What does the 11th Agile Principle (Self-Organizing Teams) look like in Action?

What does it mean to be agile? It starts with aligning with Agile values and principles. In this article, I expand on the eleventh principle to better understand it's meaning. More importantly, I attempt to identify evidence to determine if there is alignment with the principle and if a culture change may be occurring. Let’s take a deeper dive into this principle. 

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.  Self-organizing teams have a combination of greater ownership and responsibility to achieve a common goal of building valuable software and reducing dependency on management. The team has the authority to self-organize and make decisions regarding architecture, requirements, and design as they evolve the product. The team needs to be cross-functional so that they have the skills and talent to make the decisions to develop the product. 

A self-organized team moves away from the command-and-control hierarchy in which one person assigns the work. Instead, a self-organizing structure is one in which everyone participates in decision-making and proactively volunteers for work from the backlog. This is easier said than done. Therefore, before considering Agile, an assessment of the openness of the culture helps gauge the starting point. 

Having self-organizing teams also means thinking beyond the individual, since singular thinking can constrain collaboration and the team mindset. The focus should be on instilling team spirit: “You only succeed if the team succeeds.” Rewards should be team-based to drive the concept home. 

Teamwork also means hierarchy—such as title, levels, grades, heroes, and egos—needs to be removed as barriers to team success. Instead, promote equality among roles. Treating everyone on the team as equals leads to more engaged members. Nonetheless, team members should respect the fact that some people have more experience and skills in certain areas and others can gain from this experience. What actions exhibit self-organizing teams?

• The team makes decisions about its work, specifically regarding architecture, requirements, design, and sizing or estimating. 
• Cross-functional teams include the right mix of skills among developers, testers, technical writers, UX designers, the PO, and the Scrum Master. 
• There is no hierarchy on the team, although levels of skills and experience are respected. 
• Rewards are given at the team level. 
• Team members pull work from the backlog at their own initiative, rather than being assigned to it by their manager. 
• Management reduces command and control and provides boundaries of authority. 
• Management articulates goals to help the team focus their work so that teams can make their own decisions. 

Do you believe in self-organizing teams who have authority to make their own decisions, manage their own work, and are rewarded as a team? It is up to you to determine what supporting evidence looks like when a company believes in self-organizing teams. It is worth experimenting with this as it will help you better understand and embrace the Agile principles. The ultimate question is, do you believe in the benefits of “Self-organizing teams”?

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Learn more about what other Agile Principles look like in action:

• 1st Agile Principle (Satisfying Customer with Valuable Software)
• 2nd Agile Principle (Welcome Change to Requirements) 
• 3rd Agile Principle (Frequent Delivery) 
• 4th Agile Principle (Business and Development Work Together)
• 5th Agile Principle (Motivated Individuals who are Trusted)
• 6th Agile Principle (Face-to-Face Conversation) 
• 7th Agile Principle (Working Software as Measure of Progress) 
• 8th Agile Principle (Sustainable Pace) 
• 9th Agile Principle (Technical Excellence) 
• 10th Agile Principle (Simplicity)