how to form agile teams

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Forming agile teams

Where do fantastic agile teams come from?


Dave Sharrock

email: [email protected]: @davesharrockskype: dave.sharrock

15+ yrs experience`regulatory international

B2B matchmaking MBA IPO

agile husband start-up sometime Canadian

fatherexecutive outsourcing

B2C data analysis

seismology scrum

English go canucks go


forming agile teamswhat do you look for in a team as a manager, as an agile team member and as a customer


forming agile team has different, often conflicting objectives,

depending on your point of view


“A team effort is a lot of people doing what I say.”

Michael WinnerBritish Writer and Film Director


"What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I mean that everybody is there not for individual competitive profit or recognition, but for contribution to the system as a whole on a win-win basis."

W. Edward Deming


steps to forming a fantastic team

characteristics of an agile team


characteristics of a scrum team

• cross-functional • 7±2 people• co-located


poll how many agile teams meet the scrum characteristics?


cross-functional teamsthe team includes all the skills necessary to deliver the end product (from concept to cash)


every team will have its specialists working together to

deliver an end product


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scaling - too many people or too big a product

sometimes you can’t because of:



different technologies, products, backlogs





limited availability of specialists, e.g. architect





limited availability of specialists, e.g. architect

then you need to1. manage

dependencies2. create

knowledge



specialists exist on the team, but every team member pitches in

to help when necessary


a result of self-organization, not cross-functionality


optimum (agile) team size is 7±2 people

The Ringelmann effect refers to a combination of social loafing and coordination losses


the Ringelmann effect

The more people Ringelmann added to a group, the greater the decline in personal effort. Three people pulled at only 2.5x the average individual effort, and eight people pulled at a force equal to the combined individual effort of only four people.


social loafing (and coordination losses)

increase with team size


the perfect size is...


co-located vs. virtualmany aspects of distributed teams are still unclear


global market in labourmeans distributed or virtual teams are here to stay in many businesses today


many agile practices work just great with distributed teams


agile practices support distributed teams

“Teams in which leaders periodically gathered information about others and revealed information about themselves performed better than teams in which members did not do this.”

Suzanne WeisbandAssociate Professor


significant risk factors for virtual teams

• Insufficient knowledge transfer• Lack of project team cohesion• Cultural or language differences• Inadequate technical resources,

i.e. hardware, processing availability

• Resource inexperience with company and its processes

• Loss of key resource(s) that impact the project

• Hidden agendas impact the project

Project Risk Differences BetweenVirtual and Co-Located Teams, Reed & Night


six common misperceptions about teamwork

•Misperception #1: Harmony helps•Misperception #2: It's good to mix it up•Misperception #3: Bigger is better•Misperception #4: Face-to-face interaction is passé•Misperception #5: It all depends on the leader•Misperception #6: Teamwork is magical

Six Common Misperceptions about Teamworkby J. Richard Hackman


common misperceptions: harmony helps

Harmony helps

disagreements can be good for a team



Dear ScrumMaster,

Remember: - don’t let it get personal- or get out of hand

YoursThe Team


common misperceptions: its good to mix it up

Its good to mix it up

the longer a team stays together, the better they do



again a fact of corporate life...


but get experience of excellence before breaking teams


common misperceptions: it depends on the leaderIt all depends on the leader

the most powerful thing a leader can do is to create conditions for self-organization, and launch the team wellSix Common Misperceptions about Teamwork

by J. Richard Hackman


leadership challenge

“However most of the high-performance teams were not manager-led teams.

They were teams where the management had deliberately stepped back, or was inattentive or where one reason or another was totally absent, thus enabling the team to self-organize.”

Steve Denning


common misperceptions: teamwork is magical

Teamwork is magical

It takes careful thought and preparation to stack

the deck for successSix Common Misperceptions about Teamworkby J. Richard Hackman


how will we form the team

• self-organized trumps allocated• constrained trumps random• loose fit trumps tightly controlled


your experiencehow have your agile teams been formed - and what worked well, and what didn’t work well


agree constraints beforehand


allow random orself-organized selection



immediately allow team identity to form




celebrate team selection

immediately allow team identity to form




thank you

[email protected]: dave.sharrockfollow us on: @agile42

follow me on: @davesharrock

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Henry Ford

how to form agile teams

Business

tea tea teascrum

formallow random orself

common misperceptions

productdifferent technologies

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richard hackmanagile42

backlogslimited availability

social loafing