Agile Team Alignment
Introduction
In todays world, the focus has shifted from Scrum and Kanban to an overall driving principle of Agility. It is still true, however, that the specific techniques of Scrum and Kanban are still widely used and so we will be discussing those techniques within the overall principle of Agility.
We trust your Agile journey is going forward and the implementation getting better and better. Sometimes the journey is on track and as an Agile team we quickly adapt and become better, sometimes the journey can be painfully slow. The reason for being slow can be many, such as organizational resistance, lack of empowerment in the Agile Team, lack of understanding the core of Agile. It is also called “We do Agile but…”, e.g. We do Agile, but the PO does not have the final say on how to prioritize.
As the focus has evolved towards Agility, one way of making sure the Agile Team is on track and fully understands true Agility is to attend a one-day class of Agile Team Alignment, a deep dive into the essence of Agility. As Ken Schwaber told me years ago, “The Devil is in the Details”.
Agenda
Introduction
- Trainers
- Exercises, videos
- The Spirit of Agility
- You don’t have to do Scrum.
Agility & AI
- Integrate AI into an Agile Team
- Video: Generative AI
Team Principles :
- Autonomous Team
- 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
- Team Values (eg. Alabama coach, UCLA sixties, Olympic Hockey Lake Placid, Denmark football Gold 1992)
- Working agreement (not to long, what is most important)
- Team Member (AgileCoach/ScrumMaster, Product Owner, Developers)
Events
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review
- Retrospective
- Product Backlog Refinement
Artifacts
- Product Backlog Management
- Sprint Backlog Management
- Product Increment (Build-ability, clean code, user outcome/benfit)
Impediment Backlog (what gets delayed, what is slow, eg. PO not there to clarify, how well do we deliver user value)
- What should be included?
- Value Stream Mapping
- Dependencies
- Categories (Can change, can influence, can’t do anything about, can AI help).
- Impediment Review
- Part of Retro?
Closing Event
- Team Photo
- Certificate (Picture, Team Name, Name, possible phrase)
—————————————————————————————-
- TEAM owns the problems… And it is up to the team to identify solutions/next steps
There are 5 key project health areas:
| POSSIBLE PROBLEM AREA | IDEAL |
| 1. Stuck / Slow / Cumbersome | Easy, rapid, clear movement / flow |
| 2. Resource Gap Roles not clear | Clear roles Knowledgeable people in place Backups Learning |
| 3. Dependencies / Critical Paths | Look ahead / what are our complexities/uncertainties? Engage other teams early Begin complex tasks early |
| 4. Priorities are not user-based Unclear priorities | Clear, ranked User Goals Set up experiments/proposed solutions Ongoing feedback loop |
| 5. Unclear overall plan, unclear milestones Locations not clear Processes not clear | Clear overall plan with milestones Clear locations Clear, documented, simple processes |
- TEAM Activity: Create list of misaligned areas. Scrum Impediment Backlog
- TEAM Activity: Now rank them in importance (not solvability at this point).
- TEAM Activity: Top Three: Identify volume solutions/next-steps.
FACILITATOR/Scrum Master Activity: Set up an easy weekly or bi-weekly checkpoint, preferably as a post-scrum/16th minute to review progress. To see how we are doing and to identify a next step.
Details
Price: ?
Price includes:
- Bounded course Material
- Certificate
- Etc.
You provide: (we can be helpful)
- Venue
- Lunch
- Projector/TV
- Flip chart
- Post-it notes.
- Etc.
Pre-requirements
- Read the ScrumGuide
- Attendance by whole Agile/Scrum Team (maximum 10)
Take this opportunity to refine the Agility skills with expert guidance. Align your practices for success, together. As an Agile Team we are all in this together with no hierarchy.
Cheers to your continued growth.