Agile: Team Norms
Groundrules set by a team that promote effective and harmonious teamwork and productivty
When an Agile team forms, it is customary to set team norms early in the team forming process.
Moussa et al on Team Norms
The authors of the book Committed Teams (see reference below) discuss four questions to ask when setting up team norms:
- How will we handle conflict?
- How will we communicate?
- How will we make decisions?
- Have we focused on just a few rules that matter?
You are encouaged to check your team norms against these four questions, and revise as needed.
Mario Moussa, Madeline Boyer and Derek Newberry, Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance, ©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken New Jersey. OCLC: 965925882
Agile Simulation Team Norms Video
This 10 minute video illustrates setting team norms: Agile Simulation - Part 3 | Purpose, Agenda, Team Norms
The norms illustrated in the video, while common, are just examples.
- The team norms should be chosen by the team itself,
- Being a part of the team represents a committment to those norms.
- Therefore, the norms should be ones that the team can come to consensus on.
- Different teams will have slightly different team norms, based on the context, personality of the team members, level of experience, etc.
See Also
Related topics:
- Agile: Standups—A timeboxed standing meeting to help team make progress
- Agile: Team Norms—Groundrules set by a team that promote effective and harmonious teamwork and productivty
- Agile: User Stories—As a (who?) I can (what?) so that (why?)