Scrum team working agreements — behavioral norms captured from the team, not handed down by the SM.
Working agreements built by a Scrum team on a whiteboard have more staying power than those handed down by the Scrum Master. BoardSnap captures what the team built — and makes it visible at every ceremony.
Why scrum masters love this workflow
Working agreements are the Scrum Master's tool for creating a self-organizing team. When the team builds its own agreements — debates them, writes them, commits to them on a physical board — the Scrum Master's role shifts from enforcer to mirror. 'We agreed to X — are we living by that?' is a much more effective facilitation question than 'the rules say you should X.'
BoardSnap preserves the agreements the team built. Snap the working agreements whiteboard and get a document in the team's own words. Post it in Slack, print it for the team room, reference it at every retrospective. The Scrum Master doesn't have to remember what was agreed — the board is the memory.
The exact flow
- Generate agreement topics from the team's pain points
Start with: 'What's been frustrating about how we work together? What would make this team more effective?' Let pain generate the topics — they'll be more specific and owned than generic categories.
- Facilitate agreement drafting, not template completion
Don't bring a working agreements template. Let the team draft their own. Your job is to push for specificity: 'What does that look like in practice? Can we write it as a behavior?'
- Test each agreement for enforceability
Ask: 'If someone violated this agreement, would we notice? Would we say something?' Agreements that fail this test are aspirations, not agreements. Revise or remove them.
- Confirm team commitment on the board
Have each team member write their initials next to the final agreement list. Physical commitment creates accountability.
- Snap and make the agreements visible
The BoardSnap summary is the working agreements document. Post it everywhere the team works — physical and digital. Reference it at retros.
What you'll get out of it
- Team-authored agreements — the SM holds up a mirror, not a rule book
- Behavioral specificity enforced in the session — 'be on time' becomes 'standup starts at 9:05, not 9:00'
- Team commitment recorded as team member initials on the board
- Agreements reference-able at every retrospective for honest team reflection
- Agreement revision history as the team's self-organization matures
Frequently asked
What do I do when the team creates working agreements but doesn't live by them?
At the next retro, open the BoardSnap working agreements capture. Ask the team to self-assess against each agreement. The board is the mirror — the SM doesn't have to be the enforcer.
How long should working agreements last before they're reviewed?
Review at every quarterly retrospective, or when team composition changes. Some agreements need to evolve as the team matures — what a new team needs is different from what a high-performing team needs.
Can I use working agreements to address a specific team dysfunction I've observed?
Yes — carefully. Surface the pattern you've observed ('I've noticed our standups often run over 20 minutes — what agreement would help us') and let the team own the solution. Don't mandate the solution in advance.
Scrum Masters: try this on your next working agreements.
Three taps. Action items in your hand before the room clears.