Bringing Agile to my new team
As mentioned a few weeks ago, I have started a new job. My role is still unclear, but that doesn’t bother me at all – this way I can define my own role.
I’m working in a small team of web developers, trying to start on the next generation of the web portion of our core business product. The team was supposed to be Agile, but was decidedly *not*. I’m working on that, i.e. so far I’m defining myself as the Agile-guru.
We had our first planning meeting that I was allowed to run, and I went with my favorite planning tool (FreeMind). The team is very tool and framework oriented, so I think introducing the tool as part of the planning was less intimidating than if I had just gone at it with story cards.
My purpose in using FreeMind is to enable open discussion, and also to focus that discussion. It allows me to acknowledge everyone’s input, by reflecting it on the mind-map. The tree-like structure naturally allows everyone to be focused on the current area of discussion without being too distracted by other concerns. Once we have everything noted, then we can more effectively make estimates.
We had a very short estimating session. This was difficult, because individuals on the team seemed information-starved, i.e. they wanted to gather all of the requirements then and there. I tried with limited success to focus on just getting rough estimates. To keep it ultra-simple, I allowed only 4 time estimates: 1 day, 2 days, 5 days, or more (needs to be broken down further to estimate). As expected for a new Agile team, estimates were *very* ambitious, and we did not complete.
My final note is that it is interesting to be able to observe the team forming. I was the last member of the team to be hired, but before my joining, the others have barely interacted as far as I can tell. This means that we started in the “forming” stage of team evolution. This is characterised by the our manager being very hands-on, and directive. Basically, we are not a team so much as a set of individuals working under the co-ordination of a manager.
The next team-stage after forming is “storming”. This is a little stressful, and I hope we don’t lose any team members, or the confidence of our manager. I can already see some people coming out strongly on opposite sides of issues, and coming into conflict because of it.
Anyway, that’s my update. Wish me luck.
