One of the brightest distinctive features of flexible methodologies of software development from traditional methodologies is the necessity of every participant of a project and of every team member to communicate with each other rather often within the confines of the work over the project. Such distinctive feature is also actual for Agile methodology. If to speak about the meaning of team cohesion for Agile projects it can be pertinent to mention that such meaning is crucial for the success of Agile projects. It is difficult to imagine qualitative and efficient communication between those team members who hate each other and are divided from each other by negative feelings or just divided into warring factions. The psychological climate will be terrible in such project team and will prevent from performing of project tasks correctly, successfully and opportunely. It is also possible to test the level of team cohesion with the assistance of special psychological methods, and in case if it needs correction and improvement, it is required to turn to some special trainings. And the special helpful issue tracking programs can likewise help to make the work over the project most coherent and consistent. Team members can be a perfect specialists with huge experience, but with low level of communicative skills. The team organized from such professionals will have low level of cohesion. And the team work will be difficult in this case.
Quite steady tendency in Agile projects is increasing of the meaning of personal qualities and communicative skills of team specialists. If a potential member of a project team has quite good communicative skills his chances to be hired increase several times. However, a general idea of communicative skills of this or that specialist can be received by means of special psychological tests and methodologies. The results might not be accurate but will allow to get an approximate idea of the level of development of communication skills of this or that person. Within Agile all the members of a project team need to communicate with each other rather often, almost constantly during the project. Any hesitation and misunderstanding which arises between team members can significantly complicate the work over the project. The special software can help to systematize the work over the project and increase team cohesion a bit, those who are interested can read more about such software tools.
So, one can see that, on the one hand, Agile model makes serious demands on communication skills of employees, and on the other hand, Agile methodology acts as an incentive to improve team cohesion.