Agile methodology has travelled a long way from inception, and many companies today are adopting it due to benefits like being able to generate significant revenue and many other factors after implementation. However, not all companies will enjoy all the benefits that agile has to offer because they don’t give much needed attention to the team’s performance, which is very crucial in unlocking agile benefits for the organization. Increasing the performance of the agile team is the best way to bring more agility into an organization.
Boosting the performance of the Agile team
Agile project managers who have completed Leading SAFe Training will be responsible for the performance of the team in the agile environment. Implementing agile in the organization just does not ensure the team performance. The leader should look into the areas where teams struggle to adopt agile principles and find the root cause of the struggle to improve performance.
Why do agile teams struggle?
When you introduce agile into the organization, there are many areas where teams fail to render their high performance. They may struggle to adopt change in culture, use individual experience and expertise in adopting new ways of working, establish collaboration with stakeholders and understand business. As said, scrum masters will be responsible for the performance of the team; investing in their coaching skills makes them better leaders and makes powerful interventions in the team’s performance and transformation.
Define the roles and responsibilities of the team.
Teams in the agile environment have different roles and responsibilities. The team leaders should set the right direction for the team regarding the workflow aligned with business priorities. They should match the right team and people to the opportunities and coach them to establish collaboration for effective project management. The leaders should foster the performance of the team by motivating, coaching, and offering feedback to boost their performance. Right coaching helps the team embrace agile principles responsibly and enhance the effectiveness of outcomes.
Conduct regular interactions with the team
Agile teams should get involved in regular interactions with the scrum masters and project leaders to understand project goals and their role in working towards business objectives. The entire team should use the common language of the project while speaking to the stakeholders to understand their requirements.
Share knowledge and experiences with the team.
The project leader should share their experience and knowledge with the team to help the team work as fast as possible towards their goal. By sharing your knowledge with the team, you will help in growing organizational knowledge and help the teams learn everything on their own. You will be able to build strong relations with the teams, establishing effective collaboration.
Remove impediments
The scrum master of the team is responsible for handling the impediments that occur during the process of development to make the journey hassle-free. The scrum master should always detect the impediments at an early stage of development, as dealing with them later will be quite challenging. Make sure the team has all the tools to start their work. The scrum master should effectively bridge the gap between the development team, removing the disturbances. Handling the project’s questions and requests from their end, the scrum master can aid the performance of the team. This can be achieved by completing the scrum master courses like SASM certification course.
Use Performance Metrics Effectively
The performance metrics should be used responsibly, not to pressure the team about workloads but to motivate the team, giving them an optimistic view. Take every opportunity to appreciate the teamwork if the metrics have improved in the last sprint so that they feel motivated and perform better in the next sprint. If the team does not show well in the performance, walk through their difficulties and solve them to ensure the velocity of the sprint does not decrease.
Adopting New tools and Practices
Agile transformation in the organization calls for the usage of new tools and practices to increase the productivity of the agile teams. The scrum master who has completed SAFe certification training will be able to help the team use the tools and enhance the productivity of the team. The scrum has to make sure the teams are trained in all these new tools to function effectively in the agile environment and enhance the performance that could increase business value.
Conclusion
When transitioning to agile, the teams in the organization should undergo training about the methodology that they will be adopting in the company. The training courses help the professionals understand interpersonal dynamics for the methodology to be successful. To become a high-performing team in an agile environment, one should understand the benefits of effective collaboration, communication, an iterative approach, and customer satisfaction in delivering business value.
