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Agile in IT

Riepko Beukema, 27 september 2023

When we talk about agile in IT, most people’s minds immediately go to a framework like Scrum, Kanban or SAFe. If we just adhere to the framework, we will see the benefits and we will reap the rewards. This is true but not in the way people would like it to be. If you use a framework that doesn’t have a good foundation you will not be able to build on it, only keep yourself afloat without growing.

The Scrum framework has a great image about its principles and values. The whole framework is built on trust and held upright by transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

scrum framework
Scrum framework

Transparency

Transparency means that you want to not only show your highs of when you reach your sprint goal, but also the lows of knowing you will not achieve it this sprint. Especially being transparent about this as early as possible will give other people options. Options to change their own plans, or to drop some of their work to help you because you have notified people you cannot make the sprint goal. If you do this only at the end of the sprint, you cannot ask for help or give other people the choice to change their plans.

Inspection

Inspection means that you don’t get complacent about what you are doing, no matter how well it is going. You keep looking at processes and actions that you or your team do and try to understand them better. It could be that through inspection you conclude that you don’t want to change anything, that’s great because now you can change your focus somewhere else without a worry.

Adaption

Adaptation frequently follows inspection. A willingness to change and a reminder that few things are set in stone. You try to adapt based on the inspections you did. You are not guessing but know what needs to change. That doesn’t mean that your adaptions will be 100% correct, but it will be better than it was before.

Build trust

Transparency, inspection and adaptation are build upon trust. But how do you get trust in a team or organization? There are many ways to do this and they will need another blog, but in a nutshell these are 10 ways to build trust:

  1. Set expectations and boundaries. …
  2. Create a space for psychological safety. …
  3. Demonstrate transparency. …
  4. Conduct team-building activities. …
  5. Hold regular one-on-one meetings to check in. …
  6. Communicate effectively. …
  7. Be the first to admit when you’re wrong. …
  8. Show appreciation for each team member’s contribution. …
  9. Celebrate milestones together. …
  10. Lead by example. …

You may notice that these examples can boost transparency, inspection and adaptation. If you demonstrate transparency you give others the options to inspect and adapt based on what you’re showing. When you admit that you’re wrong it means you are transparent, have inspected to know that you are wrong and are adapting to make things better.

When you have a foundation of trust and build upon transparency, inspection and adaptation, it doesn’t matter which framework you put on top of it. Being agile is what matters, not the framework!

Riepko Beukema

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