Building an Agile Team

Being able to build an efficient team is the most important aspect of agile development. An Agile project is unlikely to succeed if a team is not willing to work together or if there is too much friction between the different team members. The team had to have clear and defined roles but it is much more than just finding anyone who would fit that role. It is also about finding the right person who can fill that role as well as work together.

Many people, when starting a project and trying to find people for that team will often ask what the technical and functional requirements of the project is as well as who can you find to fill those requirements. However with Agile that may not be enough. While answering those two questions will bring you some success, you also need to consider the team collaboration that is essential for success in agile development.

The old methods for finding building a good team is to put a high value on the skills necessary for the task at hand. However this often ignores the just as important aspects in personality. Often you should look for people that would be a good fit for the members of the team working on the project as you should be looking for the skills to work on the project.

Having a good balance of traits is also very important. Having a team that is a mix of people who know are skilled in project as well as having people will good problem solving as well as finding creative solutions to problems would help ensure success on any project.

And finally when it comes to the company side of things, management should of course reward individual achievement, however when working with Agile it is also very important to reward the achievement of the entire group. This will help encourage the different members of the group to think of the team and not just about themselves and will help move the project forward and toward completion.