Trust+in+Agile+Teams

= =

** Overview **
toc Trust is the foundation for teamwork and confidence to collaborate as described by (Covey, 2006). Trust gives a sustaining quality of life to all manner of relationships (Covey, 2006): family, business, team, organisation, nation, economy, friendship and so on. Trust impacts and plays a crucial role in our everyday living. it is one thing that changes everything in our lives both personally and professionally. However, if leveraged and well developed, it can create an unequalled success and confidence in every area of life. Trust produces results. Trust based on faith without suspicion in family relationship enhances unity while organisational trust increases productivity and customer trust increases brand loyalty thus forcing them to tell others. Nonetheless, when trust is eliminated, decision-making and communication becomes impossible or slow and it often destroy homes, businesses, relationship, projects etc. As families build trust in their children, they learn to let go and release them slowly. Integrity forms the basis of trust and it is reflected in human character.

Definition
According to (Erisha and Hall 2008), Trust in agile practice is defined as a mental or emotional state of mind where the trustor believes that the trustee behaves according to a pre-established context based on the evidence of the trustee’s competence and goodwill. The trustor in most cases is vulnerable to this belief: this means that if A trust B to do C, then A trust B not to do D. Hence, trust in agile practices is context specific which is usually guided by the customers’ users story. According to the literature by (Erisha and Hall, 2008) there are five generic types of trust that can affect Agile methods:
 * Interpersonal trust
 * Relational trust
 * System trust
 * Behavioural trust
 * Trust in belief

Development of trust in agile teams is also affected by lack of communication, lack of interaction and co-operation among team members and balanced participation.

Furthermore, (Tschannen-Moran, 2011) in a recent lecture suggested that trust is a personal resolution to be susceptible to one another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable and competent. Factors that maintain trust in agile practice are:
 * Honesty
 * Communication
 * Cultural understanding
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Personal relationship
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Working together
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Performance
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Capability.

** Trust in Agile Teams ** ‍
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">In order to be a trusting Agile team, members must carry out Agile practices which includes sitting together as a team, pair programming where two or more members of the team work together, weekly cycle where the team’s work is planned a week at a time (Beck, 2004) and so on. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The ability of an Agile team is highly dependent on Trust which can be difficult to acquire and requires effort to maintain as it can be easily lost. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Members of a team need to have the confidence that other members' have good intentions and have reasons to be protective around them (Lencioni, P. 2002) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">In their book [|The trusted Advisor] (Maister, Galford, and Green, 2002), trust is made up of the following equation:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">T = (C + R + I) / S <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">T = Trustworthiness <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">C = Credibility <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">R = Reliability <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">I = Intimacy <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">S = Self-orientation <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">When a team is newly formed, members go through the Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing stages (Tuckman, 1965). Productivity and quality of work improves as soon as the initial teething stages are overcome. Trust enables members to be themselves within the team without the fear of being ridiculed. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;"> Team members should view one another as a unit and not individually and be prepared to take the blame for the mistakes of the team.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 17px;">Benefits of Trust
<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Trust is an essential element for any Agile team formation. A team operating in trust stands to enjoy the following benefits:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Increased energy to the team as a whole
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">It produces an adaptive environment for team members
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">It increases productivity by team members due to unity and openness within the team. This in effect increases the organisation's productivity
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">It encourages better use of resources through collective efficacy, collaboration and the management of conflicts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Effects of Lack of Trust in Agile teams
<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">Commitment to a team often gives rise to co-operation among team members and it improves team performance (Whitworth and Biddle, 2007).Conversely, Dorairaj et al (2012) pointed out that lack of commitment reduces team performance and results in the team members not willing to participate in project work. They believe that the reason of lack of commitment is that team members are dissatisfied with the outcome of a discussion or team members feel that their viewpoints are not accepted in decisions.However, the absence of trust will lead to following negative effect: <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;">Firstly, in a team lacking trust, collaboration will be affected. Dorairaj et al (2012) note that in this situation, some customers and managers would only cooperate with selected members rather than the entire team.When conflicts occur within a team without trust, according to Dorairaj et al (2012), some team members might blame others or completely ignore the situation that caused the conflict rather than resolving the problem.Finally, Dorairaj et al (2012) show that lack of trust will influence team performance. Some team members will not supervise and provide suggestions on each other’s performance and others will not concentrate on the tasks, deadlines and deliverables. The poor performance of one member of a team is viewed as a vital element that can affect overall performance of the entire team. (Dorairaj et al, 2012)

Refrences.
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Beck, K. and Andres, C. (2004) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> //Extreme Programming Explained: Embracing Change//. 2nd Edition. Boston, Addison-Wesley <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Covey, S.M.R. (2006) //The Speed of Trust// <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Available Online at: [] [Accessed: 14 March, 2012] <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Dorairaj, S., Noble, J. and Malik, P. (2012) //Understanding Lack of Trust in Distributed Agile Teams: A Grounded Theory Study.// Available Online at: [] [Accessed:10th March, 2012] <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Erisha Hasnain and Tracy Hall (2008) //Investigating the Role of Trust in Agile Methods Using a Light Weight Systematic Literature Review//. Available Online at: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> @http://www.springerlink.com/content/xkw0vw4267978204/ [Accessed: 14 of March, 2012] <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Lencioni, P. (2002) //The five Dysfunctions of a Team.// Available Online at : <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> [] [Accessed: 07 February, 2012] <span style="background-color: white; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Maister, D.H., Galford, R. and Green, C. (2002) //The Trusted Advisor.// The Free Press <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Shore, J. and Warden, S. (2008) //The Art of Agile Development.// Available Online at: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> [] [Accessed: on 14 March, 2012] <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Tschannen-Moran, M.(2011) //Trust Matters: Creating Conducive Space For Learning.// Available Online at: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> http://www.schooltransformation.com/pdf/20110316_HK3P_Trust_Matters.pd [Assessed: 14 March, 2012] <span style="background-color: white; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Tuckman, B.W. (1965) //Developmental Sequence in Small Groups// //Psychological. Bulletin//, 63, 6, 384-99 <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Whitworth, E. and Biddle, R. (2007) //The Social Nature of Agile Teams.// Available Online at: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> [] [Accessed: 10 March, 2012]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">External links
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">[] [Accessed: 10 March, 2012]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/trustor.asp#axzz1p6PfSdJp **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">[Accessed: 12 March, 2012]