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Great Agile teams exceed the expectations of the stakeholders and the management by delivering exceptional results. They are respected and admired in the industry because of what they are able to achieve in a short period of time due to their Agile structure.
Building such an Agile team requires a lot of sustained efforts and commitment. We have made the work easy for you with this curated list of the common characteristics of successful Agile teams.
1. Team Spirit
These teams instill a one-team attitude in them and are able to work as a cohesive team. Team members should radiate positive vibes, collaborating and sharing with each other. They have a shared vision of a clear goal and excel through continuous improvement. They put their stakeholders first and respect each other. Even if they argue they quickly reconcile.
A CSD course gets them equipped with traits like accountability, reliability, attitude, goal alignment, and other complementary skill sets. These make them share responsibilities and tasks enabling them to succeed in their daily goals.
2. Passion
Passion always sets a person apart when it comes to their commitment to the project and results. A passionate team is always an asset to the company.
The members don’t give excuses and laze around when work is given. They put in their heart and soul into the problems and come up with excellent results. Passion enables them to handle even the toughest of works with ease.
Team members are always excited about their work and are up to date in their field. They always approach complex problems with creative ideas.
3. Adaptability
A great Agile team can survive in not only the ideal, but also the worst situations. They are adaptable to all unfavorable conditions. While working as a team the members may have to work outside their area of expertise though not very far from it. A productive Agile team always accepts such challenges.
4. Ownership and Accountability
Successful Agile teams have enough autonomy to make their own decisions as they have a sense of ownership and accountability. These decisions remain well within the boundaries of organizational values and teams are very much responsible for it. Also, this cannot be misused as freedom to make immature decisions and take inappropriate actions.
The purpose is empowered with a commitment to pave way for autonomy and accountability. Great Agile teams don’t look for excuses and take total responsibility for their failures. They are always focused on continual improvement and treat every failure and success as a result of team effort and not individual. They neither take credit for success individually or blame someone else for the failures. They always try not to make the same mistake again.
5. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is necessary to maintain healthy relationships and handle social interactions in a balanced manner. The Agile team members should be aware of and in control of their emotions while at work.
Team members respect each other, motivate and support their personal growth and success even though they have their differences and varied backgrounds. Emotional intelligence enables the team members to control and manage the emotions of others along with their own emotions. Working together on acquiring new skills definitely makes the work more effective.
6. Culture of Excellence
Great Agile teams strive for process excellence, people excellence, and engineering excellence. This helps a lot in continual improvement and to deliver quality shippable solutions to the stakeholders. Innovation and improvement are a part and parcel of the Agile work culture.
The norms of today include T-shaped individuals, pi-shaped teams, cross-functional and digital teams. Team members look for opportunities and participate in a community of practice, hackathons, self and team development plans, conferences and other opportunities to share and expand their knowledge.
Moreover, the team internally introspects regularly and connects with external teams to find out where they need improvement. They are not satisfied with ordinary results and challenge themselves to attain more.
7. Communication
The Agile team should possess excellent communication skills. All the processes they utilize are made seamless using these skills. The work status must be updated either physically or virtually at regular intervals of time. These are made possible through Agile events like stand-ups and retrospectives.
Communication makes stand-ups more efficient and smooth so that they all clearly know the agenda of the team and that of the individuals for the day. Team members accomplish their work through pairing or swarming according to the need. Even in a distributed team environment, the members are so transparent through communication.
Inculcate These Qualities to Become a Top Scrum Team
Every Agile team needs to possess these top qualities in order to succeed in their work. You should strive for these top qualities in every member of your Agile team along with ensuring that they get their CSD certification.
