Agile War Rooms

War rooms are a very old agile concept and the first big investment on the project success. If your team members consider that the project doesn't not need a war room, project goals are not so challenging, project is not so important or they are not interested on it.
"I'm beginning to think that a project not worth a war room may be a project not worth doing."

We may think that this old concept could be related to the old school management theory, but if you take a min to review it deeply, it's the most agile concept ever.

So, in this post you will find why and how to create a great agile war room from the ground up.


War rooms are a one of the most Agile concepts that comes from traditional management since it's focused on individuals and interactions. In addition to have all the story boards in the room and play with post-its to track every US, teams can also capture every decision and put it on the wall and you will know that everyone will be up-to-date with it. Actually, they can do the same for every concept as risks, blockers, designs, team agendas, etc so the room will be a "you are here" live and 3D picture of the project.
The biggest benefit of a war room is that it will improve the communication by expanding the interaction bandwidth, removing offline tools (like emails) and encourage collaboration.

How can I create a war room:

1. War rooms are all about collocation, extreme collocation!. So, a good option is a conference room with enough space for the core team members to work from there, while there is also some free space to accommodate visitors as needed.
2. All project boards should be in the room. Team meetings including stand ups, retrospective or any informal meeting will take place there so the room will be a public space for the team to come in any time they need.
3. Project objectives, Release and sprint goals should be posted somewhere in the room and be visible for everyone. This will boost goal-oriented energy of the team.
4. Scrum Master and Product Owners should move their offices to the war room so they can be in there as much time as possible. This way they will keep the pulse of the project and collaborate with the team.
5. Finally, just putting a sign on the door doesn't make a war room effective. Teams need to keep this place alive and force that all strategic discussions are made in there.