Agile framing is an important step when launching new agile teams. Do not underestimate this step if you aspire to quickly take advantage of the huge benefits of agile.
Launching your teams without preliminary framing, is starting without vision, without technical preparation and without modalities of self-organization.
On the other hand, the main risk of spending too much time preparing for the launch of your teams is giving your competitors a head start, in an ever more changeable and uncertain market.
It’s up to you to strike the balance between an unpreparedness that risks prematurely compromising your project, and a time-consuming and often inefficient over-preparation.
The Product axis
An Agile team does not start without vision … In this context, how can you make the collective intelligence of your teams emerge around the products and services they work on?
— Abdelkrim AIT SAID
An agile team does not start without vision. This seems obvious, but in reality, it is not often the case. If your teams know what they have to do, they don’t know why they are doing it and don’t know the needs to be addressed. In this context, how can you make the collective intelligence of your teams emerge around the products and services they work on?
In order to implement the product vision, your agile teams must begin their journey with a clear product vision, a well-defined success criteria and a value-prioritized backlog. Many tools and workshops can help you to reach theses requirements as Pitch Elevator, Story Mapping, Design Thinking approach and so on…
The technical axis
The vision is essential. The technical basis that will bring it to life is just as important … the economic viability of your product depends on it
— Abdelkrim AIT SAID
Another pillar of agile framing is the preparation of the technical aspects that your teams will have to deal with. What are the best development practices to adopt? What architectural and infrastructure elements will be required to support the vision? What tools should be used to support their activities? What quality standards should be adopted to avoid building, from the very first days, a technical debt that will probably never be paid off!
Vision is essential. The technical basis that will bring it to life is just as important. They are both legs of the same body and the economic viability of your product depends on it.
The organizational dimension… to live and grow together
Help your teams choose the agile framework within which they want to evolve… Choose an « Agnostic Agile » approach.
— Abdelkrim AIT SAID
Now that your functional and technical framing elements are known, ask your teams to lay the foundations for their self-organization. This is where team life begins! Help them choose the agile framework within which they want to evolve. During this stage, the role of the coach is crucial. Choose an « Agnostic Agile » approach.
All models are wrong, some are useful
— George BOX
Everyone’s roles and responsibilities must be known and workflows materialized. Your teams must agree on the notions of « ready » and « done » for their backlog items.
With an established and shared product vision, a technical foundation ready to support the vision and the modalities of a self-organization defined, you will put your teams in the best arrangements to successfully develop your next products.
Abdelkrim AIT SAID
Lean Agile Change Agent
Certified SPC Coach
Learn more on me here
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