Allianz Türkiye – Agile Office
Here, you come across many specific words and terms. We hear you ask “What do they even mean”. But we have an explanation for this.
Agility is a language-independent, global method with its own and multi-component terminology. It is a way of doing business that is independent of space and borders, which enables even overseas teams to produce together even if their members’ native languages are different from each other.
There is no accredited, academic institution that has adapted the agile terminology to Turkish. As Allianz, we wish to create a dictionary while doing our own translations, but this time it will be a terminology that only Allianz employees can understand. Since it cannot gain a universal dimension, it cannot be internalized and can be lost in time. Since we shared our experience, we knew to stay within the limits of the common terminology used on this subject.
If one day an accredited academic institution translates agile terminology into Turkish, we will act immediately to use it.
Here are the explanations of some of the terms and words we use in our HEY! working model:
Agile: A methodology that has been used in the field of Information Technologies for many years and has added significant value to companies. It is a new working method where teams work with a "test and learn" approach to find the most optimal solution, and hierarchy is minimized.
Tribe: A customer-oriented community of employees with a broad mission, consisting of related teams. It has production, profit and loss (P&L) responsibility and decision-making authority on all matters related to the line of business for which it is responsible.
Squad / Team: Squad is a team of employees having different competencies and specialties, working with the aim of achieving a strategic goal. Ideally, it is recommended that the squad shall be less than 10 people. The team acts independently and has the authority to take certain end-to-end responsibilities and make decisions.
Chapter: A group of people with the same competency within the Tribes. Chapters aim to share best practices, enrich intellectual knowledge, and set standards in their field.
Sprint: A work event lasting 1 to 4 weeks, which forms the basis of the agile methodology. The team decides the length of the sprint to create a meaningful output.
Product Backlog: The single resource that lists all the work that needs to be in a product, describes the needs and prioritizes the tasks.
Sprint Backlog: All of the work to be done on a sprint basis. It is fed from the Product Backlog and is updated in every sprint.
Daily: A ritual in which all Squad members participate, that lasts maximum 15 minutes, and gives information about the work to be done during the day. In the Scrum guide updated in November 2020, the content guidance for daily scrum has been removed, leaving the teams free. As an example of good practice, and the most widely used of the methods still in use, in Dailys, each team member answers the following questions on their turn.
1) What did I do yesterday to help the Squad reach its sprint goal?
2) What will I do today to help the Squad reach its sprint goal?
3) Do I see any obstacles that will prevent me or the squad from reaching the sprint goal?
Backlog Refinement / Grooming: A method to keep the Product Backlog up-to-date, clear and organized. It is a fundamental process in Scrum. It is the general name given to the activities in which the squad members develop, detail and divide the work during the sprint.
Sprint Planning: An event that starts the sprint. The purpose of sprint planning is to define what will be done in the sprint and how this work will be achieved. Sprint planning is done in collaboration with all team members.
Sprint Retrospective: Team members discuss team dynamics, how they can work more effectively as a team, and action plans are created for improving solutions. The Sprint retrospective meeting focuses on the process.
POCLAC: An evaluation committee composed of Product Owner (PO), Agile Coach (AC) and Chapter Lead (CL). It evaluates tribe members' performance, and is derived from the initials of the participant roles.
User Story: The simplest and most understandable end user’s explanation of how to do every job in Sprint, any feature to be used by the end user.
MVP: A viable, valid, practical product with core features that are really needed, with functions that the user can experience for themselves and that the producer can get feedback from the user in the agile working model. It is the abbreviation of Minimum Viable Product.
Product Owner: Responsible for product development and the management of the product backlog; sorts and prioritizes the items in the list. It is the voice of the customer.
Chapter Lead: Line manager, manages the work, plays an active role. Chapter Lead is responsible for developing Chapter members and setting standards.
Agile Coach: An advocate of Agile thinking and processes.
Tribe Member: Product developer.
Tribe Leader: Responsible for the management of the Tribe and the achievement of all business outcomes and goals.
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