Five signs you know you are working in an agile team

Working agile is more than just a daily standup, but you knew that already. What are more distinct features of working in an agile team? Here are a few of them.

One: everybody is a developer

Everybody in the team has the same goal: getting stuff done. The distinction between your job and that of you peer is fading as you progress to developing stuff that works for your client. Everybody in the team shares the same responsibility. You do refinement together, work together in a peer setting most of the time. You share knowledge and you even take over from other disciplines in the team.

Two: you are the A-team

The team is more important than its individual members. You avoid local heroism with people that know it all. The best hero is the one that shares the way stuff is done. A hero is the one who shares most and educates the team on development principles. A hero helps all team members in getting a better performance so that all members become hero's. 

Three: reflection together

Reflection is done with the team. Together you reflect on what has been done in the review, feeling proud of what you, as a team, have achieved. You inspect what you failed to deliver and know what you need to change to do an even better job next time around. With the team you inspect how you are working and come up with things that increase your performance as a team and as an individual. You do peer reviews to inspect each other in an honest way so you learn and are able to improve. This implies no functional reviews by managers as well.

Four: dashboarding

As a team you use dashboards to make performance visible. Just like you use a dashboard in the car to read out speed, fuel and overall car performance. You have stopped sharing status in the form of reports or meetings. Reporting the old fashioned way has no added value to the customer. If anyone in the company wants to know how your team is performing they come to reviews and ask.

Five: working on products

The most important indicator of working in an agile fashion is perhaps that it is focused on products instead of projects. Your team works on a product with a distinct customer base. You and your team are solely responsible for the product and its success. A project is timebound while a product is customer bound.

What are the most important indicators for you? Please write them down in the comments.