Agile is all about teamwork, which makes “Whole Team” one of the most foundational practices in the book. In this book club session, we looked at what it means to have a successful Agile team.

Reading:
📖 Whole Team

🎙 Discussion prompts:

• The reading talks about customer skills, development skills, and coaching skills. Which skills have been important for your teams? Why?

• A successful team is cross-functional, with all the skills needed to accomplish its purpose. What barriers have you encountered in creating cross-functional teams, and how have you overcome them (or not)?

• Generalizing specialists, or “T-shaped people,” are an important concept for Agile teams, but sometimes hard for people to accept. How have you seen folks react to the idea? What are some ways to help them accept it?

• Agile teams are made up of peers who self-organize around their work. What does this look like when it’s at its best?

About the Book Club

From October 2021 to August 2022, I hosted a call-in talk show based on the second edition of The Art of Agile Development. The series used the book as a jumping-off point for wide-ranging discussions about Agile ideas and practices, and had a star-studded guest list.

For an archive of past sessions, visit the book club index. For more about the book, visit the Art of Agile Development home page.