As a ScrumMaster preparing for your Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) exam, understanding how to foster these elements makes you an excellent team leader who can reduce misunderstanding, ambiguities, and conflicts in your team.
Creating a working agreement encapsulates the norms, rules, expectations, and operational guidelines that team needs to abide by. This working agreement facilitates effective communication and fosters teamwork in a number of ways. In this post, we’ll delve into what a working agreement looks like and how it can be used to enhance communication and teamwork.
Need for a Working Agreement
Projects often fail due to poor communication, misunderstandings, and assumptions. Having a working agreement eliminates the scope for ambiguity and mismatched expectations, thereby ensuring that everybody is on the same page. Different stakeholders have different expectations from a project and a working agreement helps in reconciling these differences.
Creating a Working Agreement
Creating a collaborative working agreement can be conducted in five key steps.
- Identify crucial aspects: During a group session, invite team members to discuss what they consider essential in how the team operates.
- Discuss and clarify: In the group, discuss, elaborate and clarify the suggested aspects. This helps everyone to understand the perspectives of others.
- Agree on guidelines: As a team, agree on a set of guidelines that align with the identified aspects. This includes aspects like availability, response time, update frequency, coding standards, etc.
- Consolidate and Document: Once the rules are agreed upon, consolidate them into a single document. Having a concrete document ensures the agreement is known, understood, and followed.
- Regularly Review and Update: Review and update the agreement regularly to account for changes in team members, project scope, etc.
Here’s an example of how it might look:
| Aspects | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Availability | All members to be online from 9 a.m to 5 p.m |
| Response Time | All messages must be responded to within an hour during office hours |
| Coding Standards | All code must adhere to the agreed coding standards |
Building a Sustainable Agreement
A working agreement that is sustainable is one that all team members are happy to honor. Therefore, when creating a working agreement, it’s essential that all team members have their inputs included and that the agreement is revisited and updated often.
Additionally, ground rules defined in the agreement must be generic and not person-specific. They must be enforceable and applicable for all team members.
The Role of the ScrumMaster
As an A-CSM, your duty is to facilitate the creation of the working agreement, making sure that everyone’s voice is heard, and that the agreement is agreed upon by all.
Fostering Clear Communication and Teamwork
Implementing a working agreement fosters communication and teamwork by clarifying team members’ expectations, setting clear processes, and establishing a common understanding of how the team works together. It also allows team members to hold each other accountable in a fair and transparent manner.
In Conclusion
Creating a working agreement is crucial in fostering clear communication and teamwork in agile teams. As an advanced ScrumMaster, it is an essential practice that can significantly reduce misunderstanding and miscommunication, helping your team succeed in their agile journey.
Practice Test
True or False: Working agreements must reflect Scrum values and principles.
Answer: True
Explanation: A working agreement is a set of mutually agreed upon guidelines and rules created by the team to define the behavior, interaction, and process within a team.
In a scrum team, who is responsible for establishing the working agreement?
- a) Scrum Master
- b) Product Owner
- c) Development Team
- d) All team members
Answer: d) All team members
Explanation: Although the scrum master may facilitate the creation of the working agreement, it’s essential that all team members participate to produce a result that everyone agrees upon.
Why is a working agreement necessary for a scrum team?
- a) To regulate the team’s method of interaction
- b) To outline the team’s decision-making process
- c) To establish the team’s expectations of each team member
- d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above
Explanation: Working agreements aim to ensure clear communication and foster teamwork by highlighting how the team works together.
True or False: The work agreement is a static document that, once developed, should not be changed.
Answer: False
Explanation: Just like the team’s process, the working agreement needs to be inspected and adapted over time. The team can revise it as needed.
What does a well-crafted working agreement usually focus on?
- a) The roles and responsibilities of each team member
- b) Maintaining clear lines of communication and respectful behavior
- c) The technicalities of the product being developed
- d) Both a) and b)
Answer: d) Both a) and b)
Explanation: While technical discussions are important, a proper working agreement centrally focuses on team interactions and individual responsibilities.
A strongly defined working agreement can help:
- a) Reduce miscommunications
- b) Resolve disagreements
- c) Improve team collaboration
- d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above
Explanation: By setting clear boundaries and expectations, a working agreement can play an important role in reducing conflicts and improving collaboration within the team.
True or False: Only the Scrum Master has the authority to enforce the working agreement.
Answer: False
Explanation: The responsibility of enforcing the working agreement lies with the entire team, not just the Scrum Master.
The working agreement should be reviewed:
- a) At the start of each sprint
- b) During retrospectives
- c) Only when issues occur
- d) Both a) and b)
Answer: d) Both a) and b)
Explanation: Working agreements should be regularly reviewed and can be revised to improve team collaboration and effectiveness as needed.
True or False: Team members’ personal issues or conflicts should not be included in the working agreement.
Answer: True
Explanation: A working agreement focuses on professional conduct and not personal interpersonal relationships or issues, so personal conflicts should be handled separately.
The primary purpose of a working agreement is:
- a) To establish process
- b) To set expectations
- c) To enforce rules
- d) To establish order
Answer: b) To set expectations
Explanation: By setting clear expectations and guidelines for behavior, a working agreement helps facilitate effective teamwork and communication.
Interview Questions
What is a Working Agreement in Scrum?
A Working Agreement in scrum is a set of guidelines set by team members that details how they should work together to create a productive working environment. It often includes standards of work, teamwork values, and expectations for communication and mutual respect.
What is the purpose of creating a Working Agreement in Scrum?
The purpose of creating a Working Agreement is to foster clear communication, improve collaboration, and streamline the decision-making process in the team. It helps in setting the required standards and ground rules so that everyone understands what is expected of them.
Who is involved in creating a Working Agreement?
The entire Scrum Team, including ScrumMaster, Product Owner, and Development Team, is involved in creating a Working Agreement. It’s essential that everyone participates to ensure inclusivity and buy-in.
How should a good Working Agreement in Scrum be characterized?
A good Working Agreement should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. It should also align with the team’s values and principles.
Can a Working Agreement be changed, and if so, how often?
Yes, a Working Agreement can be adapted and changed as per team’s needs. It should be reviewed and updated regularly, such as during the team’s retrospective meetings.
How does a Working Agreement enhance communication in the team?
A Working Agreement sets clear expectations for communication, such as frequency, mediums, response timing, etc. This promotes understanding and reduces the potential for misunderstandings.
How does a Working Agreement foster teamwork?
A Working Agreement outlines team standards and creates a shared understanding of how the team works together. It encourages collaboration, mutual respect, and accountability, thus fostering teamwork.
What role does a ScrumMaster play in facilitating a Working Agreement?
A ScrumMaster facilitates the creation of the Working Agreement and ensures it is upheld. They guide the team in revising it as needed and help to manage conflicts regarding the Agreement.
How can a Working Agreement resolve conflicts in a Scrum team?
A Working Agreement serves as a common ground and offers mechanisms for conflict resolution. It provides clarity and expectations of how conflicts should be managed and resolved within the team.
What elements should be considered when setting up a Working Agreement for communication?
Consider the following elements: preferred communication tools, time for responses, scheduling meetings and shared team updates, protocols on giving and receiving feedback.
Why must a Working Agreement be transparent and accessible to all in the team?
Transparency ensures that everyone is on the same page, minimizing misunderstandings and increasing compliance. Accessibility allows team members to refer back to it as needed, reinforcing its importance.
Can Working Agreements prevent burnout in a Scrum Team?
Yes, a Working Agreement can help prevent burnout. Clear working hours, workload expectations, and communication procedures can help maintain a healthy work-life balance for all team members.
What is the relation between the Scrum Values and the Working Agreement?
The Scrum Values – courage, focus, openness, respect, and commitment, should underpin everything in the Working Agreement. The Agreement is an extension of these values as it informs the behavior and decision-making within the team.
How does the Working Agreement support the Scrum framework?
The Working agreement supports the Scrum framework by further empowering the team to self-organize and make decisions. It also promotes transparency, inspection, and adaptation, the three pillars of Scrum.
Is a Working Agreement necessary for every Scrum Team?
Though not explicitly required in the Scrum Guide, a Working Agreement is considered a best practice in Scrum. It serves to codify team practices and enhance teamwork and communication.
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