Transitional States of Long Running Agile Teams

Teams that start to use agile approaches and techniques for the first time seem to experience several transition states as their approaches mature and they begin to evolve from reactionary teams into proactive teams.

Below are some of the transitional states observed in over 10 teams over a 2 year period, typically in the finance sector.

Reactionary State

When teams first start using agile for the first time it is not uncommon for them to be a little overwhelmed with learning new agile techniques, responding to customer feature requests and matching the organisation expectations with regards performance, especially if there is a belief that the teams will be higher performing now that they are using agile.

This initial state can induce sensory overload on teams who naturally fall into a reactionary mode of working as they jump from one issue to the next to meet the demands. This reactionary thinking may manifest as short term thinking of 1-2 sprints ahead at best, practices are quite mechanical as the muscle memory builds, and tension points are experienced when things are not quite right.

In this state the Tuckman's model of storming and forming seem to rage in the team as they work through the "known knowns" and the organisation focusses on speed of delivery as the main driver for getting things done.

Attentive State

In this state the reactionary storm has passed and teams now begin to In this state, teams may have matured and proved themselves with some good consistency on how they do their work. The backlog is under control and may well beginning to diminish into a state where the team are beginning to wonder about downsizing.

In this state there is usually a calmness about how the team handle work and issues as they begin to build up their strategies to handle most eventualities.

The Tuckman's model of norming begins to be experienced as teams begin to reach a consistent flow state and the turbulence previously experienced begins to subside.

Interactions with the customer tend to be focussed on known unknowns where there is an awareness of what is needed and why, however the teams will look to learn new techniques such as solution definition techniques to uncover if they have the right solution

The organisation may well start to consider value to market over delivering fast realising that positive customer impact is more valuable than getting rubbish to market faster.

New skills are learned such as inception workshops, user journey mapping, customer experience and user experience synch up

cohesive

Proactive State

Tucman's model of performing In this state there is a marked transition as the team begin to learn about how to discover the unknown unknowns with rapid prototyping, Design Sprints, and low fidelity customer testing to try multiple ideas and gain data on which of those ideas resonate strongly.

An experimental approach begins to take shape as the teams begin to get used to trying new ideas.

Organisations in this state provide a safe environment in which the teams are enabled to experiment and discover the unknown unknowns.

The strategic thinking is with an evolutionary strategic direction that is constantly refined with customer and technical feedback.

The technical stack may well focus on efficiencies with a continuous improvement on automation

This state may also entertain market disruption and develop disruptive skillsets and build the confidence necessary to author new ideas into the market.

supportive flexible

References

1. Development Sequence In Small Groups, Tuckman B. W., Psychological Bulletin, Vol 63, No. 6, 384-399, 1965