Maria Konareva, Senior Project Manager and Account Manager, presented the topic "Survival guide to managing big teams"

1. GUIDE TO MANAGE BIG TEAMS
SIGMA SOFTWARE

2. ● You have a great team
● You successfully delivered piece
of functionality
● Client loves your team so much
that…..decided to double your
team.
Sometimes all is good but…..

3. PROBLEMS
—
3
▪ Team sometime grows fast
▪ Team growth slow down the development
▪ The things that work for 7 people do not work for 15
▪ More likely there is no defined onboarding process and you’re not ready for all of this

4. TEAM CULTURE
will make or break your company
Team culture is a collection of values, behaviors,
working practices, and beliefs that team
members share while aiming to fulfill their
collective purpose.
● Every team has a culture. Even if you’ve
never thought of it in those terms.
● The team culture is not just about what they
do, it’s about how they do it and what they
stand for.
● Only on the base of the culture you can
build cross-functional teams.

5. ELEMENTS OF THE TEAM CULTURE
—
5
Vision and Values
Communication
Leadership
Recognition and engagement
Purpose and goals are clear for all. We know what we’re
doing and why.
Learning and Development
Operations
The communication is transparent, effective and not
fatigue.
Leaders should be the role models of the team. If you do
not believe in team and project, that won't work.
Every employee feels valued and important (and this is not
about money)
Possibility to learn and to take more responsibility.
Operations are the way things get done. Aligning your
operations with your purpose is essential to ensure your
team reaches the goals.

6. A good place to start would be to review
where your current culture is and
consider what you need to change.
!

7. HOW TO START
—
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DEFINE THE PURPOSE
▪ Form project vision
▪ Explain project goals and
why it’s valued
▪ “Sell” challenges
BE AN EXAMPLE AND ASK LEADS TO BE
▪ Believe in set goals
▪ Facilitate the team
▪ Follow the rules
DEFINE TEAM VALUES
▪ Use Management 3.0
practices to define the
values together
▪ Define ground rules
MEASURE TEAM SATISFACTION
▪ Surveys or mood board, etcs
▪ F2F meetings
▪ Retrospective
WORK OUT TEAM GROUND RULES
Define the way you
communicate,
work, plan, inform about
absence etc.
START TO FORM TRADITIONS
▪ Catch phrases, words etc
▪ Laugh together
▪ Form traditions
01 02 03
04 05 06

8. TEAM STRUCTURE
A team structure refers to an organizational structure, it
defines the relationships between leadership, team
activities, and group members.
● Functional structure
● Product-Base Division structure
● Matrix structure
● Process based structure

9. FUNCTIONAL
—
9
• FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
• Allows employees who share
similar skills and knowledge
— to focus on their
specialized tasks within their
respective fields.
• Stable structure managed by
Lead.
• Requires synchronisation
Works good if
● the the whole team is not
well-balanced
● the workload is not
balanced
● It’s impossible to create
cross-functional teams

10. PRODUCT BASED
—
10
• CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM
• Each team is dedicated to the
particular
component/product/scope
• The main idea is that the team is
independent.
• Requires minimum
synchronisation
Works good if
● You have several products,
lines, streams etc.
● The workload is balanced
● The team composition allows
creating such teams

11. MATRIX
—
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• All employees have dual
management relationships.
Typically, there is a functional
reporting line as well as a
product- based reporting line.
• Synchronisation is in the Leads
level
• Provides both flexibility and more
balanced decision-making
• Complex to understand and
manage
Works good if
● You have a big team
● The teams have dependencies,
relationship
● The system is complex
(technically)

12. SCRUM TEAM
A Scrum Team is a collection of individuals
(typically between five and nine members)
working together to deliver the required
product increments. The team is self
organized and self motivated.

13. KEEP IN MIND
—
▪ There are always high performers, low performers
and average employees. Keep the balance while
forming the team.
▪ Teams are reproducing by budding.
▪
13

14. PRINCIPLES ARE GREAT, BUT…
Clarity on how to think without clarity on how to
act leaves people unmoved.
Dan Pink
“

15. PROCESSES
● Define project roles
● Define the main processes
● Agree on tools, practices, etc
● Document all mentioned above
● Do not forget that Scrum Master,
Product Owner are roles, and
not only PM can take it!

16. TEAM STAGES
—
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● Do not forget and be
ready
● It’s not necessary to
go back to Forming
phase.

17. Rethinking the organization
The world is now changing at a rate at which the
basic systems, structures, and cultures built over
the past century cannot keep up with the
demands being placed on them.
John P. Kotter
“

18. THANK YOU!