Collaboration & Team Dynamics
These principles and laws explain how Agile teams function, grow, and communicate, helping organizations build high-performing, resilient teams.
| Concept | Agile Relevance | Usage in Agile |
|---|---|---|
| Hackman's Law | A well-structured team with clear roles and autonomy performs better. | Reinforces self-organizing Scrum teams, cross-functional collaboration, and stable Agile teams to boost effectiveness. |
| Tuckman's Ladder | Teams go through Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing stages. | Helps Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches navigate team development, conflict resolution, and long-term team cohesion. |
| Pygmalion Effect | High expectations lead to high performance. | Encourages servant leadership, positive reinforcement, and a growth mindset to help Agile teams reach their potential. |
| Ringelmann Effect | As team size increases, individual contributions decrease. | Reinforces the need for small Agile teams (5-9 people per Scrum team) to maintain efficiency and accountability. |
| Dunbar's Number | The limit of stable social relationships is ~150 people. | Guides Agile team scaling models (SAFe ARTs, Spotify Tribes, LeSS) to prevent communication overload and fragmentation. |
| Dude's Law | Value = Why / How | Helps teams prioritize delivering customer value rather than just completing tasks, reinforcing outcome-based Agile roadmaps. |
| Brooks' Law | "Adding more people to a late project makes it later." | Encourages stabilizing Agile teams rather than last-minute hiring to meet unrealistic deadlines, supporting sustainable team dynamics. |
| Gresham's Law | "Bad processes drive out good processes." | Warns against bureaucratic overload, micromanagement, and over-engineering in Agile—bad habits that can erode Agile culture if not addressed. |
| Moore's Law of Hiring | High-performing teams attract high-performing individuals. | Encourages Agile recruitment strategies to maintain a strong team culture and talent density. |
| Jevons Paradox | Increased efficiency can lead to greater resource consumption. | Reminds teams that optimizing Agile processes (e.g., automation, DevOps) can lead to increased demand, requiring continuous scaling strategies. |
| Grice's Maxims of Communication | Effective communication requires clarity, relevance, brevity, and truthfulness. | Improves team collaboration, backlog refinement, and stakeholder engagement to avoid miscommunication pitfalls. |