Building Trust the Agile Way

I’d like to share with you what I perceive to be a major benefit of adopting Agile practices with the hope that you will think about what it can do for you, and maybe motivate you to undertake a journey to learn more about Agile as I have.

In the time I’ve been leading Agile development practices, I’ve seen organizations transformed.  What amazes me most is how organizations experience a surge in Trust and how that becomes a tipping point for great things to occur.

Trust is Good for Business

Trust is an essential ingredient in high performing teams and organizations.  Exactly how important is trust in business?  A 2009 survey found that publicly traded companies with high internal levels of trust commanded a 25% premium in their P/E ratios.  In other words, businesses where employees trust each other are more valuable in dollar terms.

Let’s think for a moment how Trust can translate into dollars.  It seems logical that colleagues who trust each other are more willing to share ideas and information.  It also seems logical that colleagues who trust each other waste less time looking over each others’ shoulders and second-guessing one another, which allows the ideas and information to be translated more readily into better products and services.  We know that better products and services increase the trust of customers, which helps to build a company’s brand and reputation.  In other words, goodwill, an asset that appears in the balance sheet, accrues to the company's value.

It's no wonder that one of the first, and most valuable, cloud computing companies to thrive maintains a web site called “https://trust.salesforce.com/”.  Smart companies know that it pays to be trusted.  Let's take a look at some building blocks of Trust.

The Three Pillars of Trust

Do you have a trusted friend who’s always willing to listen to what’s on your mind?  Through regular interaction and conversation, acquaintances become friends and a sense of trust develops.  Similarly we gain the trust of our users by meeting them regularly, listening to their needs and making an effort to understand the source of their needs.  It’s worth repeating the cliché that “change is the only constant”.  Therefore, it stands to reason that needs change over time as organizations refine their processes, change their strategy, or competition necessitates product differentiation.  To build trust we must also be willing to listen to users’ changing needs.  LISTENING is Pillar #1.

Let’s reflect back on our childhoods during the first two months of Kindergarten.  When class ended every day, did a caregiver pick you up on time?  I suspect that nothing is more terrifying to a 5-year old than the thought of no one coming to pick them up.  Would you have lost some trust if they were late?  Would it have made a difference to you that they had a good reason for being late – probably not.  Being on time NO-MATTER-WHAT is a big factor in the struggle to gain trust. In the IT world, we must do a better job of looking for ways to be on-time instead of looking for reasons why we cannot.  BEING PUNCTUAL is Pillar #2.

Speaking of struggles, I need to regain my wife’s trust.  Specifically, she doesn’t trust my promises to work out.  What do you think I need to do to regain her trust?  Yes – you’re right.  It’s time to back up my words with action and show her a six-pack of abs.  In our professional lives we must also take action to build trust.  If we examine our project activities, we’ll observe that an extraordinary amount of effort is spent talking and writing about what we’re going to do.  While adequate communication is important, let’s remember that users and customers expect action from IT to deliver applications and functionality.  The software is the steak and everything else is sizzle that may sound good but won’t make you full.  Think of companies like Google, Amazon and Salesforce who release regular software upgrades to millions of users.  These  organizations have earned our trust through the actions they take.  TAKING ACTION is Pillar #3.

Agile Builds Trust

To recap, I believe that we can foster trust by being good listeners, being punctual, and taking action.  These three pillars can help us build trust at home and at work.  When we build trust at work, we increase the value of our organizations.  So how can Agile practices support these pillars?   

Let’s consider how the Scrum Framework manifests the Agile lifecycle.

If you click on the Scrum Framework link you will see that the first bullet point states that a product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a Product Backlog.  This is done  by consulting users and listening to their needs.  The needs become a list of prioritized requirements for the project team. The product owner continues to meet with users on a regular basis because their needs may change or further details are necessary as the requirement gets closer to being implemented.  In summary, the product backlog is demonstrates the first pillar - listening to users.

Let’s turn to the third bullet point.  It says that the team has a fixed amount of time to finish its work in a Sprint (some also call this an Iteration). Requirements are selected from the top of the product backlog and assigned to the Sprint until the team’s capacity is consumed.  The team must then show a real commitment to fully completing the selected requirements in the time allowed. In accomplishing this, the team demonstrates the second pillar of punctuality.

Now let’s look at the fifth bullet point.  It says that at the end of the Sprint, the work should be potentially shippable, which in a software project means that working software can be shown to users.  By demonstrating working software for each requirement at the end of every Sprint, the team assures users that it is taking action to provide actual software.  This is the third pillar.

Build Trust Today

Although the Agile lifecyle can be described in 30 secs, I know that putting it into practice can be challenging.  But don’t wait.  Start building trust today by listening to your users, being punctual and taking action.  Apply the Agile practices mentioned here and you will make your organizations more valuable.