Leveraging Flow Boards for bringing Accountability and Urgency to get work done !

One key tenants of Agile project management is to have an self sustained team where every member in team have an shared accountability of the common goal and works with sense of Urgency on same.

However, its easier said than done. Bringing the shared accountability and sense of urgency requires a big shift in behavior and culture of the team members.

Having an effective physical flow board makes a great impact to address this :

Scrum guide states “Significant aspects of the process must be visible to those responsible for the outcome. Transparency requires those aspects be defined by common standard so observers share a common understanding of what is being seen”

Having an Physical flow Board helps :

• Bringing an sense of ownership with work of each member visible with status . when we have an daily stand up in front of the board, the member implicitly starts owning and acting on the task at hand with urgency
• Brings an order to work progress and status becomes transparent and not hidden in some excel or tool
• Team is in better position to take decisions for collective good , help the members who are not able to make progress and also challenge each other, improve collaboration
• Help make team efficient with focus to get the work fully complete and reducing work in progress
• Togetherness and Team Pride : Having the Physical board also have an very positive impact in bringing team together and celebrate success as team sees the progress in front of their eyes.

Few Tips to get this right :

• Ensure every work item has a clear owner , status and expected completion date
• Daily Stand up at the start of the day with mandatory attendance where each member updates progress , ask for help for any impediments and confirms he/she is on track to complete the work
• Celebrate success even if its trivial.
• Transparent and Open culture – The role of facilitator to ask probing questions to ensure team members are fear free to share updates and gets support when needed can make a big difference

Have you tried this in your teams? please share your insights on challenges and benefits in implementing an flow board within your teams.