Team working agreements are an important tool for aligning and empowering Scrum teams. Put simply, scrum team working agreements document the processes, expectations, and norms that your team follows to work together effectively. They cover both logistical details like meeting cadences and communication tools, as well as cultural aspects like how to make decisions or resolve conflict.
Creating explicit working agreements is recommended for all Scrum teams. Given the flexibility and collaboration required in the Scrum framework, ambiguity around how the team functions can quickly lead to frustration and breakdowns. Documenting agreements makes the team’s rules of engagement transparent to all members and sets clear expectations.
In this post, I will provide guidance on defining working agreements tailored to Scrum teams. I’ll cover common questions you should address, creating and documenting your agreements, and tips for maintaining them long-term. Read on to level up your Scrum team’s alignment, efficiency, and delivery capability with working agreements.
Why Scrum Teams Need Working Agreements
Scrum is built on a self-organizing, cross-functional team model designed for adapting to changing needs. While this provides flexibility and responsiveness, it also requires strong norms and alignment within the team to work smoothly. Without explicit working agreements, misalignments can easily emerge leading to confusion, inconsistencies, and conflicts.
Some examples of how this plays out:
- Team members have different assumptions about when to work or how often to check communications. Things fall through the cracks.
- There are varying interpretations of done. Quality issues arise.
- Decisions are made in silos rather than inclusively. Members disengage.
Documenting your team’s agreements provides several key benefits:
- Creates clarity around processes like meetings, decision-making, and task workflows
- Allows onboarding of new members quickly by sharing established norms
- Provides a reference point when conflicts or confusion arise
- Encourages ownership and engagement from all team members
- Enables inspecting and adapting agreements over time as the team’s needs change
Simply put, working agreements enable continuous improvement and cohesion on Scrum teams. They lead to more efficient delivery, engaged teams, and higher-quality products.
Questions to Address in Your Scrum Team Working Agreements
When creating your team working agreements, make sure to discuss and decide on the following types of questions:
Communication Norms
- What communication channels will we use (Slack, email, etc.)?
- How often will we check and respond to messages?
- How much transparency is expected?
Meetings
- When will we hold sprint planning sessions?
- What day and time will our daily stand-ups be?
- When will we hold our sprint reviews/demos and who is typically invited?
- How long will our sprint reviews and retrospectives be?
Availability
- What are our core team members working hours?
- How will we handle paid time off and vacations?
Tools
- Which platform will we use for task/issue tracking?
- How will we maintain our sprint backlog?
- What programs will we use for design, planning, and documentation?
Decision Making
- How will make decisions as a team (consensus, vote, etc.)?
- Who has the final call on priority conflicts?
Membership Changes
- How will we onboard new team members?
- What training will be provided?
- How do members rejoin after time off?
Continuous Improvement
- When and how will we look back to inspect and adapt?
- How can we improve our practices over time?
Covering these questions will provide comprehensive guidance for your team to work together cohesively.
Creating Your Working Agreements
Here are some tips for creating thorough and effective Scrum Team Working Agreements:
- Schedule a dedicated meeting for drafting agreements. Set the expectation that it is a mandatory team activity.
- Consider using a lightweight template to capture agreements as you discuss them. Google Docs works well.
- Have an open and honest dialogue. Get all members to share their perspectives and inputs.
- Drive for consensus across the team on each agreement. Ensure everyone aligns and buys in.
- Document the final agreements in an accessible place like a shared doc or wiki page.
- Set a reminder to revisit the agreements regularly to inspect and adapt as needed.
- Treat the agreements as living documents. Continually update them as your team and process mature.
Following this approach sets your Scrum team up for alignment, engagement, and continuous improvement powered by your working agreements.
Implementing and Maintaining Your Agreements
The real work begins after you’ve created your initial working agreements. They must be intentionally implemented, followed, and maintained. Here are some tips:
- Socialize the agreements with key stakeholders. Ensure other groups are aware of your team’s processes.
- Reference the agreements frequently during daily stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and general discussions.
- Gently enforce the agreements if certain members are not following them consistently. Peer accountability is important.
- Add the working agreements to onboarding materials and training for new team members.
- Discuss what is and isn’t working well with the current agreements during retrospectives. Identify any changes needed.
- Periodically review the agreements as a team. Check if they need to be updated based on learnings.
- When new members join, ensure they are aware of and support the team’s existing agreements.
- If agreements are causing bottlenecks, address those areas first through adaptations and process improvements.
By regularly revisiting and acting on your agreements, you give your team a framework for continuous improvement. This ensures you maintain alignment over time.
Scrum Team Working Agreements: Key Takeaways
- They create transparency around processes, expectations, and norms for the team. This leads to clarity and alignment.
- Working agreements enable efficient onboarding of new team members by documenting established practices.
- Having clear agreements provides a reference point when disagreements or misalignments emerge.
- They encourage shared ownership and engagement from all team members.
- An agreement to regularly inspect and adapt the agreements allows continuous improvement.
- Consistently implementing the agreements with discipline is required for them to be effective.
- Teams should treat working agreements as living documents and update them as needed.
- Well-defined working agreements empower Scrum teams to deliver at a high level.
In summary, taking the time to define your team’s agreements explicitly pays dividends through increased alignment, engagement, and productivity. All Scrum teams should develop working agreements suited to their needs and revisit them often.
