Teams should be organized in such a way that the value stream that the train is involved in stays mostly within the team. Work should be able to be brought to the teams, not having the teams be reformed for every new chunk of work. While stability is a desired trait of trains, complete stabilty is neither achievable nor desirable. Growing organizations need to embed new team members as well as adjust to changes in strategy.

Some reorganization of the talent can be done right up front if it is clear certain people should be on particular teams. How to reorganize usually becomes more obvious after the first planning event where dependencies are mapped. It is important to visualize before reorganizing. This means to understand what

Resources and case studies

Achieving Cross-Functional Teams to the Greatest Extent Possible. Cross functional teams are teams that have the capabilities of building the software they have committed to with no outside dependencies. This is fairly rare in development/IT organizations that have more than 30 people. The larger the technology group gets the more difficult this becomes. Having cross-functional teams makes teams both more creative as well as more efficient because of fewer hand-offs and common knowledge.

Aligning Multiple Teams with Lean-Agile Thinking. Three key principles of Lean Thinking for software development. This article describes how they apply to the value stream (the name Lean gives the workflow from “concept” to “consumption”). It also describes three disciplines Lean-Agile teams will need to follow to keep value flowing. Finally, it illustrates how Lean Thinking guides Agile enterprises in addressing challenges in their context. Lean-Agile lays out a different, more disciplined approach for scaling Agile. (Al Shalloway. 11/2016)

Dynamic Feature Teams: Creating Small Mobs Within a Large Group (Case Study). This article describes a case when the team’s demand for expertise bumps up against the needs of the feature team to handle the complex “Big Rocks” in the portfolio. It is a case when cross-functional teams are simply not possible or feasible. Guided by Lean-Agile thinking, one solution is to use a dynamic feature team.