Ways of working (WoW)

Ways of working (WoW) is a broad term for the methods, processes, practices, tools, and conventions that a team or organization adopts to coordinate and deliver work effectively. It encompasses everything from high-level delivery processes – how work is planned, prioritized, and tracked – through to day-to-day conventions – branching and merging strategies, code review norms, meeting cadences, on-call practices, communication channels, and so on.

The term was popularized by the book Choose your WOW!, written by Scott Ambler and Mike Lines, and which is the primary reference point for the [Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)] toolkit. It is now widely used in the software industry to refer to the specific approach a team takes to software development, including how they plan, execute, and review their work.

Ways of working vary widely, since few teams follow a single off-the-shelf process framework to the letter. Most teams assemble their own approach — drawing on [Scrum], [Kanban], [Extreme Programming], and other sources — and adapt it continuously in response to what they learn works best for them. The right ways of working for any given team depend on their size, distribution, level of experience and expertise, domain, regulatory context, and organizational culture.