Come and join our agile team...yeah, right

I have recently been invited to join a(nother) "Agile Team" as a senior developer rather than coach. You might have already gathered that I am becoming increasingly sceptical about these claims having been caught out before.

I have no idea whether the latest offer is truly agile, or faux agile, but it got me thinking. What am I looking for in an Agile Team before I can join it while feeling safe enough to leave my coaching hat at home? Here are my initial thoughts:

• fixed, short iterations with regular retrospectives
• story based scope specification with a suitable Customer involved with the Team
• regular replanning based on real, measurable progress
• full integration of QA within the team
• test coverage greater than 80%
• regular (ie multiple times per day) automated integration testing

I'm sure there are more but these seem to be the essentials that are most often missing.

If you can't check these basic boxes then please have the courage and wisdom to recognise that something is wrong and get help!