Getting Started with Product Delivery

Working Agreement (Part 6 of 10)

“Teamwork. A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.” — Justin Sewell

Vincent Carter

Published in

Straight Scrum

6 min readJul 26, 2021

At this point in your transition to Product Delivery, the Scrum Team should have spent some time together working on the initial Product Backlog Refinement (iPBR) and it’s possible that the team might have experienced some conflicts, some healthy and some not so healthy. This is to be expected and you should be prepared for it to happen. With new teams, conflict or friction can arise between team members as they move from strangers to co-workers, and individuals’ preferred way of working clashes with other teammates. For existing teams, this type of change with new responsibilities and new ways of thinking can surface resistance, high emotions, and frustration. Instead of attempting to resolve these conflicts, it’s time to set some team norm guardrails with a Working Agreement, and the sooner the better.

What is a Working Agreement?

A Working Agreement (also known as Team Norms, Ground Rules, and Working Guidelines) is a simple yet powerful list of values and behaviors developed by the Scrum Team that defines how the team will work together to create a positive and productive culture. A Working Agreement creates a common language that helps to establish, as well as reinforce, the Scrum Team’s interactions which can lead to higher performance. The Scrum Teams that are most effective at setting and adhering to their agreed values and behaviors are the ones that define them in writing.

Things to Keep in Mind

There are a lot of templates online that can assist you with creating a Working Agreement. So instead of offering up my favorites, I’ve listed some things that are important to keep in mind when using any template.

Get a Skilled Facilitator: Have a skilled facilitator that is not part of the Scrum Team to help with the initial creation of the Working Agreement. Getting someone outside of the team is essential to create an environment where everyone on the Scrum Team is able to participate without being judged as having too much influence or bias on the process.
Keep It Small: Keep the first iteration of your Working Agreement to only the top five to ten agreements. You want to make sure that you are setting up a few guardrail agreements that are easy to remember, not a huge contract that overwhelms the team and is easily forgotten.
Make it Visible: After the team has created its working agreement, it’s important that it’s not forgotten. Put it on your Scrum board at work and/or your online Product site such as Confluence. You want it to be easily accessible to all members.
Update Frequently: The team needs to keep their Working Agreement a topic of conversation on a regular basis, especially when the members of the Scrum Team change or an agreement can no longer be upheld. As time progresses and the Scrum Team learns how to work well with one another, adjustments may be needed to better fit with the team’s new norms. If the team is finding it difficult to uphold an agreement, discuss what might be getting in the way.
Handle Violations (aka Avoid the Broken Window): The Broken Window theory is the idea that when an issue goes unattended, it affects the team’s attitude and it leads to more issues, ergo more broken windows. When an agreement is violated, the Working Agreement is now broken and the Scrum Team members need to call out the violation so as to repair the agreement as soon as possible to prevent any additional breakage. Calling out someone when an agreement is broken can be uncomfortable at first. It takes time, trust, and psychological safety for the members of the Scrum Team to feel comfortable enough to do so. That’s why I am a big fan of setting up some role-playing while creating your Working Agreement that allows the team to practice bringing up the topic of a broken agreement in a safe way using made-up scenarios.

A Handful of Examples and Topics

In no particular order, here are some examples of agreements and conversation starters that I have collected that you and your team might find helpful with getting started:

When someone notices that another member doesn’t stick to the Working Agreement, that person needs to bring it up right away and repair the agreement
Scrum Values: Focus, Respect, Openness, Courage, and Commitment
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Scrum Team (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers) — availability and contact information
Events start and end on time
Be on time for meetings
Tell the truth
Communicate individual schedule
Define and adhere to the Definition of Done
Define and adhere to Version Control rules
Adhere to code documentation standards
Update the Backlog before Daily Meeting (aka Daily Scrum)
Respect your team member’s time
What are our working hours? Core hours — times during the day that all Team members agree to be present and available for collaboration
What’s our preferred way to get in touch with each other?
How soon should we respond?
What are some guidelines for successful meetings?
What team behaviors do we want to be known for?
Cell phones — if or when it is appropriate to use them during Team events
Mute phones when not talking and try to have your video on
Remember Definition of Ready
Remember Definition of ‘Done’
How the Team limits Work In Progress (i.e. the Kanban Concept)
How the Team ensures everyone has an equal voice and feels respected
If you miss a meeting or event then you agree to support decisions made in your absence
If you can’t attend a Team event you will let the Team know in advance
During each Sprint, at least one Team Member will work on growing a skill outside of their core strengths.
In the case of software development, every Sprint the Team will make an effort to improve some part of their codebase.
Technical Decisions: Will be open and optional participation
When in Doubt Ask
Speak your mind but be kind
Always be fully engaged
Assume Positive Intent: Sometimes bad behavior is simply bad execution of good intent
Stop Starting, Start Finishing

Final Thoughts

“A Team is not a group of people that work together, it is a group of people who trust each other.” — Simon Sinek

Too many times Scrum Teams go through the ritual of creating a Working Agreement only to have it quickly become stale and ignored. Don’t let this happen to your team. The success of the Scrum Team with becoming high-performing and gelling weighs heavily on the team’s ability to have healthy conflicts while upholding their values and agreed-upon behaviors. It is essential that the team establishes and stays committed to their Working Agreement.