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AgileDC 2018: Team Splitting Experience Report
- 1. excella.com | @excellaco Julie Wyman & Hunter Tammaro Breaking Up is Hard to Do: How to Split a Team (Without Breaking It)
- 2. excella.com | @excellaco Let’s collect some data… What size is your current team? How big was your largest team?
- 3. excella.com | @excellaco We’re going to be Agile! So smaller teams, right? Act 1
- 4. excella.com | @excellaco Setting the Stage • IT department of ~20 devs, BAs, testers, & PMs • Well-established identity, relationships & working styles • Track record of success • Same product, codebase & environments
- 5. excella.com | @excellaco “Let’s Be Agile”
- 7. excella.com | @excellaco The Scrum Guide Optimal Development Team size is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a Sprint.
- 8. excella.com | @excellaco Not too small… Fewer than three Development Team members decrease interaction and results in smaller productivity gains. Smaller Development Teams may encounter skill constraints during the Sprint…
- 9. excella.com | @excellaco But not too big either… Having more than nine members requires too much coordination. Large Development Teams generate too much complexity for an empirical process to be useful.
- 10. excella.com | @excellaco Complexity of communication Image source: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLE7fI0VAAAUkLw.jpg
- 11. excella.com | @excellaco Average Scrum team size is 7.4 members 78% of Scrum teams are between five and nine members
- 12. excella.com | @excellaco First steps… 1. Considerations: ease of communication, decision- making, framework, focus 2. First team as a pilot – short validation cycle 3. Split (mostly) along product lines 4. Cross-functional
- 13. excella.com | @excellaco What happened to being part of the same "team"? Act 2
- 14. excella.com | @excellaco Some more background… • 1 team mindset • Shared responsibility …these were specific to our case…but there are likely relevant specifics for your teams
- 15. excella.com | @excellaco Unintended consequences… • Confusion over shared responsibilities • Less cross-team collaboration • “A team”
- 16. excella.com | @excellaco Teams aren’t silos But not all organizations realize that!
- 17. excella.com | @excellaco What challenges have you encountered when team composition changed? Pair discussion
- 18. excella.com | @excellaco In between… • Awkward phase • Heard rumblings and confusion • Started to identify some misconceptions
- 19. excella.com | @excellaco Small teams working within a 1 team identity Act 3
- 20. excella.com | @excellaco Finding our balance… • Overall team retrospective provided a forum for open discussion • Provided team members an opportunity to own their response to the challenges
- 21. excella.com | @excellaco Retrospective results Collaboration within teams and outside the IT organization was better… 5 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Worse Same Better Partnership between IT & the business 9 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Worse Same Better Sense of teamwork within the project teams
- 22. excella.com | @excellaco Retrospective results … but the IT department itself was drifting apart • “Not enough communication” • “Team is more siloed” • “Less overall teamwork” 8 6 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Worse Same Better Sense of teamwork across the IT department
- 23. excella.com | @excellaco Team identified solutions… • Rotating “floater” • Balance types of work • Maintain department-wide social events • Create a shared release board & rotation for support
- 24. excella.com | @excellaco Team identified solutions… • Continue joint quarterly retrospectives • Locate team Kanban boards close to each other • Establish communities of practice
- 25. excella.com | @excellaco What have you tried to lessen any negative effects of a team change? Pair Discussion
- 26. excella.com | @excellaco Parting thoughts Finale
- 27. excella.com | @excellaco The important stuff… • Team identity can exist on multiple levels • Anticipate impact to existing culture, dynamics and identity • Listen to your teams! • Each team is different