What Parts of Agile are Typically Ignored?

We find that the following 3 things are frequently ignored in Agile and in turn makes a team less productive and effective.

1. Retrospectives

Retrospectives typically get ignored because the team doesn't see the value in improving the process or is overwhelmed by improvement ideas outside the team's influence or control. A Circles and Soup diagram is a great way to address this concern. Check out our article on "What's a Good Approach for Retrospectives?"

Teams that have been operating together for a long time, the attitude is "We got a handle on it and don't need to improve." There is always room to improve. The team is mostly tired of talking about the same improvement ideas repeatedly, which don't get addressed or fixed. The team isn't finding anything new. This is the time to switch up your retrospective game.

Check out funretrospectives.com for ideas on hiding a different kind of retrospective. Charing the format and process of the retrospective frequently is a good idea as it will generate new ideas and make the event more engaging and fun. Doing the same process repeatedly creates a dull routine that team members won't participate in.

2. Demos

Skip the demos because no one comes. That will be fine, right? The purpose of the demo is to allow your business users and customer to provide feedback on the solution developed. If they skip it, you lose the ability to get that feedback before deploying the solution. Keep the demo short, concise, and interactive. An approach could be to create a playground where business users customers play with the solution in an open meeting that runs all day. That creates more interaction and fewer scheduling conflicts, but you will lose a collective everyone is in the room at the same time feeling.

Maybe your demo sucks. Think about how you're presenting the business solution back to the business. Are you talking their language? Going through SQL or lines of code is the worst. Check out the article, "Are there alternative approaches to demos?"

3. Working Agreements

Let's run as fast as we can. Why plan? Running out of control with scissors is more exhilarating. Look, we made paper snowflakes! The working agreement is the glue that holds the Agile team together. A working agreement isn't Robert's Rules of Order or Parliamentary Procedures. It outlines how the team will operate and govern itself. What is the definition of done? When is the backlog refined? How and when are retrospectives held?

Skip that don't take calls during the scrum meeting, or let's all be nice to each other statements. We're adults, and we hopefully know how to act professionally.