Effective Agile Techniques

Collective Ownership

When a team practices Collective Ownership, knowledge becomes distributed across the group. Each team member gains a better understanding of the boundaries between modules. And of the way that the system works.

Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration — calls for Integration across the entire product after every check-in. Continuous Integration only works if you integrate. The constant build should always stay intact. A broken build is a Stop the Presses event. I want sirens going off. The mantra of the team must be The Build Never Breaks.

WIP Limit

The acronym WIP stands for Work In Progress. WIP is the number of tasks a team is currently working on. It frames the capacity of your team’s workflow at any moment. Implementing WIP limits allow an Agile team to complete work units by narrowing focus on ongoing tasks. Work-in-progress (WIP) limits restrict the most significant number of work items in a workflow.

WIP limit can be defined per person, work stage/type, or the entire work system. WIP limits are essential for delivering customer value as fast as possible. By applying WIP limits, your team can locate bottlenecks in their working processes before they become a blocker.

Story Points

The story point technique deals with accuracy and precision by using a tight feedback loop that should recalibrate estimates against reality. With Story Points, imprecision is high, but within a few cycles, it is reduced to manageable levels. Story points should be linear. A card with a two should need about half the effort of a card with a 4. Yet, linearity doesn’t have to be perfect.

Standup Meetings

Standup meetings are a way to keep everyone on the same page for ongoing projects. The gist is that only developers should speak at the standup. Managers and other folks may listen in but should refrain from interjecting. What did you do since the last time we talked? What are you going to do before we talk again? And what is getting in your way?

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[¹]: Robert Martin(2019): (Clean Agile: Back to Basics (Robert C. Martin Series))