- Agile teams focus on being predictable
instead of creating detailed plans.
Most organizations create detailed plans
because they're trying to eliminate uncertainty,
but Agile teams can actually do a better job
eliminating uncertainty by delivering predictably
every few weeks.
The Agile Manifesto points this out
in principles three and eight.
It said that Agile teams deliver working software frequently
with a preference for the shorter timescale.
And that developers should be able to maintain
a constant pace indefinitely.
So developers should be able to deliver frequently
and indefinitely at a constant pace.
Now also remember that Agile teams embrace change
and are free to experiment.
So your teams need to be able to experiment, change,
while at the same time
delivering frequently and indefinitely.
If you stop for a minute, that sounds really hard to do.
It almost sounds like painting a bus
as it's driving down the road while at the same time,
guaranteeing that you'll be on time at every stop.
That's why the best way to do this
is by working with small batches of work
and delivering it frequently.
Agile teams should be very aware of time.
You can't have meetings that go over schedule
or brainstorming sessions with an uncertain outcome.
That's because your team has a deadline every few weeks.
These are usually called sprints.
That's also why Agile teams
are very structured with their time.
Typically, they'll use the term time box.
This is like a box of time that can't expand.
That means that if your meeting is scheduled for 45 minutes,
then the meeting will end in 45 minutes.
Whatever your team decides within that time box
will be the final outcome.
Think about how many times you're in a meeting
and nothing gets decided.
Usually what happens is that a project manager
will schedule another meeting.
That should never happen with an Agile team.
Because if you take that time away for another meeting,
then you can put the team in danger
of not delivering within the sprint.
Now, a time box is more than just about meetings.
Each person on an Agile team
has their own personal time box.
They shouldn't work more than eight hours a day.
If team members start putting in overtime
or working over the weekends,
then it can interfere with a team's predictability.
This extra time isn't considered a sustainable pace.
A Scrum team will work in sprints. That's also a time box.
A typical box of time is two weeks.
So that means that your team will deliver
whatever is finished in two weeks.
If you just need an extra day to finish the database,
then you have to take that feature out of the sprint.
Keep in mind that you need a time box
to deliver predictably.
You can't commit to a delivery date
if you have too much work or if your meetings go long
or if everyone is working overtime.