^ [[2 About Agile]] # 2.2 Agile Teams The **most important productivity factor** in any team are the people and the way they interact. Agile teams are **self-organising, cross-functional, fluid, and highly collaborative**. Self-organisation means that **everyone in the team works together to determine the best way to perform the work**. The team is cross-functional, containing members with the needed combined expertise to build and deliver a solution. This includes people with various technical skills. It **also includes stakeholders with the required domain knowledge**. Fluidity refers to the idea that the **team composition may vary over time**. Though the **PM2-Agile roles have some specific responsibilities**, all project team members for a project following PM2-Agile have some **==shared responsibilities==**. - Deliver the outputs that best **meet the stakeholders’ expectations** and respect the **organisation’s quality standards**. - **Respect the commitments**. - Respect the project **budget** and strive to **be efficient** while delivering the outputs. - Promote a collaborative and **cooperative working environment**. - **Share** information, knowledge, and expertise with colleagues. - **Help** other team members develop their **skills and competencies**. - **Be proactive** and have a "grow" mindset, internalising a **continuous learning** and development About Agile - **Contribute** to the continuous improvement of PM2-Agile. Agile teams work in a highly collaborative manner, adopting the **most effective communication techniques** for their situation and striving to work together as closely as possible. **The goal is to ensure that**: - everyone has a sense of belonging on the team, of **being in it together**. There should be no "outsiders", **no "them" but only "us"**; - the **team includes everyone required to build the system**. A self-contained team should have the skills and knowledge to get the job done. This is not always possible, and sometimes there is a need to **bring in outside experts for brief periods** of time for specific tasks; - **everyone in the team contributes any way they can**. There is a move away from specialists who focus on a specific category of work, such as analysis or database administration, towards **teams with multi-disciplinary members**; - the team is **self-organising**. **The people best-suited to plan and organise the work are the ones who do the work**. This results in **better estimates**, more **realistic schedules**, and **increased commitment** to the plan by the team; - the team maintains a **sustainable pace**. No heroic contributions, no burnouts; - everyone **works together closely**. Next: [[2.3 Continuous Improvement & Validated Learning]]