If Agile project methodologies have sparked your interest, you might have some questions about how to put these ideas into practice. What is the recommended size of an Agile team? What are the key roles? How can you empower Agile teams to do their best work? Below, we’ll explore the answers to these questions and more.
The Anatomy of the Agile Team
An Agile team can look different depending on the organization or project, but some roles remain fairly constant. Teams are generally organized around a specific product or function, executing iterations of a larger project scope. These are the titles and positions that generally make up an Agile team:
- Product Owner: Manages project roadmap, prioritizes backlog, and makes decisions about what the team is working on and when.
- Team Lead or Scrum Master: Oversees team collaborative efforts, conducts meetings, coaches team members, and facilitates communication.
- Team Member: Executes project tasks and contributes to the final product. Depending on the project, this role can include designers, testers, and programmers.
- Specialist: Uses subject expertise to guide or advise product development. This role is only sometimes necessary.
- Stakeholder: Refers to a range of people affected by the project. It can refer to executives, end users, investors, external auditors, support staff, and anyone else who has a stake in the project’s success.
Why use Agile teams?
Agile teams are small, nimble groups that aim to tackle large projects in short, productive bursts. Each burst is known as a “sprint” or “iteration.” This structure provides many benefits for companies that utilize Agile practices. Some of these advantages include, but are not limited to:
- Increased efficiency
- Adaptability
- Quicker time to market
- Decreased project risks
- Higher customer satisfaction
- Improved visibility
Agile processes can fail to have the desired impact if not used properly. That’s not to say there is one correct way to use them, though. Instead, project teams should tailor their Agile process to fit their capabilities and culture.
What Is the Recommended Size of an Agile Team?
Because Agile teams are quick-moving, versatile, highly collaborative groups, there is a limit to the number of members who can participate effectively. The generally recommended team size includes at least five members but not more than ten. This rule is sometimes known as seven plus or minus two.
So, can an organization be too big to be Agile? It is possible to have larger Agile teams, but this requires some additional considerations. Large organizations can scale Agile processes to suit operations and even enterprise projects.
There are ways to avoid large Agile teams, like dividing tasks and responsibilities among supporting, collaborative teams or teams-of-teams. In these cases, collaboration and communication is imperative.
More Best Practices for Agile Teams
There’s more to implementing Agile frameworks than simply building a team. Here are some ways you can get the most out of these popular project management methodologies:
1. Prioritize Collaboration
A team is only as good as their cooperative efforts allow. Setting up avenues for clear communication between leadership roles, team members, and clients or customers is crucial for keeping efforts aligned.
You can achieve this through quick daily team meetings, visual project trackers, and platforms that provide aggregate communication tools.
Effective collaboration helps with problem-solving, avoiding project delays, and keeps teams updated on any changes that might occur along the way.
Similarly, consistent collaboration with clients improves the quality and acceptability of the finished product. It also improves customer satisfaction, as they feel involved with and aware of project progress.
2. Enable Teams to Self-Organize
Give Agile teams the freedom and capabilities to decide how they execute tasks. Micromanaging teams is counterproductive to Agile efforts. By giving teams the freedom to devise and execute iterations as they see fit, you maximize the creative power and efficacy of the group.
This can take work. When deciding to move to a self-organizing strategy, look to training and coaching methods that will give team members the foundation for operating with shared responsibility and accountability.
3. Reflect and Review
The retrospective process is an essential step in Agile project management frameworks. Routinely evaluating project processes can help teams identify gaps, spot potential antipatterns, and make informed adjustments to the way tasks get handled.
In the same way management can disrupt a team’s ability to self-organize, directing changes to their methods can work against the ultimate goal of an Agile organization.
Give teams the structure and support they need to examine their own performance and make decisions about areas for improvement, what went well, and how to proceed for future projects.
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- Visual collaboration tools
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