Agile Co-Location: Why It Works

Agile Co-Location: Why It Works

Tue, 1/10/2017

Scott Gould

One of the primary ideas behind the foundation of the Agile Methodology was and continues to be Agile team co-location. We have been told, and we tell others, that face-to-face, co-located teams are the optimal goal of Agile and that Business Development, testers, SMEs, and developers must work together daily throughout the project. This is accepted as essential in Agile and is outlined in Principles 4 & 6, around which the Agile Manifesto is based: “Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers” and “Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication [co-location].”

However, do these principles still apply?

Face-to-face conversation was listed as one of Agile’s guiding principles. However, this was back when the Agile Manifesto was first signed. The year was 2001, back when chat software such as AOL/Aim, was still in its infancy and had not been accepted by many businesses or the government. In fact, most businesses and government agencies banned its use at that time due to the fear that employees were using it to “goof off,” and that it provided no business value.

This was the atmosphere in which the Agile Manifesto and Agile Principles were created. What has changed? Primarily, teleworking has risen fast, with many government agencies mandating that some employees telework 100 percent of the time. In 2001 telework was not widely used at most companies or agencies, and under older management styles it was actively discouraged. Telework in the United States grew 79 percent between 2005 and 2010 but there was still push-back. As late as 2010, the largest non-profit in the nation was trying to cancel the small amount of teleworkers it did have because the new CEO thought it was a waste of time. However, since then, telework has expanded exponentially, and does not appear to be slowing down.

Based on these factors, are some of the founding principles of Agile no longer relevant as written? Does this mean Agile methodologies are no longer usable? The truth is, Agile is not only still very relevant, but its importance has grown. As people are teleworking and not in the same office every day with their co-workers, there can be a decrease in the transparency and collaboration required to keep teams operating smoothly.

Technology and changes in business culture have expanded the meaning of co-location and even, to a certain extent, the meaning of “face-to-face.” Face-to-face can now be accomplished over laptops with real-time conversations and presentations. People on opposite sides of the country can view each other’s screens and work together on projects, accomplishing similar results to being in the same office.

Previously, co-workers on different sides of the country had to have a phone call to discuss their work on a project. They could e-mail each other documents but could not easily view each other’s screens or edit a single document simultaneously while viewing it. All of the necessary activities that made face-to-face and co-location of teams so valuable, such as conversation, simultaneous work, and easy editing, have to a certain extent been expanded by the availability of new software. Are your teams getting more value by sharing a video conference, or sharing screens during a meeting from across the country, or working in the same office 20 feet away from each other but only e-mailing back and forth? Technology such as webex doesn't replace face to face but it does facilitate it and is the next best thing.

So, how will this work in the practical day-to-day environment of an Agile team? Let’s take a look at the backbone of the Agile Ceremonies, the Daily Stand up, or Daily Scrum. Normally, the team will stand up around the room with the Scrum Master facilitating, report out briefly on what they accomplished the day before, what they will be working on for the current day, and any blockers or impediments. This is the time when the team collaboration and transparency is firmly established, not just for the morning, but as a long term working environment. It is where other team members can see any issues that their co-workers are having, offer helpful advice after the meeting, and collaborate on a solution.

With the advent of Agile software, these meetings can still take place, and still be as valuable to the team. There are multiple types of Agile software that will track stories, impediments, work progress, and give your team a burndown. Some of the software that is currently used in the government and industry is RTC at the VA, Jira at DHS and Fannie Mae, Version One at CBP and Freddy Mac, and Rally/CA Agile at USDA.

With the use of this software, the typical daily Scrum meeting is very collaborative. Two of the most effective ways to use it are to show the current status of work as each team member is reporting, or to adjust the work status as the person is talking.

In the first instance, all team members will have updated their work in the software before leaving work on the previous day. During the daily meeting, the Scrum Master will put up the taskboard or storyboard on their screen and share the image with the team as each person reports out. In the second process, the Scrum Master can adjust the remaining hours for each task as each person talks, or the team member can take control of the screen and as they are reporting out their progress, adjust their hours remaining and move work over to the appropriate column on the kanban board in the software as they report out.

The first process is good for a team that is high performing and is used to updating the software. However, the second process is better for a team newer to the software, as it is a good way to get them used to working within it. Either is useful for keeping non-collocated teams collaborative, transparent, and engaged with the team as a whole.

As we move forward, let’s remember why Agile was originally created. Agile came as a response to the more rigid Project Management methodologies being used. Agile should stay with that original ideal and be “agile” enough to change as the world changes around it. The ideal in Agile of face to face communication is still relevant. Only the meaning of face to face has been stretched as the software and the realities of telework and webcasting has advanced. So now that the working world has changed, the one thing we as practitioners of Agile need to avoid is the tendency to become rigid and not change with the world around us. This was the reason Agile was originally created, and practitioners need to be alert and not lock themselves into the wording but not the spirit of Agile. If we do not avoid this, we risk Agile becoming what it was originally created to replace.

So to conclude, face to face is the ideal, but new technology now allows us to come close to that ideal even with teams that are thousands of miles apart, which is an exciting development for us all.