Managing Dependencies in Agile

Is your team struggling to complete tasks? Do they have to wait for a long time just because another person or team has to complete a task? Do items stay blocked and age when waiting for other people or teams to complete work? 

When it comes to software development, dependencies are an epidemic. Your organization might have adopted the Agile Framework for many reasons. However, your organization is not structured enough until now to support sustained teams. 

Your organization has a strong dependency on specialists or vendors when you instigate your Agile journey. Also, some large-scale system changes need some level of dependencies. In other words, reliance on other people or other teams cannot be eliminated totally. When you scale the Agile efforts in your organization, the reliance scale as well. The relieving thing to remember here is that there are strategies that you can follow to move your teams from dependency management to dependency mitigation.

What Do Dependencies Mean?

Indeed, you are here to find the answer to the question of how to manage dependencies in Agile. However, it is better to understand the meaning of dependencies in the first instance:

Dependencies are things that should take place for a team of Agile practitioners to complete an increment of value. However, a single team cannot handle dependencies in Agile. Also, if they are not handled rightly, they can lead to hindrances in the execution of tasks.

When you take the case of Scrum, the product backlog is the key planning tool. It is used to inform the path that the team should take. From a broader angle, the product backlog has tasks often denoted as user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria. 

A well-written user story follows the approach called INVEST. This term is expanded as:

1. Independent
2. Negotiable
3. Valuable
4. Estimate
5. Small
6. Testable

When it comes to managing external reliabilities, Independence is the key. Even if a single piece of work is completed without any dependence, it means that it has no reliabilities. You should strive for this, even though it is not attainable at all times. There is value in cross-vertical and cross-functional wits. So, you should plan for and manage reliabilities. 

Kinds of Dependencies:

When it comes to managing dependencies in Agile, it is better to be aware of the kinds of dependencies. You can know more about them here:

Technical Dependencies:

Technical dependencies happen when work needs technical modifications in an area of the system that is outside the control of the Agile team. For instance, when your Agile team requires changes in an API that another team in your organization handles, you can classify this dependency as tight coupling. For instance, if the API is not versioned strictly, the changes that you request might need modifications to other downstream customers as well. It means that the dependencies will further increase.

Business Process Dependencies:

This kind of dependency happens when some present business process affects the ability of your team to complete its work. Examples include compliance reviews and approvals from the Change Review board.

Activity Dependencies:

Activity dependencies crop up when it is not possible to progress on a specific part of work until an external team completes an activity. For instance, waiting for development atmospheres to be provisioned before expansion can instigate.

Expertise Dependencies:

These dependencies can crop up when assistance from an individual with particular know-how is required to do something. Getting assistance from a DBA on a schema change is an example of expertise dependencies.

Requirement Dependencies:

These dependencies happen when the team is not clear on a requirement. Here, when a person with domain knowledge like a program manager, a stakeholder or the product owner is not available to clarify, there can be an unnecessary delay.

Also, Check:Powerful Ways to Build an Agile Team

Why Do Dependencies Crop Up?

To ensure the success of your Agile team, you will have to look for ways to cut-off dependency issues right at the source. You can spot some basic factors that lead to dependencies between teams. Here are some of these factors:

Resistance to Change: Dependencies generally defend the presence of a team. This is threatened by a natural resistance to organizational or process change.

Regulatory Needs: When only one or two members of the Agile team get access to particular systems or data, it leads to dependencies.

Legacy System and Processes: These factors generally centralize knowledge and hinder the creation of cross-functional teams.

Doing Big Design Up Front: This factor arises when the plan is not flexible to accept change. In this case, the team is not aligned with the needs of the project. When things change it will affect progress.

Highly Complicated architectures: These things hinder the creation of cross-functional and cross-component teams. When each architecture is owned by a different team, there will be an increase in the number of probable dependencies. 

Incomplete Cross-Functionality: In case, teams lack one or more skills, they will have to depend on another team to provide these skills.

Organizational Structure:  In any organization, there will be different teams. For instance, there will be a development team and a testing team. Of course, this is not cross-functional. If the development team cannot modify the API that they rely on another team, the entire process is hindered. The reason is that the testing team gets into the picture only after the work of the development team is completed.

How To Manage Dependencies in Agile?

Now, you know that in instances, it is not possible to eliminate dependencies. But, issues can be resolved when you know how to manage dependencies in Agile. When it comes to managing dependencies in Agile, you can take certain steps to mitigate them. As mentioned earlier, you cannot eliminate them entirely. Here are some tips to help you with the mitigation of dependencies:

1. Automation Can Help:

Nowadays, when it comes to managing dependencies, most organizations rely on automation. Wherever possible, you can automate repetitive tasks. When automating, it is better to make sure that there are suitable controls in place for safety. 

2. Standardize Processes:

When you find that it is not possible to automate certain things, the best thing you can do is to make processes happen in the same way every time so that you can eliminate the time required for coordination and planning.

When the ideas given above can help with dependencies within an Agile team, here are some ideas to manage dependencies on other teams:

3. Use Gatekeeper Strategy:

You can stop the dependencies from affecting the throughput of any team by hindering stories with dependencies from getting into the sprint. You can hinder them until you are sure that it is possible to resolve the dependencies on time. 

4. Consider Micro-Management:

In case you find that the dependency needs considerable work to find a solution, you can work proactively with the downstream team. You can suggest the team plan the work and execute it well in advance.

5. Follow DIY Approach:

Wherever possible, you can consider handling the downstream work yourself. Otherwise, you can have a pair program in place. With this program, you can have the responsible person to drive the work to completion.

6. Get Rid of the Dependency from Your Scope:

Keep yourself ready by faking the dependency. It means that you can create dummy infrastructure or test stubs for the completion of your part of the work. When you deliver your commitment, you are decoupling yourself from the need that the reliance is deployed. This will work well in line with formal models of engagement as long as the teams work in an aligned manner.

When these tips can help with the dependencies on other teams, you can consider the tips given below when the dependencies involve both internal team and external team reliance:

7. Use Agile Ceremonies:

To mitigate dependencies that involve both within and outside the team, you can use the following Agile ideas:

Project Retrospectives: You can conduct a deeper look into ideas that will help you improve the combined efforts. This will be a valuable move when you wish to enable recurrent and long-term engagement.

Stand-ups:  When it is useful attend their stand-ups. Make sure to do this with their permission. Otherwise, you can have the members of other teams attend your stand-ups. You can also think about Scrum of Scrums here.

Check-ins: For the entire project duration, you can plan for regular check-in meetings. You can plan these meetings with the teams you rely on and also the teams that rely on your team. During these meetings, the teams can discuss shared requirements and can plan their moves accordingly.

8. Consider Aligning Common Goals:

To manage dependencies in Agile, you can invite the appropriate teams that you rely on for retrospectives, check-ins, project planning meetings and design reviews. From these meetings, the teams can understand the work that you do. They will also understand the importance of your work and how it aligns with the top-level objectives of the organization. 

Conclusion:

When you follow some of the tips mentioned above, you can find the answer to the question of how to manage dependencies in Agile. By incorporating these strategies into your Agile practices, you can streamline dependency management and enhance the overall agility of your team. Whether you implement all or some of these strategies, you'll find that mitigating dependencies becomes easier, allowing your Agile team to operate more smoothly and efficiently. Simpliaxis Agile courses offer effective solutions for managing dependencies in Agile

Also, Check: Agile Best Practices for Effective Team