Truthfulness - an Agile Value?

I agree completely. Truthfulness is the key and with truthfulness comes trust and high performing teams. Call it a cliche or whatever you want, but a team that trusts each other works well together. This is an important quality to have as a Scrum Master and something that will rub off on the team. There is much more culture involved with implementing Agile processes than most people realize.

This really should apply to anyone on any project regardless.
A few things lurking around in my complete list of things

1) "No Surprises"... the mantra of one of our Directors. He won't get pissed off if you bring an issue early. You're in serious trouble if you let it slide and then it becomes an issue later. Amazing how well that policy works.

2) Deferring conflict can only make things worse.

and most important...

3) Someone working significantly more hours than the rest of the team is a HUGE warning sign of something wrong. This something can vary, but you had better figure it out what it is fast.

The more I learn about agile development and scrum the more I understand that there is so much more to project management than the method behind the madness. I agree with @Jim that truthfulness and honesty should be present in any project. I also agree with Declan. One purpose of agile is to help people get above the politics and get the job done as well as it can be. It asks us to be open, honest, and respectful of those on our team. With agile, lack of honesty becomes apparent faster, and if you have a good team, will not be tolerated.

This really should apply to anyone on any project regardless.

Any process is "based" on honesty, what we are talking about here is that agile processes are more sensitive to the existence, or lack of full disclosure. Alas, this just makes them more vulnerable, since full disclosure and complete honesty are hard to get, much harder than most people realize.

Alas, this just makes them more vulnerable, since full disclosure and complete honesty are hard to get, much harder than most people realize.

Precisely :)

Strong sense of self-discipline, along with the aforementioned honesty/full disclosure are usually in short supply. And getting those is usually the major challenge in assembling a successful agile team. That's why a lot of people agree that a successful agile team needs more professional, more experienced and higher-level members than your average software shop has got.

Agile ain't for everybody, just like Jack Nicholson said :)

I agree that "admitting mistakes" instead of covering them is a valuable behavior in any process.

Nothing special for agile teams here. In contrast, agile environments will disclose mistakes sooner than other environments.

That's my opinion

Nothing special for agile teams here. In contrast, agile environments will disclose mistakes sooner than other environments.

When development centers on individuals instead of a team it is much more difficult for a individual to admit they made a mistake in estimating. If you are part of a team it is much easier to spread the responsibility and cover for a inaccurate estimate. Being truthful to other team members is much easier because you are part of a team that cares about its members and also about getting a project done.



In scrum we have the burn down with tasks that the team has agreed to. The major problem I have found in scrum is that many times the teams do not do enough up front planning at the beginning of the sprint. This causes long hours at the end of the month but because the team's integrity is on the line the goals are usually accomplished. In the retrospect we look back and try to prevent the same problems from happening again.




I am working in a non-agile shop right now and I understand why I am such an Agile advocate. I have one developer who I am sure has mis-lead me but I have no proof because there is no daily accountability. As I have learned continual accountability is key to Agile success.

I agree completely, and I admit that sometimes I am not truthful enough!
we should trust each guy in the team, so if you want to others trust you, you must be honest