Developing productie Agile Teams
Roeland van Delzen
The process from “doing agile” to “being agile” requires more than organizing an Agile training. The role of the product owner and the scrum master is crucial in enabling Agile teams to be productive. In the forming stage the team just executes what they learned from the Agile training or what the scrum master tells them to do in the ceremonies. In the storming phase its all about the agile processes and the roles of the team members struggling to find the right spot. In the norming phase there is a lot of discussion about the Agile values and what they mean to the team. The key is for the team to set their own norms. The role of the scrum master is to facilitate the team to make the right choices. In the perform stage the team is fully productive and also able to give and receive feedback on the Agile mindset and becomes self-organizing.
Situational leadership
Both the product owner and the scrum master should apply situational leadership skills to develop the team and get the right results. These roles require talents, skills and expertise not always available in the organization. The goal should always be to develop Agile skills and expertise internally, but this cannot be done overnight. In our view, an external product owner or scrum master should always have two goals. The first is to make sure the teams are productive and go from “doing Agile” to “being Agile”. The second goal is to enable internal product owners and scrum masters to develop themselves to the required expertise level. As such, the guiding principle for external product owners and scrum masters should be “to make themselves redundant tomorrow in what needs be done today”.
About Road2Results
Road2Results, with offices in Amsterdam and Munich, is market leader in Agile account management. With extensive experience in implementing the Agile framework in large and medium-size organizations our approach enables customers to reach next commercial performance levels.
In case you would like to discuss YOUR Agile challenge or want to know more about Agile account management, please contact me: roeland@road2results.nl or +31-6-51446085
