The Agile Wilderness: Principle #6: Face to Face

Agile Principle #6: "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation." (1)

Image from medium.com (2)

I always get questions on this one since COVID. The truth is we rarely are face to face in the original sense where we were physically in person. Many organizations are trying to find this balance on when to bring people in, especially in the technology space, now that we have proven we can be successful virtually. However, there are things we miss by not being in the office together though. Making sure to keep a strong culture and relationships can be much more difficult without some in person time.

Digging into the agile principle

Let's dive into this principle. It's a bit wordy but basically is saying the most effective way to communicate is in person. Getting out of the email cycle of back and forth and talking to each other is key. This is in the idea of reducing waste of going back and forth. Also solving problems together as a team mentioned in the last article is key and the best way is to collaborate by getting together.

In our new virtual world, I think these change. Most of us are working remotely and may be the simple act of turning on your camera during meeting. This also may become pinging people on the side for a quick chat rather than walking up to them like you used to. As mentioned above, I do think there is a balance and coming into the office is important for building culture and relationships.

Comparing the agile principle to Scrum values and SAFe scaled principles

As we look at scrum values (3), these are similar to the last article around working together. We want to be open and respectful of each other as we communicate. We need to be committed to a common goal and willing to work through that together. Another aspect of this is respecting people's preferences on how and how often to come into the often. Again, this can be tricky however organizations that don't listen to their people are losing them.

There are no direct links to the SAFe scaled principles (4) and this agile principle. As I have scaled teams, communication is key and I have used tools such as Miro or Mural as we do scaled planning, retrospectives, user story mapping, etc. activities. As you scale, having big events across the ART or portfolio may be the things where an organization asks people to come in.

Suggested changes to the original agile principle

The most efficient and effective method of sharing information is meeting together and seeing each other's non-verbal cues"

Conveying is old language so update to sharing. Also changing face to face to meeting together and seeing each other's non-verbal cue. Again, like other principles getting to the why behind it rather than the practice itself as things change and the way we get to these things may be different in the future.

Closing

In closing, communication is key to any agile team and in our new world this looks a bit different. Find the right balance for your team and organization and try to turn on your video when you can. Here is a summary of the article for reference:

I hope you have enjoyed this article and as always feel free to reach out to discuss further or drop a comment below to join the discussion. Thank you for your time. This is the last agile principle to cover. I will be putting out a summary of all the articles next.

About the Author

Jeff Mortimer?(#theAgileMoose ) is an Agile Enthusiast with over 10+ years of experience working in various roles on agile teams including business analyst, product owner, scrum master, team leader, technical delivery manager and now an agile coach consultant focused on product transformations. In additional to his certifications in CBAP, AAC, CSP-PO, SAFe Agilist and SAFe LPM, Jeff?has presented at several conferences throughout North America and joined the blogger universe a couple years ago to bring a voice to the everyday agile practitioners. He also just received his EMBA at Quantics School of Business and Technology. He is a husband to an amazing intelligent wife who has her doctorate in math education, father to kids who bring him joy every day, friend that brews beer and plays soccer, and citizen who helps organize volunteers to give back to the community.

Follow #theAgileMoose for the latest insights in the agile wilderness.

References

(1)?Agile Principles ?from agile alliance

(2)?Principles Image ?from medium.com

(3)?Scrum Values ?from scrum.org

(4)?SAFe Scaled Principles ?from scaledagileframework.com