A Working Agreement is a valuable tool to use for establishing a shared understanding, and way of working for teams. Also called a Social Contract, this practice is a great foundation for building high performing teams. Team members themselves set agreements. The purpose of setting up team norms is to establish a ONE team culture, and it is something to refer back when things get rocky within the team.
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WHERE TO START AND END
When chartering a new team, I would suggest starting with parts 3, 4, & 5: the team mission, roles & responsibilities, and metrics.
This encapsulates the idea of, “starting with why” – a common theme in the Agile landscape. I would end with the top sections 1 & 2, choosing a team name and motto. For an already existing team that is going through changes, like absorbing new members, starting with the top sections is fine.
THINK THROUGH THE MIDDLE
The middle sections of 6, 7, & 8 are meant to be self-reflective. We need to know how we see ourselves and be as radically honest as possible. It’s commonly said at Scrum Inc. that doing Scrum won’t make you agile, but it will surely show you where you are not. These sections are designed to help facilitate that discussion, as well how we want to celebrate and improve.
THE VALUES SECTIONS
The final sections, 9 & 10, are of particular importance as we want to create a values-driven culture. The Scrum Values anchor our culture, but we need to expand our minds to include those of our company and our team. For example, Honesty, while essential for Scrum to succeed, is not a core value. I have not often seen it in corporate value statements either, but I have worked with many teams that want to explicitly include it in their working agreements.
Section 10 is what we commonly associate with working agreements. Here is where we summarize and list what norms and behaviors we want to encourage. We suggest writing them as individuals and then discussing them as a group, ending with voting by “fist of five” for no more than ten at a time to be included in this Working Agreement.
THE EVENTS
Section 11 is our final one where we list our Event details. This includes the time and place, as well as any other important people who need to be present that are external to the team. For example, in Scrum we always want a representation of the customer at the Sprint Review so we can get direct feedback on the product increment the team has created, so here is where we would list stakeholder and customer names.
This agreement can be revisited during a team’s Sprint Retrospective and modified as needed. In particular, if a team has mastered one of the agreements in section 11, it can be removed and another one voted up into its place. I hope you find this helpful and feel free to provide any feedback to make it better.
How Working Agreements Help
Working agreements:
Develop a sense of shared responsibility
Increase members’ awareness of their own behavior
Empower the facilitator to lead the group according to the agreements.
Enhance the quality of the group process.
These agreements are created by teams and the ScrumMaster facilitates the meeting, and they are preferably, created/reviewed during the Sprint 0 of every release.
Agreements work well when:
They are important to the team
They are limited in number
They are fully supported by each member
The members are reminded of agreements during process checks
The members are reminded of agreements when they are broken
Examples of Team Working Agreements
Some Examples of Working Agreement Guidelines are:
Show respect. Don’t interrupt; let people finish what they’re saying. It’s OK to disagree with each other. No personal attacks, attack issues, we debate the merit of ideas, not people.
Contribution. Everyone has equal voice and valuable contribution.
Meeting. Be on time, end on time, have an agenda
Be transparent. No hidden agendas. We will give feedback, we will receive feedback, and we will act on feedback.
Impediments. Solve roadblocks within the team. If the impediment cant be solved within the team, give it to the Scrum master.
We make commitments as a team. We will be held accountable to our commitments. – we work as a team to make a commitment and deliver on it.
Incomplete stories are not good – it is better to help get an existing story to “done” than to start another story that can’t be finished in the current sprint.
How to Respond When Working Agreements are Broken
The Scrum Master is the custodian of the working agreements, but the whole team has the responsibility to question when someone is breaking the agreement. Since the working agreements were agreed upon by the team, it removes the perception of personal attacks and confrontation. In the spirit of transparency and continuous improvement, team members should revisit the working agreements from time to time and ask, “Should these be updated?”
Reference Material
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