Working successfully as a Scrum team
Do you identify yourself as a Scrum team or are you actively involved in becoming one? Then you should make sure to develop an agile mindset that unleashes the added value of agile methods.
In this text, we have summarised the most important success factors for working according to Scrum for you - also, or rather especially, from a psychological perspective. You should not only be aware of these factors, but also regularly reflect on them together in your team.
Echometer is a software tool to continuously develop as a team based on psychological findings. Our tool supports the moderation of varied retrospectives (What are retrospectives?). In this article we explain the content of one of our team templates.
self-organisation
Scrum teams work largely without hierarchies, they are - in predefined roles - self-organised. For example, they should decide independently and without pressure on the scope of the next Sprint Backlog. The proximity to the (possibly internal) customer should also always be sought. Do you dare to question your status quo regarding self-organisation?
So-called “psychological security” is a prerequisite for successful self-organization. This is the only way to create the necessary security to make decisions yourself and to take risks. You can learn more about psychological security in our Team collaboration article .
Role understanding & methodology
In addition to self-organization, understanding the role and clarity about your own role is also fundamental. In addition, you should always ask whether Scrum is implemented methodologically effectively. How does the backlog refinement work? Are the planning and implementation of new topics in good time ratio?
By the way: Another good way to improve the understanding of roles is a “Good vs. Bad ”workshop as suggested by Ben Horrowitz in his book“ The hard thing about hard things ”. You look at the individual roles and ask, for example, what one bad and what a good developer accounts.
Motivation & further development
Not only the roles must be clear, the goals set together must also be conscious, transparent and SMART be - because that increases motivation. With Scrum, this also includes a clear definition of “Done” (more information on this right here ) as well as the opportunity for team members to contribute their strengths and develop further.
We therefore encourage you to reflect on your strengths and the exchange of knowledge in your team. And point out a little trick that can provide a motivation boost: As a developer, do you have regular (preferably personal) contact with the people who benefit from your work?
Now make these success factors part of your retros!
We are convinced of the concept of agile working. That is why we have developed a tool that helps you as a team from a psychological perspective to establish a continuous improvement process in the team through reflection. Give it a try!
