• Agile & Scrum Basics

Shopping list for starting a stable Agile team (part 1)

The shopping list is secretly more of a questionnaire. If you can answer all the questions, you’re ready for the Agile Kickstart. By the way, those answers don’t have to be very detailed. There is plenty of room during the kickstart to clarify everything further. There are three sets of questions: substantive, process and personal. In total, there are 14 questions. I recommend taking no more than 30 minutes to answer all the questions. The first answer that comes to mind is good enough. You can refine it later with the rest of the team. In this blog, we will cover the 4 content questions for starting an Agile Team.

1. What is the mission of the team?

A team is not a team without a shared objective. It starts with properly defining what impact the team is going to make in the world. That may be high over. For example, “we’re making a planning tool for family caregivers. It’s even better when you can express it in terms of added value. For example: ‘we make all care agreements around a patient transparent so that all (informal) caregivers can work together optimally’. It’s even better when you get clear about how your team’s mission is connected to the mission of the organization as a whole.

2. How can you determine success?

Agile is an empirical approach. In other words, it is about tangible, observable results. By what facts can you tell that the mission is successful? Ideally, these are facts that indicate early on whether you are on the right track. With informal care, for example, you can find out how relaxed informal caregivers are in life. If you can reduce pressure from a few caregivers in a single situation, you already have value! I also sometimes ask about “The one KPI to rule them all.

3. What frameworks or preconditions are important?

Usually there is a budget you have to stay within. But sometimes there are house styles, guidelines or a required connection to another service. Maybe your team has certain skills you have to make do with. If so, you’d better make those clear and leverage them as much as possible.

4. What big steps do you see before you now?

Few teams begin a new mission blank. Usually there is already a plan in outline. You go on to adapt and develop the plan as a team. A foundation helps accelerate that process.

5. What is the first customer segment you will address?

The more closely you know how to define the customer, the easier it is to engage the customer early on. Choose the least picky customers or the first group of people who will reap the benefits of your mission. That way you ensure quick learning and quick value-add.

Process questions for starting an Agile Team

The following five questions related to the process for starting an Agile Team, I am happy to share with you in the next article. Of course, in this third article, you can also get right into answering the more personal questions for starting an Agile Team. Good luck and remember: don’t spend more than 30 minutes in total answering all the questions. The first answers that come to mind are often good enough. You can then explore the deeper questions with your team.