Agile Team Transformation: First Steps

Thang Nguyen
Scrum Master, Coach
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Content
What is agile?
Why do we need agile?
Agile team characteristics
Team transformation
How to do coaching

What is Agile?

Agile is a set of common values and principles that the

processes and tools have in common

Agile Values
Individuals and interactions over processes and tool
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Why do we need agile?

Speed to market
Quality
Flexibility/Agility
Do the thing right and do the right thing
Continuous Improvement

Agile team characteristics

Self organizing
Empowered
Collaboration
Sharing goal and objectives
Own its decisions & commitment
Consensus driven
Constructive disagreement
Constructive feedbacks
Trust
Motivating team

Agile team characteristics

Agile team characteristics

Team Transformation
Building Trust
Create Open and Support Environment
Implement Feedback Channel

Building Trust

Practice #1: Communication Openly

One of 12 agile principles: The most efficient and effective
method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation.
Use face-to-face communication as much as possible

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Building Trust

Practice #2: Transparent information

Single source for information across all members to foster
greater understanding among team members.
The knowledge base should be accessible online in real
time by all locations
Wiki
Shared mailing list and folder
Online project management tools

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Building Trust

Practice #3: Improve personal relationship

Get the team acquainted, and to form stronger bonds, to
socialize after work
Set aside time each week for informal group discussions

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Building Trust

Practice #4: Engineering best practices

Establish a set of common best practices across all team
members.
Scrum Master must facilitate and ensure agreement from
all members.
Reinforce the trust and shared values between team
members.

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Building Trust

Practice #5: No class system

No distinction should be made between team members
With a class system, it will lower the trust relationship
between teams.
The lower class will always feel that they are left out.

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Building Trust

Practice#6: Lead by example

Show your people that you trust others
Follow the rule that team defined

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Create Open and Support Environment

Practice#1: Dont place blame

Mistakes and disappointments happen, and it's easy to
blame someone who causes these
We should give constructive feedbacks on what should be
changed/improved when we get the same problem next
time

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Create Open and Support Environment

Practice #2: Conflict Resolving

Conflicts are an opportunity for growth
Conflicts continue to fester when ignored
Handle conflict sooner rather than later

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Create Open and Support Environment

Practice #3: Working pairing

Pair with another team member which can lead to great
knowledge transfer.
The understanding was much deeper and an immediate
bond was created between the two who paired

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Create Open and Support Environment

Practice #4: Appreciate your team members

Showing appreciation give team members the boost they
need to stay engaged and productive.
Kudos program help to motivate and recognize member
contribution.

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Implement Feedback Channel

Encourage members to give feedback
Coaching people to understand that feedback is the key
for continuous improvement
Individual feedback session in each quarter or
whenever it is needed
Team feedback session one time in each sprint or each
month

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Implement Feedback Channel

Working on feedback:
Prioritize feedbacks to decide what to work on
Offer suggestions and solutions
Put them to improvement backlogs and allocate time to
implement the improvement
Check in for progress

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How to do coaching

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How to do coaching

Coaching Styles:

Coach as Teacher
Coach as Mentor
Coach as Facilitator
Coach as Problem Solver
Coach as Collaboration Conductor

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How to do coaching

Coaching Level:
Individual
Team

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How to do coaching

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How to do coaching

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How to do coaching

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How to do coaching

What should not to do:

Do not clarify what benefits that the team can achieve
Do not understand team project work
Without knowing you, your Agile coach knows you use should
start using stand ups, TDD and pair programming, etc.

Force the team to do something

As a coach, your primary concern should not be

bringing practices into compliance. Your role is to help
the team become more effective

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Q&A

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