The Ingredients for building an Agile sports team.

To build a software development team that can function as one sports team, we need to rely on a methodology, and agile will be our tool to create that north star team. Agile methodology is at its foundations is about routine and structure. The key here is everyone on the team knows what is expected of them, and when they are expected to do it, the team can move like a well-oiled machine. By implementing the agile methodology, you will create a development structure that your team can rely on, which will result in increased productivity and efficiency.

When trying to replicate your mom’s favorite recipe, you will need four things to get it right: the correct instructions, measures, ingredients, and the will to do the work.

In the same way, we need specific ingredients to build that north star agile team. If I may call them that way, those agile ingredients will help the team be more cohesive and act as one unit. Of course, you will also need instructions and measures, but that will be another blog post for another day.

The 1st agile ingredient is “Structure,” a framework used to arrange the various elements of a team working on an Agile project. These elements include project-specific and unique activities, workflows, and artifacts.

The 2nd agile ingredient is “Routine” agile teams need routine. They need to have a fixed, regular known set time, known meeting set location for a daily catch-up, alignment meetings, planning sessions, and retrospective sessions.

The 3rd agile ingredient is being nimble and agile; agile teams need to be able to work in an agile way. They need to be able to adapt and change quickly and focus on continuous improvement across the people, the place, the process, and the means of production.

The 4th agile ingredient, we should focus on work output quality first, then speed of the work. Bad work quality will slow the flow of features and impact our customer’s experience

The 5th agile ingredient is a working agreement; this is a set of rules that the team agrees to work by; it can be as simple as “We will always try to do our best” or “We will never give up”.

The 6th agile ingredient is a distinct, well-defined role and responsibilities and a clear career path. Those roles are the building blocks for a cross-functional team. A team knows their current goals and future path for success in work and life.

The 7th agile ingredient is a sense of ownership and commitment; agile teams need to feel like they own the project. They need to feel like they are the business owners, and the stake and the company’s faith are at stake in what they do every day.

The 8th agile ingredient is a relentless obsession with the customer and the business goals, even when tackling a technical challenge. The customer and the business goals should be in every action we take and every brainstorming session we perform.

The 9th agile ingredient is a free, transparent, safe, and supportive work environment; agile teams need to feel safe to experiment and fail. They need to know that it is ok to make mistakes.

The 11th agile ingredient is having a culture of experimentation that promotes trial and error to enhance learning and minimize risks.

The 12th agile ingredient is that every team member should be able to perform their day-to-day work with the skills that make the team a complete unit of work with all the capabilities needed to achieve the mission. Like a Seal team, if possible, shouldn’t rely on outsider capabilities(Culture of DevSecOps). Team members trust each other know-how and abilities and that they can depend on each other. They bring each other to the highest standards, don’t fear healthy conflict, and challenge each other to get their best version of themselves.

The last agile ingredient is a clear shared understanding through documentation and transparent medium that highlights the above and states the how and the why in everything we do. You don’t need 300 pages; just one or two pages is enough for each concern.

Here you have it, and remember, Agile is a mindset, a culture that starts from the top based on the action of the leaders in their day-to-day work and how they interact with their team members.