Teams – Lean Agile Guru

Aug

10

2020

Performance

Agile, Agile Release Train, team, team of teams, Teams

Day 135. Optimum performance is not the sum of the individual parts. Example: a set or collection of agile teams. Optimum performance is the product of the interaction of the individual parts. Example: a team of agile teams — an Agile Release Train — interacting in a Lean and Agile way! Interaction is agile. Interaction is lean!

Superstar Is Not Needed

Agile Team, leadership, lean agile leadership, mindset, Superstar, Teams, Transformation

Superstar is not needed; we need the whole team to work together as one unit... not dependent on one person — the superstar — for favorable results/outcomes. This axiom applies at the upper levels: at program level, large solution level, at portfolio level...and also at the enterprise level. Dependency on a superstar is not good... having a single point of failure is not good. Even if we have more than one superstar, the saying, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ still applies. There was a time when the USA Dream Team — the men’s basketball team…

Organize Teams Around Features, Components…and Most Importantly, Around Releasability

Art of War, Component Teams, Feature Teams, Organization, Organize Teams, Releasability, Sun Tzu, Tactic, Teams

In Sun Tzu's book, "Art of War", there is a section on "Waging War". I quote: "As for military operations, let us consider an army of 1000 attack chariots, 1000 heavy chariots and 100,000 armoured troop, all provisioned for a campaign of 1000 li". Tzu further added, "...Allow expenses for maintenance and manufacture of chariots and armour...". And, most of all, ensure victory. Tzu wrote about this in the section "Deployment". I quote, "Being prepared for all circumstances is what ensures certain victory..." Equating that to Lean-Agile teams, we should organize our teams around features (feature teams -- the "attacking…