have one yet). However, the best time to establish these agreements is the first phase of a project, especially if it is a new team. This is the most critical at this point, because the team may have preconceived ideas about how the team will work.

I found that it was also a good time for a team to conduct a healthy debate. It breaks that wall early in the life cycle of the project, so the first problem on which they do not disagree in the project is not the first time they have had to discuss among themselves. Most agile transformations begin with training. You discuss the form of the teams and some details of methodology. For example, I had a scrum training session. We discussed how and what a team can do to establish its own agile work agreement. If you use the method described above, you will probably end up in a scenario where duplicates are present. Work to consolidate them on common themes and ask the team for suggestions for a reformulation that will guide the almost duplicated grip notes. At this point, you should have a series of new team standards that can be placed in some kind of public document to which it is regularly referred. All of our “final” documentation at Crema will be placed in Confluence for future references, but this could be any useful filing of documents in your organization. The important thing is that people know where they live.

You can use the first few minutes of the meeting to draw up a short list of work agreements that only apply to that event. This approach helps all participants achieve the same way of thinking and helps you as a moderator manage the event smoothly and with clear expectations. Fun Fact, I went with friends a few nights ago and two of them used to get into heated arguments about random topics. So when we drove, I explained the definition of employment contracts and explained how their behaviour concerned everyone else, we laughed, but we agreed, “no heated debates about friendly excursions”. It worked! There was no way out as they would agree on this! 😉 As the VA is agreed upon by all team members, everyone feels responsible for raising a hand if someone breaks the agreement, and it is reminded to the author that he has agreed to respect the standards, it is his own word that is at stake and all issues are dealt with within the circle of trust of the team. We control how people want to interact and what works best for them to achieve their goals, instead of being imposed by the “big bosses”. This is the story of how I was able to help a team I coached to improve working relationships and work together to achieve better results.