4 Role-Playing in Agile

➤Customer: Helps define the product

➤Programmer: Helps construct the product

➤Tester: Helps verify the product works as defined

➤Tracker: Helps gather and present useful metrics

➤Coach: Helps guide the team to success

➤Coordinator (optional): Helps manage external communication

Card 4—ROLE-PLAYING IN AGILE THE IDEA

In an agile team, everyone helps out, doing whatever it takes to deliver a useful,

high-quality product. You are not bound by your job title. A tester might track

team metrics, a programmer might help define acceptance criteria, and so on.

The customer has special responsibility and authority, because they are respon-

sible for the product’s functionality and user-facing design. Their supporting cast

may include business analysts, product owners, and others who help define the

product (including testers), but everyone on the team is responsible for advising

the customer.

Programmers (and other technical folks, such as architects and support techni-

cians) are responsible for the internal design, construction, and maintenance of

the product.

A coach helps educate and guide your team, shunning command-and-control

approaches. They help your team devise their own rules and protocols. The best

coaches help teams mature to the point where the team no longer needs them.

We substitute team coordinator for roles like manager, project manager, and

Scrum Master. The coordinator buffers the team from outside interference and
distraction. They might communicate schedules, handle incoming requests, and

smooth interpersonal problems.

5 Agile Success Factors

➤Freedom to change

➤Energized team

➤Communication with customer

➤Collaboration

➤Attention to quality

➤Incrementalism

➤Automation

Card 5—AGILE SUCCESS FACTORS THE IDEA

Taking the Agile Manifesto’s values and principles one step further, these are the

make-or-break factors for a team wanting to be agile:

Freedom to change A team must be allowed to own and change its process. Tam-

pering diverts from shipping quality software.

Energized team A winning agile team is eager to deliver value, collaborates freely,

and never bypasses quality controls even under pressure.

Communication with customer The best agile teams are in constant dialogue

with an enthusiastic, individual, dedicated customer who understands and

communicates the product vision.

Collaboration Get past cube mentality! Meetings aren’t collaboration; working

together in your code base is.

Attention to quality Lack of attention slows you down until you can no longer

meet customer demand. Make quality part of everything you do.

Incrementalism Yet-smaller steps to everything (including retrospection) allow

you to verify whether each step got you closer to the end goal.

Automation Agile cannot work unless you automate as many menial, tedious,

and error-prone tasks as possible. There’s just not enough time!