Agile delivery

Set up a team wall

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From:
Agile delivery community

To help your service team to work in an agile way, you may want to set up a team wall.

In agile working, team walls are a section of wall near where your team sits on which you keep a visual record of the work you鈥檙e doing.

How team walls work

You record individual pieces of work on a card or piece of paper and stick them to the wall.

You stick other cards on the wall which represent stages of production, you can then move the pieces of work along the wall as they pass through the production stages.

What to put on your team wall

Most teams fill the wall with paper or post-it notes and various headings, to show everything the team is working on, the stage of production it鈥檚 at, and any work that鈥檚 upcoming.

Your wall will differ depending on the service you鈥檙e building, but most teams include details of:

  • work the team is currently doing
  • work the team has not started yet
  • work that鈥檚 done

You should also use the wall to track:

  • progress against your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) 鈥� for live data, you could show this on an electronic dashboard
  • any risks and issues you鈥檝e found
  • major obstacles to delivery, things which are stopping you getting work done (these are sometimes called 鈥榖lockers鈥�)
  • important deadlines and dependencies

You can also display information about your service and your team, for example:

  • your service vision
  • photos or profiles of the people who are on your team
  • your working arrangements, eg when you have retrospectives or other meetings

How team walls help

Team walls help you to:

  • map out problems you鈥檙e exploring
  • manage work you鈥檝e agreed to do
  • share a lot of information quickly and publicly
  • put all your work together and see how it鈥檚 progressing
  • start conversations in your team or with others in your office, eg about your processes or points where work gets blocked
  • encourage communication and collaboration in your team, and with the rest of the organisation

An up-to-date wall also allows you to:

  • have a physical focal point for the team to look at and comment on during standups and other meetings
  • promote transparency and discussion by showing everyone in your organisation the status of your work
  • make decisions based on an overview of your work
  • manage and measure workflow and spot problems that are delaying you

Example:

A team mapped out the current processes for importing and exporting goods across the UK border, which are currently handled by 26 different government departments and agencies.

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Online tools

As well as your team wall, you may want to record the work your team is doing online, for example using a tool like .

If you do this you should always post information about current and future work to your wall.

If possible you can display your online tool on a screen in your work area so it is still visible to everyone.

You may also find these guides useful:

From:
Agile delivery community
Last updated
almost 9 years ago
Last update:

Guidance first published