Elevator Pitch
What is the next step towards complete autonomy once teams are sufficiently “self-managed”? In our Agile journey at Travelstart, we believe that having team members select their own teams is this next step. I will share more information on how we did this as well as what lessons we learned.
Description
In April 2018, due to a change in company strategy and priorities, it became necessary to change the number and make up of our teams. As Agile Coach I suggested the possibility of allowing the teams to choose themselves having seen previous presentations and articles by Sandy Mamoli and David Mole.
In the case studies found online, there is a general assumption that all team members make themselves available to take part physically in the exercises. Having a development team containing team members based in Cape Town as well as Taiwan this would prove to be difficult for us.
This talk will be about how we adapted the process set out in Sandy and David’s book, as well as the various case studies done by others, to accommodate our team members who were not able to join the exercise in-person. I will share the outcome of the exercise, the feedback received during and after the exercise, and finally some important lessons we learned along the way.
Notes
Technical requirements: A computer that can present is all. Why I think I’m best to speak on this: I was the person who suggested the self-selection process, coached the leadership team in preparation of the exercise, and facilitated it.