Here's how you can guarantee high-quality work from your Agile team.

See agility as being emergent, and create conditions for it. Lean continuous delivery, DORA metrics, “two days or two much” for batch size. Sprint/release goal. Jobs to be done inspired user story map. Build against prioritized needs not asks. Always work on the next most valuable thing. For the love of all that’s good in this world, get a real burn down measure. Stop the conjecture, fiction, and posturing of stakeholders and team members. If you did the above, you can get one. Bring in supporting talent and infrastructure to get the above working, after which you can revert to management by exception.

Agility as a dictionary word existed long before Agile became a working philosophy on paper. Hence, to me, being agile is important in any work. Being agile doesn’t mean lacking structure or process. What is important to avoid is over engineering things in the quest for continuous improvement and reducing the agile philosophy to ceremonies. Key is balancing various trade offs well and keeping the focus on customer impact. It’s possible and necessary to keep processes lightweight, documentation structured and discoverable, get hands dirty early in the journey to learn and adapt, incorporate feedback and celebrate success. Agile doesn’t mean developers will do everything and every role done well can help teams and management succeed.

?? Embracing agility means more than just following Agile practices; it involves adopting a mindset that prioritizes flexibility, responsiveness, and continuous improvement. This agility allows teams to adapt quickly to changes in project requirements or market conditions without compromising quality. Ensure your team: ● Is thoroughly trained in Agile principles and techniques. ● Regularly revisits and refines their Agile practices to better suit project demands and team dynamics. ● Uses retrospectives to learn from each sprint and apply these lessons to future work.

1. Define Clear Goals 2. Proper Estimation to develop and test with the resources 3. Identify the risks and impediments and plan. 4. Deliver the Project on time

There should be a clear set of standards for the product's business and technical aspects. The product team sets forth business quality through the user story's Acceptance criteria and others. They might also use different KPIs to indicate the overall product quality. The KPIs feedback from the product can help improve the product and the development team for their performance. The development team's coding and testing standards enhance the product's technical ability. The architect and the team can set these standards, and the team's adherence will show the quality in the form of detects and code review comments raised.

?? Clearly defined quality standards are crucial for maintaining high-quality work. These standards should be measurable, achievable, and clearly communicated to every team member. To effectively set and maintain these standards: ● Develop a clear definition of what quality means for your team in terms of both processes and deliverables. ● Establish checklists or guidelines that can be easily followed during the development process. ● Regularly review these standards to ensure they remain relevant and are consistently met.

-Set Clear Standards: Define quality criteria for code, design, and performance. -Integrate Standards: Embed quality checks into Agile processes like sprint planning. -Ensure Consistency: Maintain transparency and uphold standards across the team.

Establishing a Definition of Done early helps to keep everyone on the same page about what high-quality work means. These standards also help to reduce confusion for the team, keeping them aligned on how to build. Defining standards is crucial because without them, the quality of a product can fluctuate.

Testers can be added to Scrum Teams as part of the Development Team. This will help facilitate "escape" defects that escape the team into production. A developers checklist should be used ensuring quality across user stories. A Definition of Done should be created, agreed-to and used for all user stories to define consistently when each user story is done.

One of the greatest features of agile is the retrospective meeting. It gives the team a chance to reflect and identify ways to improve!

The best part of Agile ceremony is Scrum Retrospective. Involving the stakeholders and listening to their feedback which foster the Product Increment which beneficial for the end customers. By including and receiving the feedback is annessential part and it reflects how the Scrum team is matured enough to consider.

?? Feedback is a cornerstone of Agile methodologies and is essential for maintaining quality. Implementing a system of continuous feedback helps to catch and correct issues early before they escalate. Ensure that: ● Feedback loops are integrated at every stage of the project lifecycle, from planning through to delivery. ● Both peer-to-peer feedback and stakeholder feedback are encouraged and facilitated. ● Feedback is constructive, specific, and focused on creating actionable outcomes for improvement.

I believe that making everyone involved in the feedback loop – devs, designers, product folks. It keeps everyone on the same page and catches problems before they snowball.

Incorporar mecanismos de feedback contínuo ao dia a dia do trabalho n?o apenas ajudam a identificar e corrigir problemas precocemente, mas também promovem o compartilhamento de conhecimento e a propriedade coletiva da base de código de desenvolvimento. Os ciclos rápidos de feedback s?o um pilar do ágil, garantindo que a qualidade seja mantida ao longo do ciclo de desenvolvimento. Você pode incorporar em diversas etapas do cliclo de vida, um bom lugar pode ser a retrospectiva, é um momento muito interessante para feedback continuo!

? A test-driven development (TDD) approach ensures that testing is not an afterthought but a key component of the development process. This approach involves writing tests before writing the code that needs to pass the tests. Adopting TDD helps in: ● Ensuring that the code is robust, reliable, and meets all defined requirements before it moves to the next stage of development. ● Reducing bugs and errors in the final product, which improves the overall quality of deliverables. ● Facilitating changes and updates to the codebase with less risk of introducing new errors.

-TDD Adoption: Prioritize writing tests before code for requirement-driven development. -Simplified Code: TDD promotes cleaner, more maintainable code structures. -Automated Testing: Implement thorough, automated tests for early issue detection and prevention.

Adotar uma abordagem TDD em que os testes s?o escritos antes do código em si é uma boa prática para garantir alta qualidade. Isso garante que o código seja sempre projetado para atender requisitos específicos, reduzindo a probabilidade de defeitos e insatisfa??o dos steakholders. O TDD também incentiva código mais simples e mais fácil de manter, contribuindo para uma qualidade geral mais alta. Incentivar sua equipe a escrever testes automatizados abrangentes que possam ser executados com frequência para detectar regress?es e outros problemas o mais cedo possível é a melhor saída neste caso.

Adopting a test-driven development (TDD) approach can significantly enhance the quality of work produced by agile teams. By writing tests before code, developers clarify the desired outcome and create a robust framework that reduces bugs and enhances functionality, leading to more reliable and maintainable outcomes.

Effectiveness should be encouraged in Agile teams. By writing tests first, TDD catches defects early in the development cycle. If a test fails, it signals a problem, prompting developers to address it immediately. This proactive approach prevents defects from accumulating and reduces the cost of fixing them later.

Empower team members by allowing them to make decisions about their work. For instance, let developers select the software tools and methods they find most effective. Hold regular training sessions to improve their skills and keep them informed about the latest industry standards. Promote open communication and frequent feedback within the team to quickly resolve issues and promote ongoing improvement. Acknowledge and celebrate team successes to keep motivation high. This strategy enhances morale and encourages the team to consistently produce high-quality results.

Clear Goals: Define clear project goals and quality standards. Communication: Maintain open communication within the team and with stakeholders. Feedback: Provide regular feedback and conduct reviews to improve. Agile Principles: Follow agile principles for frequent delivery and customer collaboration. Testing: Integrate testing early and often. Collaboration: Foster a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing. Empowerment: Empower team members to make decisions and improve processes. Tools and Automation: Use tools and automation to streamline processes. Quality Focus: Prioritize quality over speed. Continuous Learning: Encourage continuous learning and skill improvement.

To guarantee high-quality work from your Agile team, ensure alignment on the team objective. Define clear indicators of progress, such as Key Results, and provide the team with the autonomy and flexibility they need to achieve these goals. This approach fosters accountability and encourages innovation, leading to consistently high-quality outcomes.

Empowering your team involves providing them with the tools, resources, support, and autonomy they need to thrive and make decisions independently Clear Communication: Ensure that team members understand their roles, responsibilities, and goals clearly. Encourage open communication and provide regular feedback Trust and Delegate: Trust your team members to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Delegate tasks and projects effectively, allowing them to develop new skills and grow professionally Lead by Example: Model the behavior you want to see in your team. Demonstrate trust, resilience, and a growth mindset in your own actions and decisions.

?? Empowering the team involves giving team members the responsibility and authority to make decisions about their work. This empowerment is critical for fostering a sense of ownership and accountability, which are key drivers of quality. To empower your team: ● Provide them with the tools, resources, and training they need to perform their tasks to the highest standards. ● Encourage decision-making at the individual or team level, which can lead to more creative solutions and greater investment in the project outcomes. ● Recognize and reward high-quality work, which not only motivates the team but also sets a benchmark for quality.

Ensuring high-quality work from your Agile team requires a focus on continuous improvement and quality assurance practices. Implementing automated testing, code reviews, and regular retrospectives can help identify and address issues early in the development process. Additionally, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and shared ownership of the product can motivate team members to deliver their best work consistently.

Both Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective are ways to reflect and adapt. With each Sprint Report, it should reflect not only product increments but also: ● What we planned to work on (including progress on epics). ● What was unplanned but delivered (e.g., bug fixes, security tickets, etc.). ● How many releases we planned and their status. ● If any individual learnings or meetings occurred during the sprint and if they are documented for other team members to learn from. Inspecting these helps to adapt these learnings for the next sprint. Retrospectives are more focused on reflecting on: ● People ● Process ● Tools ● Techniques ● Strategy

Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Encourage team members to attend workshops, conferences, or training sessions related to Agile practices, testing, and software craftsmanship.

Sumaría a lo expuesto tres puntos que considero claves: Priorizar la Calidad sobre la Velocidad: Si bien la entrega rápida es importante en metodologías ágiles, no debe comprometerse la calidad. Capacitación y Desarrollo: Brindar oportunidades de capacitación y desarrollo profesional a los miembros del equipo para mejorar sus habilidades técnicas y de calidad. Esto incluye formación en herramientas, técnicas de desarrollo, buenas prácticas de calidad, entre otros aspectos. Monitoreo y Mejora Continua: Establecer métricas de calidad y realiza un monitoreo continuo del rendimiento y la calidad del trabajo del equipo. Utilizar los datos obtenidos para identificar áreas de mejora y aplicar acciones correctivas de manera proactiva.

Everything mentioned above is essential for producing high-quality outcomes using agile; however, without leaders leading by example and building psychologically safe environment, it will be very challenging to implement. Please pay attention to your leaders, persistently influence them, and build them to be leaders to enable Agile environments so that they can help you to be successful.

Agile is about both doing the right things and doing things right. Quality is a Shift-left approach, starting from the strategy itself. A robust business/product strategy sets the path for high-quality products. The following ways enable high-quality work: i) Product team involvement in the problem space ii) Measuring the right metrics such as DORA/Flow iii) Value Stream Management principles iv) Definition of Done to bring transparency v) TDD, BDD, Refactoring, Clean code, etc. vi) CI/CD provides opportunities for feedback and learning cycles. The most important thing is psychological safety for the team to openly express their voices for value-driven conversations instead of cutting corners with a feature factory mindset!

Taking one of the previous instances, my team holds regular retrospectives where we openly discuss successes, challenges, and opportunities to optimize our process. In one retro, we identified a pattern of defects slipping into production. After some root cause analysis, we realized we needed more robust automated testing. We collaborated to define a comprehensive test strategy, covering unit, integration, and end-to-end scenarios. Developers took ownership of writing and maintaining tests. This shift not only caught issues earlier but also gave the team greater confidence in subsequent release. By making quality everyone's responsibility and carving out time to reflect and improve, you create an environment where excellence can thrive.

To ensure high-quality work from your Agile team, prioritize clear communication, foster a culture of collaboration and feedback, provide adequate resources and support, maintain a focus on continuous improvement, regularly review and adapt processes, and empower team members to take ownership of their work and strive for excellence.