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AGILE WORKING – COMMON PRACTICES [#Agile #AgileWorking #AgilePractices]

1. A VISIBLE BACKLOG OF PRIORITIZED WORK
2. TICKETS FOR THE WORK ITEMS REQUIRED
3. PUBLIC BOARDS TO TRACK PROGRESS
4. PLANNING SHORT SPRINTS TOGETHER, WITH BIDDING FOR WORK ITEMS
5. STAND-UP MEETINGS FOR THE WHOLE TEAM TO SHARE PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES
6. POST-SPRINT REVIEWS TO LEARN FROM WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DID NOT WORK

1. A VISIBLE BACKLOG OF PRIORITIZED WORK
Every member of the team can see the work items – new and and any significant changes required.

Key:
Having real clarity regarding business priorities and value so that work items can be compared and prioritized.

2. TICKETS FOR THE WORK ITEMS REQUIRED
Work is broken down both to suit time periods for sprints and to divide the different skills needed.

Key:
Ability to diagnose early on the work units needed from different data, analytics and other skills – worth planning out common work units in advance based on experience.

3. PUBLIC BOARDS TO TRACK PROGRESS
Internal customers, sponsors and wider team have a common view of priorities and progress. Such transparency is key to the culture needed for this collaboration.

Key:
Consistently use this to support stakeholder management and sponsor conversations. Driving their expectations using the board too.

4. PLANNING SHORT SPRINTS TOGETHER, WITH BIDDING FOR WORK ITEMS
A regular rhythm, e.g. 2 weeks, is established as the duration for delivery and cycle for new priorities.

Key:
Focus more on collaborating in order to achieve delivery, rather than more rigid planning.

5. STAND-UP MEETINGS FOR THE WHOLE TEAM TO SHARE PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES
Regular opportunity, e.g. daily, to spot issues early and collaborate to fix.

Key:
Attitudes and culture are crucial to this working well. Managers also need to ensure that they encourage openness about issues or mistakes. Good news reporting is the very antithesis of agile working.

6. POST-SPRINT REVIEWS TO LEARN FROM WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DID NOT WORK
Time is taken post-delivery to identify any lessons to be learnt for future sprints.

Key:
Focus on systemic issues. Depersonalize criticism and work on improving how everyone works together to improve the system for future work. Any underperformance by individuals should be handled separately. Use one-to-one chats with managers where possible giving close-to-the-moment feedback.

ADAPTED FROM
Agile working: Common practices to help customer insight teams:
MyCustomer