Transparency | Glossary

Definition

Transparency is one of the most important core values of Agile. It is critical regarding Organizations adopting Agile. It refers to the ‘openness’ of communication between the members of the team, and a free flow of information between the senior and junior members of the team. Scrum involves aspects like Daily Standup, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and Retrospective meetings.

The  more quickly an organization adapts to Transparency, the more chances  will raise for it’s success regarding Agile. A lack of Transparency in the long run, can hurt an Agile team,as well the organization overall. Without Transparency:

  • Product Owner may lost trust
  • There might be office politics
  • Team Morale can go down
  • Estimating future work can be an issue
  • Team’s true velocity can’t be known.

Further Reading

  •  “Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum” (book), by Mike Cohn.

HiPPO | Glossary

Definition

HiPPO (Highest Paid Persons Oopinion) is used as a descriptive term for the tendency for the lower paid people in office to defer to those with larger pay-scales than them, when making crucial decisions. It’s an understandable human instinct, but it is also cautionary and detrimental to the Agile process.

It is to be avoided because the Agile method ranks all team members are equal, wit no member outranking the other. This concept has proven to be difficult for new Agile adopters to grasp and initially, Team Members fear individual retribution. Hence, the solution is to deliver trust in a team to deliver, and eventually empowering them to solve problems.

Further Reading

  •  “Hippo: The Human Focused Digital Book” (book), by Pete Trainor.