Working Agreements
Explicit agreements for team collaboration.
PURPOSE
Agile teams need clear agreements to work in a self-organized and effective manner. Working Agreements create transparency about shared expectations and reduce friction in daily work. They prevent recurring conflicts by establishing ground rules proactively rather than reactively.
HOW TO USE
The team collaboratively develops agreements in a workshop on topics such as communication, code reviews, meeting culture, or availability. Each agreement is decided by consensus and documented. The Working Agreements are regularly reviewed in retrospectives and updated as needed.
WHAT IT IS
Working Agreements are a set of explicit team agreements from agile practice. They typically include rules for collaboration, communication, quality standards, and decision-making. Unlike top-down imposed rules, they are developed and owned by the team itself.
EXAMPLE
Example: Your Scrum team keeps debating whether code reviews must happen within 24 hours or whether it's optional. You use Working Agreements to establish clear rules for code reviews, stand-up times, and pairing sessions. Now everyone knows what applies, and you can focus on the work.
PREREQUISITES
- A regular retrospective as the maintenance venue
⚠️ WATCH OUT
- Rule inflation: what nobody remembers changes no behavior
- Common mistake: More than seven rules
- Common mistake: Never addressing violations
💡 SUCCESS FACTORS
- Review and adjust in every retro
- Phrase rules positively