Team Barometer

Measure trust, collaboration, and engagement to understand how well your agile team works together and where to grow.

Run in TeamRetro

Take the pulse of your team's health and dynamics

Strong agile teams are built on more than process — they run on trust, collaboration, and a shared sense of ownership. The Team Barometer health check gives teams a regular pulse on the human dynamics that drive performance, surfacing how members feel about working together and where the relationships behind the work need attention. By rating dimensions such as trust, participation, and passion, teams open honest conversations, celebrate what's working, and pinpoint the behaviours worth strengthening. Run it periodically to track how team health evolves over time and to keep continuous improvement focused on people, not just delivery.

Dimensions

Team Health

The core relational and behavioural qualities that determine how effectively your team works together day to day.

  • Trust

    There is a high level of trust in our team. People can speak their mind freely.

    • Low trust
    • Building trust
    • High trust

  • Collaboration

    We work together well on issues that come up and can solve complex problems.

    • Working alone
    • Some teamwork
    • Truly collaborative

  • Participation

    We are engaged and active in our Agile ceremonies and everyone is contributing.

    • Disengaged
    • Partly engaged
    • Fully engaged

  • Responsibility

    We take ownership of our tasks and actions and can depend on each other to get the job done.

    • Little ownership
    • Growing ownership
    • Full accountability

  • Relationships

    We support and boost each other and provide backup and motivation to help each other.

    • Disconnected
    • Supportive at times
    • Strong bonds

  • Passion

    We take pride in our work and are driven by our work and our outcomes.

    • Indifferent
    • Some drive
    • Highly driven

  • Integrity

    We behave in a way that demonstrates good decision-making, communication, and respect.

    • Inconsistent
    • Mostly consistent
    • Highly principled

When to use this health check

  • Run regularly (e.g. each quarter or every few sprints) to track how team health changes over time.
  • When a team is forming or has recently changed members and you want a baseline on dynamics.
  • After a period of stress, conflict, or rapid delivery to check on relationships and morale.
  • As a complement to delivery-focused metrics, to keep continuous improvement centred on people.
  • When a retrospective surfaces recurring interpersonal or engagement issues worth measuring.

Tips & tricks

  • Keep responses anonymous to encourage candid ratings on sensitive dimensions like trust and integrity.
  • Compare results across sessions to spot trends rather than focusing on a single score.
  • Discuss the lowest-scoring and most-divided dimensions first — they reveal the richest improvement opportunities.
  • Pair each round with a short action item so the team sees the barometer driving real change.
  • Invite the whole team to interpret the results together rather than presenting conclusions top-down.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Team Barometer health check?
It is a lightweight assessment that measures the human dynamics of an agile team — trust, collaboration, participation, responsibility, relationships, passion, and integrity — so the team can see how well it works together and where to improve.
How often should we run it?
Many teams run the Team Barometer every quarter or every few sprints. Running it on a regular cadence lets you track trends and see whether the changes you make are improving team health.
Who should take part?
Everyone on the team should participate, including the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and team members. Broad participation gives a fuller, more honest picture of team dynamics.
How is it different from a retrospective?
A retrospective focuses on a specific time period and improving the process, while the Team Barometer measures the underlying relationships and behaviours over time. The two work well together — the barometer often surfaces topics worth exploring in a retro.