Being Agile
The Goal
The goal is to support your team in finding the fastest, best solutions for design and development problems through iteration and flexibility. Sometimes you will need to take a step back and re-evaluate how to move forward.
Remain Open To New Ideas
Sometimes you will need to ask yourself if you’re still on the right track.
New constraints or information from customers, market research, or team members may require the team to pivot quickly.
Be open to new ideas that may meet your customer’s needs in a better way.
Good Questions to Ask
- Is the team communicating well with each other?
- Is the environment supportive?
- Do we all understand that the Scrum approach may result in initial iterations of the product that are not perfect?
- Does the team understand that ambiguity will lessen as the project progresses?
- Do the team and stakeholders understand that responding to new information and changes makes for a better product in the end?
Communication Is Everything
Be in close contact with your team to ensure they have the support they need to make the best use of their time and resources.
Keeping communication open and safe is key to having the team work at their highest capacity.
What does it really mean to be agile? Here’s an example scenario:
Your team has asked to meet with you. The data they expected to access are too expensive to incorporate into the design.
They pitch the idea that, instead of relying on third-party weather data, hardware sensors can be developed to detect moisture and light.
This is a radical departure from the original plan to use national weather data, which the project cannot afford.
How do we handle this in an agile manner?
-
Determine whether the new design suggestion still fulfills the user story.
-
Talk to your sponsor about reaching out to the team that led development the product.
-
Tell the team to continue to think about the software that would be needed if sensors are feasible.