Unleashing Agile into an IT Ops Team - Collaborate to win

“Why should I care about collaboration?”, “Just let me code!”, “Just let me do [whatever one’s silo does]”. “Shh! Don’t interrupt him! He’s producing!”.

I’ve heard these phrases many times on agile transformation journeys as people are often caught up in the illusion that productivity is measured in individual output. I see two main reasons why we should care about collaboration: Firstly, it helps to create a shared vision; and, secondly, it helps to grow a great team.

Create a shared vision

In a complex problem domain, no one person has a complete picture of the whole context. Some people will have high-level visibility; some will have a very specific view, and some may have no view at all. In any IT Project, since each person has only an incomplete set of information, it is fundamental to have everyone collaborating as much as possible. Collaboration ensures that information flows and that everyone learns from the emerging information which comes from those interactions.

Grow a great team

A team that has empathy with each other works better together. You may be surprised at just how much of an impact a good team culture can have. While empathy is certainly about one’s nature, it is also about one’s nurture, and leaders should care just as much about encouraging the growth and development of their team’s culture as they do about its productivity.

In this blog, I want to share some things I’ve been doing in the Ops Team as well as some company practices of caring about their people, promoting an inclusive, family-like, collaborative and fun workplace.

The following practices include well-established ceremonies such as daily meetings, lean coffees and retrospectives, and also some more unusual ones like the happiness radiator and outdoor activities. I tried to make it as DIY (do it yourself) as possible because I am not spending all this time collecting evidence and writing for people to think I am awesome. What I want is to help to create better work environments with happy and performing people. I want you to finish reading and rush back to adopt the practices that have resonated with you.

This is the second blog of the series of principles applied in my actual gig as an Agile Coach of an Ops Team.

#1 – Visualise everything

#2 – Collaborate to win

#3 – Reduce WIP & batch sizes to improve predictability and flow 

#4 – Make sure we are doing the right thing and just the right thing

#5 – Collect tangible results and celebrate quick wins

#6 – Have in place different feedback loops to improve continuously

#7 – Grow a great Team 

#8 – Share experiences, successful or not, to enable others to learn

So, Let's Go!