In software, most of the work that adds value to the development process is performed by people usually in the form of a project-team. While every project is unique in nature, and therefor the dynamics of a project-team most certainly will (have to) vary from one project to another, there are some proven steps and guidelines towards building high performance teams that consistently deliver good results across all projects. Join this session to learn about this important topic and evaluate results of real life implementations of the principles discussed in this session.

1. BUILDING
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
HPT

2. Jorge Reyes Esme Acevedo

3. DEMOGRAPHICS

4. ➤ Efficient
➤ Reliable
➤ Effective
➤ Consistent
➤ Predictable
➤ Produce
Expected Results
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS

5. PROJECTIZED COMPANY

6. HEADS UP FOR PMS!
PM
Story time!

7. PEOPLE OVER PROCESSES
➤ People are more important than processes
➤ Focus on the people
➤ Servant leadership
➤ Develop team rules and processes

8. ➤ Help grow the team interpersonal and
technical skills
➤ Form and use generalising specialists
➤ Empower and encourage emergent
leadership
➤ Learn team motivators and demotivators
PEOPLE OVER PROCESSES

9. ➤ Encourage communication via collaboration
tools
➤ Shield team from distractions
➤ Track performance and forecast
➤Align team by sharing project vision
PEOPLE OVER PROCESSES

10. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TASKS
SHARED

11. DEVELOP SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMS

12. DEVELOP SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMS
A leader is best
When people barely know he exists
Of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will say, “We did this ourselves.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

13. WHO IS THE AGILE PROJECT TEAM?

15. ROLES

16. BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES
➤Product Owner
➤Customer
➤Proxy Customer

17. BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES
➤Prioritize products features
➤Manages product backlog
➤Ensures a shared understanding
➤Provides the acceptance criteria
➤Makes change requests

18. BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES
➤May change the product features and
priorities
➤Facilitate engagement of external project
stakeholders
➤Provides due date for the project
➤Attends planning meetings reviews and
retrospectives.

19. SCRUM MASTER
➤Coach or team leader
➤Servant leader
➤Helps the delivery team self-govern and
self-organized
➤Facilitator and communicator
➤Coach and mentor to the delivery team

20. SCRUM MASTER
➤Guides agile processes
➤Helps product owner manage the
product backlog
➤Helps the product owner
communicate
➤Facilitates meetings
➤Follows up on issues

21. PROJECT SPONSOR
➤The main advocate for the project
➤Provides direction to the product owner
➤Determines value on time and on budget
➤May attend iteration review meetings
➤Authorizes the project

22. DEVELOPMENT TEAM
➤GETS THINGS DONE!

23. TEAM WORK
➤Team outperforms what
would be the sum of its
members’ individual
accomplishments through a
process called synergy.

24. Talent wins games
but teamwork wins championships
Michael Jordan
TEAM WORK

25. TEAM DEVELOPMENT
➤ Tuckman’s model 1965
➤ Less hierarchical structure
➤ Team Work!

26. TEAM FORMING
➤ Strangers meet
➤ Formalities are kept
➤ Most people are positive and
polite
➤ Some are anxious
➤ Goals, rules, roles and tasks
are not that clear

27. TEAM FORMING
➤ Low communication
➤ Conversation dominated by
a few
➤ Direction is needed
➤ Build common goals and
project vision

28. STORMING
➤ People start to push against
the boundaries established
➤ Conflict between team
member’s natural working
style
➤ Challenge authority / hostility
➤ Question approach / goals

29. STORMING
➤ Stage where many teams
failed.
➤Not a lot of support
➤ Members start to
communicate their feelings
➤ Don’t really view themselves
as part of a team
➤ Conflict and struggle for the
approach - AKA pseudo
team

30. NORMING
➤ Gradually resolve differences
➤ Appreciate each other
strengths
➤ Respect authority
➤ Ask for help and
constructive feedback
➤ Sense of momentum

31. NORMING
➤ Builds relationships
➤ Build interdependencies
➤The team works with each
other and conflict has settled.
AKA: potential team.

32. PERFORMING
➤ Team works in an open and
trusting atmosphere and
starts producing value
towards achieving project
goals and results
➤ Hierarchy is of little
importance
➤ The team hits their stride.
AKA: real team.

33. PERFORMING
➤ Performance metrics
➤ Continuous improvement
➤ On the way of becoming a
high-performance team.

34. TRAITS OF HPT
➤ Performing Team
➤ 12 of fewer members
➤ Team members have complementary skills
➤ Team members are generalising specialist
➤ Team members are committed to a common purpose
➤ Team members hold themselves mutually accountable
➤ Team members share ownership of the project outcome.

35. Generalizing Specialists Specialist

36. DEFINING GENERALISING SPECIALIST
➤Team members can serve
multiple roles
➤Team members easily switch
between roles
➤Helps resolves bottlenecks

37. MENTORSHIP
➤Throw people into the fire
➤ Help them on request
➤ Meet them a half a step ahead
➤ Guarantee safety

38. SHU-HA-RI MODEL OF SKILL MASTERY
SHU-
HA-
RI-

39. DREYFUS MODEL OF SKILL ACQUISITION
➤ Novice: follow the rules they’ve been
given and make analytical decisions.
➤ Advanced beginner: still following
the rules, but based on experience
better understanding of the context of
the rules

40. ➤ Competent: determining which rules
are best for each situation.
➤ Proficient: actively choosing the
best strategy rather than simply
relying on the rules.
➤ Expert: decisions-making becomes
intuitive.
DREYFUS MODEL OF ADULT SKILL ACQUISITION

41. DREYFUS MODEL OF ADULT SKILL ACQUISITION
Guidance
Skill

42. DON’T FORGET: LIFE > SOFTWARE

43. MOTIVATOR & DEMOTIVADORS

44. EXPERIMENTING AND FAILING SAFELY
➤ The team should experiment and
try new approaches
➤ It’s okay to fail
➤ Learn from failure and move
forward
➤ An engagement culture rewards
people for problem solving,
collaboration and sharing ideas

45. ENCOURAGE CONSTRUCTIVE DISAGREEMENT
➤Debate and conflict is natural and
healthy
➤Constructive conflict leads to better
decisions and buy-in
➤ Divergence means the team will
argue and debate
➤ Convergence means the team will
agree on the best solutions

46. EMERGENT LEADERSHIP
➤Different people lead different initiatives
➤High-performing teams allow multiple
leaders
➤No power struggle when leaders
change roles
➤Leaders are self-selected and not
assigned.

47. FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
➤Absence of trust
➤Fear of conflict
➤Lack of commitment
➤Avoidance of accountability
➤Inattention to results

48. DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
➤Distributed teams are virtual
teams
➤Short iterations help
collaboration in coordination
➤Distributed teams is not the
same as outsourcing

49. DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
➤Distributed teams face more
of a challenge in storming
and norming
➤The project manager may
need to introduce
controversial or difficulties of
the work early in the project.

50. DIGITAL TOOLS
➤Video Conferencing (Zoom)
➤Instant Messaging (Slack, Email)
➤Task/Story/Agile Boards (JIRA,
Trello)
➤Online Calendar (Google, iCal,
Outlook)

51. ➤Keep on track
➤Keep on time
➤Keep track of who is on the call
➤Keep the answers coming
➤Keep it fair
➤Keep it documented
CONFERENCE CALL BEST PRACTICES

52. ➤Track the work that
remains to be done on a
project
➤Measures the project work
TRACKING TEAM PERFORMANCE - BURN DOWN CHART

53. ➤ Tracks the work that has
been completed
➤ As work is done the line
moves upward
➤ Provides additional insight
into the project status
BURN UP CHART

54. ➤The measure of a team’s capacity
to work per iteration
➤Measured in the same unit the
team estimates work
➤Velocity early on is unstable, then
stabilises.
➤Velocity tends to plateau
TEAM VELOCITY

55. COMPLETION TIME / RELEASE DATE

56. LEARN MORE?
AND MUCH MORE!

57. Q & A