Team Motivation in Agile
Agile software development methodologies have been extremely popular in recent years. Probably that is because of the fact that they were designed especially for modern software development projects. Like other software development methodologies, they have their own practices to motivate their teams and improve the effectiveness of their work. These practices strongly depend on the features of a certain methodology and the structure of its teams. That is why we have to give the full Agile definition and say a few words about its teams before describing the team motivation practices used in this methodology.
Agile is an innovational method of software development that originated in the early 2000s in response to the traditional Waterfall approach. There was only one software development methodology at that time. It was called Waterfall. Today it still remains the most popular project management method in the world. Waterfall is based on strict hierarchical structure of teams and sequential structure of project realization. In Agile the structure of project realization is iterative. It allows Agile developers to introduce intermediate products to their customers after each iterative cycle and to achieve high user acceptance of final products. Unlike Waterfall projects, the degree of customer involvement in Agile projects is very high. The clients of Agile teams usually participate at all their meetings and follow the process of product development until it is ready to delivery. The communication inside of Agile teams is very strong because they are usually self-managing.
Typical teams of all Agile methodologies are unlike Waterfall teams. They are small. Usually such teams include less than 15 people. That is why they don’t have many traditional roles like project managers, analysts, and testers. Each Agile developer must be capable of performing the tasks of these specialists. As we have already mentioned, Agile teams are self-managing. That makes all team members responsible for the result of their work. There is no strict hierarchical structure in Agile teams, so they have to make all important decisions on their projects during their meetings. Such meetings are the main means of communication inside of Agile teams. Additionally, their members often work in one office to improve communication.
Now, as we know the definition of Agile methodology and the structure of its teams, we can talk about motivation in them.
The first thing we must mention is that Agile developers are high qualified employees because they often have to perform several roles in their projects. That is why their salary must be high. This motivation is very important when creating an Agile team. Additionally you can motivate your developers by conducting various team meetings and discussing what went well in your project. Such method of motivation is effective regardless of the type of Agile methodology you use to manage your projects.
