A complete guide to team working agreements

You have a complex project to deliver in a tight deadline with a diverse team. How do you work well together and avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and delays? That’s where working agreements come in handy.

A working agreement is a document that captures the essence of how your team wants to work together. It helps you agree on your goals, values, expectations, roles, responsibilities, and processes.

A team agreement is a powerful tool to build trust, respect, and accountability in your team. In this blog, we’ll explore how to create working agreements for your agile team. We’ll also discover what it is, why it matters, what to put in it, and how to make one with your team.

What is a working agreement in Agile?

A working agreement in Agile, specifically within the scrum framework, is a crucial tool that establishes rules and guidelines for effective collaboration in software development projects. Its purpose is to enhance productivity, increase collaboration, and establish a harmonious team environment.

These agreements prevent conflicts and reduce time & energy, helping teams meet adherence to project deadlines and schedules. It's vital for the team to collectively create the agreements, aligning it with their expectations and incorporating principles that enable them to meet those expectations.

Working agreements can also be referred to as a "team contract" or "team agreement." The specific terminology may vary, but the underlying purpose remains constant — to provide a framework for productive and collaborative teamwork.

Some common examples of working agreements in Agile are:

1. Daily Stand-up Agreement: We decide to come to the daily meetings on time, share a quick update on what we've done since the last meeting, and let everyone know if we have any problems or things that are stopping us from moving forward.
   
2. Code Review Agreement: We agree to carefully check each other's code changes, give helpful feedback, and make sure the code follows our agreed rules.
   
3. Definition of Done Agreement: We agree on the things that need to be done for a task or story to be considered finished, like passing tests, writing documentation, having someone else review the code, and successfully putting it into use.

Top  benefits of working agreements

Let's explore how a well-crafted working agreement can revolutionize your team's dynamics:

1. Conflict resolution

Imagine a scenario where miscommunication leads to two team members unknowingly working on the same task, resulting in wasted time and effort. By implementing working agreements, such conflicts can be mitigated. It establishes clear expectations, minimizing misunderstandings and avoiding potential clashes.

2. Trust building

Working agreements build trust within the team by promoting transparency and accountability. When each team member knows their roles and responsibilities, they can rely on one another to fulfill their commitments. This trust forms the bedrock of a cohesive and high-performing team.

3. Enhanced communication

A working agreement provides clear guidelines and rules for everyone in the team to follow, making it clear who should be working on what. This leaves no room for misunderstanding, resulting in better collaboration in the team.

4. Accountability

If there are concerns about a team member not fulfilling their responsibilities, the working agreement can be used as a reference. It is a written record that helps hold everyone accountable for their commitments and meeting the team's expectations.

5. Improved work processes

A well-defined working agreement provides guidelines that enhance the overall work process. It eliminates confusion and ambiguity, especially in detail-oriented fields like accounting or law, by establishing clear directives on the desired form and approach for specific tasks. This leads to greater efficiency and a better workflow.

How to set up working agreements?

Creating a working agreement in Agile means setting up a respectful and effective process where team members work together, take responsibility, and share ideas.

Here are some pointers to help you establish a working agreement.

1. Facilitate open communication

Encourage all team members to express their thoughts and propose ideas for the working agreement. Create a safe environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their perspectives.

2. Foster collaboration

Divide the team into smaller groups to discuss and refine the proposed ideas. Encourage active participation from all team members to ensure diverse perspectives are considered.

3. Document the rules

Write down each agreed-upon rule on a sheet of paper or digitally in a shared workspace. Make sure it is easily accessible to all team members, especially if the team works remotely. This documentation serves as a reference point for everyone involved.

4. Display the working agreement

Display the working agreements prominently in the team's shared working area. This visual reminder will help reinforce the agreed-upon rules and encourage adherence.

5. Encourage accountability

Emphasize the importance of everyone taking ownership of the working agreement. Each team member should understand their responsibility in following the established rules and guidelines.

6. Iterate and adapt

The working agreement should not be set in stone. Encourage periodic reviews and updates to ensure its relevance and effectiveness. As the team gains experience and encounters new challenges, be open to revising and refining the agreement.

Checklist of a valid working agreement

A checklist is a powerful tool for creating a complete and well-rounded document that covers all the important parts of a professional relationship.

While the specific items may vary as per the business requirements, here are some key elements in the checklist to consider.

1. Prominence

Display your agreement where every team member can see it. Opt for a large font and place it on a wall in your workspace. For remote teams, create an easily accessible digital folder.

2. Conciseness

Keep your rules short and simple to avoid overwhelming the space with multiple agreements. Short sentences are easier to follow, so encourage teams to use concise language when formulating practices.

3. Regular Updates

Embrace continuous improvement by periodically revisiting and updating your agreements. Find a suitable interval, such as every 3 or 5 sprints, depending on your workflow, available time, and priorities.

4. Adherence

Ensure all team members commit to the working agreements they collaborated on and agreed upon. If someone violates the rules, empower others to remind them of their obligations.

Working agreements: 6 best practices

To ensure the effectiveness of your working agreements, follow these best practices for seamless teamwork and shared understanding:

1. Start with simplicity

Avoid the trap of overcomplicating your working agreement. Begin with a basic version that captures the obvious points on which everyone in the team unanimously agrees. This initial document serves as a foundation, allowing you to easily incorporate new working agreements as they arise during team discussions or decision-making processes.

2. Nurture team ownership

Craft your working agreements collaboratively as a team. Resist the urge to copy-paste from existing templates or previous agreements. Instead, engage all team members in the creation process, ensuring that the agreements reflect the reality and needs of everyone involved. This sense of ownership encourages adherence and boosts team morale.

3. Centralize documentation

Maintain a single, centralized document that serves as the go-to resource for understanding your team's working agreements. While your organization may have main rules and processes, your team-specific document should consolidate all relevant information, including any modifications or additions specific to your team's workflow.

4. Embrace continuous adaptation

View your working agreements as a living document that evolves alongside your team. Regularly review and update it to accurately reflect the team's changing dynamics and lessons learned. Leverage team retrospectives as opportunities to discuss improvements and ensure that the agreements align with the team's evolving work practices. Remove outdated agreements to avoid unnecessary complexity.

5. Encourage proposal and collaboration

Simplify the process of suggesting changes to the working agreements. Make it easy for team members to propose modifications by clearly communicating the channels for submitting suggestions.

Use collaborative platforms like Google Docs, Notion, or Confluence, allowing team members to add comments or suggestions directly. Retrospectives can also be used for proposing new agreements.

6. Onboard with clarity

When welcoming new team members, ensure they thoroughly understand and align with the working agreements. Take the time to review the document together, encouraging questions and discussions. This onboarding process not only helps integrate new members seamlessly but also reinforces their commitment to the team's established ways of working.

Conclusion

Engineering teams have a lot to benefit from working agreements — right from increased productivity, and improved collaboration to the overall betterment of engineering org. With working agreements, team members are on the same page about how to do things, which ultimately leads to less friction and more satisfaction between teammates.

To fully benefit from working agreements, effective implementation and tracking are crucial. That's where DevDynamics can help. You can use DevDynamics to implement and track working agreements in your organization. With our pre-built agreement templates, real-time progress alerts, and performance tracking, you can easily monitor your team's adherence to the agreed-upon rules. Moreover, you’ll be automatically informed of any deviations via Slack or email.