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Team Working Agreement Template, Examples & Free Builder

Copy a ready-to-use working agreement for your Scrum, remote or hybrid team. Start with the template below, see a completed example, or build and vote on your agreement together — free, with no signup.

Working agreement template (copy & use)

Team: ___  Purpose: ___  Created: ___  Review date: ___

Availability and focus — Our core collaboration hours are ___. When unavailable during those hours, we ___. We protect focus time by ___.

Communication — Use ___ for urgent questions. Use ___ for non-urgent discussion. During working hours we aim to respond within ___.

Meetings — We only schedule meetings when ___. An invitation must include ___. Anyone may decline when ___.

Decisions — We make routine decisions by ___. Important decisions are recorded in ___. If we cannot agree, ___ makes the call after ___.

Delivery and blockers — We raise blocked work after ___. Pull requests should be reviewed within ___. Work in progress is limited by ___.

Feedback and disagreement — We give feedback by ___. When we disagree, we ___. Sensitive issues are handled ___.

Keeping this agreement alive — We review these agreements every ___. Anyone may propose a change by ___.

Filled example: an 8-person remote Scrum team

Core overlap is 10:00–15:00 Eastern. No expectation of replies outside a person's local working hours. Slack questions receive an acknowledgment within four working hours; urgent production issues use the pager/phone. No-agenda meeting invitations may be declined. Architecture decisions are summarized in the engineering decision log within one business day. Pull requests receive a first review within one working day. A blocker older than four working hours is raised in the delivery channel. We criticize the idea, not the person. The team reviews this agreement at the first retrospective of every quarter and whenever a new member joins.

Working agreement examples to copy

Availability

  • Our core collaboration hours are 10:00–15:00 in the team's main time zone.
  • Calendars stay up to date — if it is not on the calendar, assume we are available.
  • No one is expected to reply outside their local working hours.

Communication

  • Urgent issues go in the incidents channel and get a response within 30 minutes during core hours.
  • Non-urgent questions get an acknowledgment within four working hours.
  • Default to async: write it in a thread instead of booking a meeting.

Meetings

  • Every invite includes an agenda and a desired outcome — no agenda, no obligation to attend.
  • Meetings start on time and end five minutes early.
  • Wednesday afternoons are meeting-free for focus work.

Decisions

  • Routine decisions are made by consent: no reasoned objection means go.
  • Important decisions are written into the decision log within one business day.
  • If we cannot agree after one discussion, the tech lead decides and we commit.

Delivery

  • A blocker older than four working hours is raised in the delivery channel immediately.
  • Pull requests get a first review within one working day and stay under roughly 400 lines.
  • We limit work in progress to two items per person.

Feedback

  • Feedback is direct, specific, and about the work — never the person.
  • Sensitive feedback is always private; praise is public.
  • Disagreements are raised one-on-one within 48 hours before escalating.

Remote & hybrid

  • Decisions made on a call are written down the same day for teammates in other time zones.
  • The inconvenient meeting slot rotates quarterly so the same people are not always inconvenienced.
  • Cameras are optional; clear audio is not.

Inclusion

  • No interrupting — the facilitator keeps a speaker queue.
  • Anyone may pass on any activity without explaining why.

Keeping it alive

  • We review this agreement at the first retrospective of each quarter.
  • Anyone can propose a change at any retro; changes need team consent.

Distributed across time zones? See the remote team working agreement sample.

Working agreement vs team charter vs team norms

Team norms are informal habits a team falls into. A working agreement makes them explicit: a short, team-owned set of operating rules that everyone agrees to and reviews regularly. A team charter is broader — mission, roles, goals and scope — and often contains the working agreement as one section.

How to run a working agreement session (30–45 minutes)

  1. 5 minutes — set context and purpose.
  2. 8 minutes — silent suggestions from everyone.
  3. 10 minutes — group similar items and discuss.
  4. 7 minutes — vote on what matters most.
  5. 5 minutes — agree the final wording and commit.

Then set a review date.

Vague → specific: make agreements observable

VagueSpecific
Communicate wellAcknowledge direct work questions within four working hours.
Respect focus timeNo internal meetings before 10 a.m.; Wednesday afternoons are meeting-free.
Review PRs quicklyFirst PR review within one working day.
FREE WORKING AGREEMENT BUILDER

Build and vote on your team’s agreements

Propose observable behaviors, vote on what matters, and edit your shared agreement as your team learns. Create a room and share its link so everyone can contribute.

Behavior-focused proposals

Capture concrete ways of working together.

Team voting

See which proposals have the strongest support.

Editable shared record

Revisit the wording with author and Scrum Master controls.

Build this agreement live with your team — free, no signup.