It takes time and plenty of coaching to instil Agile values in
someone, and help them develop Agile principles into an intuition
to
do the right thing . Also, there are many fuzzy,
unpredictable, everyday situations beyond the scope of Agile
principles and practices, which are governed by people factors such
as mood, demeanour, intention, and motive, to name but a few. In
these situations one should be guided by the Agile values to derive
an appropriate course of action. Without experience, this can be
difficult to do.
For a team that is new to Agile, I really like the idea of having
them set some
Norms to be applied during the
project. Conducted as a workshop at the start of a project, setting
the
Norms can help novices translate
abstract values into concrete behaviours, without guiding
principles. And, as a team exercise that results in consensus, the
team can begin to bind around some simple, basic ground rules.
Applying the
Norms (or concrete behaviours) can
help people to internalise the more abstract values. It's a good
idea to keep the
Norms
big and
visible , to serve as reminders, by posting them publicly
around the workspace.
I reproduced the original list of
Norms referenced by
David Anderson in his blog post,
Where did the 40 hour week go? :
- Have fun!
- Honor time limits
- One speaks; all listen. Listen to understand
- Everyone participates; no one dominates
- It's okay to disagree
- Anyone can call a timeout
- Reaching consensus means that you're okay with a decision. It doesn't mean that you like it. It does mean that you agree not to talk down about it or quit over it.
- Be honest
- Learn from mistakes
- Take ownership and be responsible
- Commit publicly
