Keep Your Focus: Align Teams with Objectives

by Jim Highsmith

This is the next in a series of Advisors that attempts to answer the question "What do agile executives and managers actually do?" A previous Advisor identified a number of practices or areas of responsibility for agile leaders (see "Making Middle Managers Catalysts for Agility," 25 November 2009). Here, I'll address helping teams understand and deliver on business and project objectives. This sounds pretty mundane, but I frequently find when coaching teams or facilitating a project chartering session that teams are not aligned with overall objectives: customer, business, or quality.