How can you excel in an agile software development team?

I was honoured to be part of a team where we based our core values on an acronym known as EPIC, this stood for the following; 1. Excellence: In whatever you do, always strive for excellence. 2. Passion: Do anything and everything you're a part of with a passion. 3. Integrity: Do the right thing, even when no one is watching, this pushed every team member to always be honest with their deliverables. 4. Collaboration: Work as a team, this means every team member is responsible for communicating anything and everything with the team. These values helped each member of the team to better understand and improve on their agile principles.

The best teams I have worked with where we were truly agile had following core values: 1. Empathy and respect among the team. 2. Clear understanding of why and hows of the tasks that needed to be done. 3. Clear communication among the team about responsibilities and priorities.

Best engineers in any teams are the ones that take on the task and ensure they do everything that is needed in order to finish the task. They: - ask all the questions needed to get the context, - provide different options and trade-offs to PM, - enaure they build exactly what is expected. They are just a joy to work with.

Collaborating in agile starts with empathy and trust between teammates. 1. At sprint planning identify the most critical tasks and ensure clear requirements between engineers and others on deliverables and timelines. 2. During the sprint, respect each team member's efforts and time constraints. When inevitable issues come up, avoid blame games and instead collaborate to brainstorm solutions. 3. Keep communication open and actively cooperate to solve problems. By maintaining empathy and trust, focusing on collective success over individual accomplishments, and collaborating to iteratively deliver software, agile teams can thrive long-term. Fostering a spirit of mutual support ensures sustainable productivity over multiple sprints.

Embracing change is a hallmark of agile teams, but it requires true flexibility and adaptability from every team member. Having empathy for users and stakeholders who request changes is important. However, being empathetic towards teammates impacted by shifting priorities is equally critical. The most agile teams prioritize taking care of their own overheads first. This means being sensitive to: a. engineering bandwidth b. balancing technical debt 3. preventing burnout. Within those guardrails, they remain open and responsive to change. When new requirements emerge, they collaboratively re-prioritize and adjust plans to address the most urgent needs without overcommitting.

Positive feedback loop is crucial for success of Agile Teams. By consistently 1. Rewarding team members for their contributions 2. Providing specific, constructive feedback You can significantly enhance the effectiveness of the agile process. A lot of people forget that at the end of the day we are all just trying to do our best and if we don't support each other in both good and bad times, along with technical debt, team's burnout will add up too.