Cross-functionality, T-people and Bus factor
Over the past six months, I was able to visit two start-up contests - DOU Mixer and Garage48 . In the first, the team was formed on the fly, which introduced a certain redundancy and confusion of roles. Therefore, in the second we decided to participate staffed before it began.
I will say right away, working with client teams and assembling your team is not the same thing. There are advantages and disadvantages, but there are also common practices that will be useful for both agile coaches and technology entrepreneurs.
I want to share a couple of tools that will help you quickly understand who is who in the team and save time for some team-building processes.
So, suppose that we have a group of people (5-7 people) who will have to work together on the project. How to start assembly? Let's start with dating ...
')
SELL / BUY
What for?
How much time will it take?
What is required?
Step 1. Preparation
We offer team members to take the index card and divide it into two parts: the left one is called Sell, the right one is Buy. We write down 2 questions on the flipchart and give participants 2-3 minutes to answer and fill out their index card.
Step 2. Submission
We offer each team member (in a circle) to introduce themselves, if they are not yet familiar, to voice their strengths and their interests in professional growth. This can take 1-3 minutes per person, in general, per team - up to half an hour.
Step 3. Debrief
Each team exercise is useful to strengthen the debriefing. Here you can simply ask the question: “What have you noticed?”. In my experience, the observations were as follows:
* In my opinion, the question “What have you noticed?” Is the easiest and fastest way to debrief, no matter how much teamwork you do. It enhances internal reflection (awareness) and pulls to the surface, both obvious and implicit conclusions. I strongly advise you to ask it, or its modifications more often.
The next team activity I would suggest is to make the formation of a matrix of skills . His goal will also be the study of skills and knowledge, but not for general acquaintance, but for the analysis of the composition and level of cross-functionality of the team. A small digression on the topic of cross-functionality.
Command cross functionality
It is often misunderstood, as if it is proposed to use the front-end developer for designing the database architecture, and the designer for writing test cases.
In fact, this is a command cross-functionality , not an individual one. That is, by cross-functionality, we understand the ability of the whole team to perform all the functions necessary for the implementation of the project.
The old school team coach in me always offers to concentrate the skills and knowledge of the team in one place, literally - in one room. In the world of distributed projects, this is less and less possible, but if I were building my team now, I would have neglected the savings in office and payroll expenses in favor of high productivity that people working together in a common time zone, country, culture, and physical space.
Individual cross-functionality
Another important aspect of high productivity is the presence, or even the vast majority of T-people in the team. Here we are talking about individual cross-functionality, and that's what I understand by it.
The T-form specialist received this name because it has a deep (as the basis of the letter T) understanding of one discipline / domain and broad (as the cap of the letter T) interests in other related fields.
Such a person brings 3 types of project benefits:
The importance of the last point should not be underestimated, especially in dynamic technological projects, in which developers develop a wide knowledge of domain and functional areas, and generate a value much higher than just the lines of high-quality code.
We need a star team, not a team of stars , therefore, it is useful to raise T-people and to observe the balance of command and individual cross-functionality.
The first step on this path can be a workshop on creating a matrix of skills .
SKILLS MATRIX
What for?
How much time will it take?
What is required?
Who to invite?
Step 1. Vision
Ask your Product Owner (maybe it is you) about a short pitch of the product idea:
Of course, if you write the integration interfaces of the two corporate EPR systems, the content of the pitch will be different, but its purpose remains the same: to get a quick understanding of what we will write, what skills we will need, what technologies we are free to choose, and which ones are already a predetermined limitation .
Step 2. Skills
Guided by the pitch and specification, write down the skills and technology that the team should have. You can write them first on stickers, or immediately on a flipchart, depending on how free you are in discussing and choosing technologies.
The flipchart sheet is filled with a matrix, in the columns of which there will be technologies and skills, and in the rows - the names of people.
Example columns:
Step 3. People
Colleagues from the old-school project management, I suggest that you immediately stop calling people resources. People are people. In the rows we will have names, surnames or nicknames - as the team wishes.
Please try not to forget anyone “in the closet”, as often happened in my practice with designers: after a week of training and coaching with the launch of the project, at the stage of filling the matrix, the management “remembered” that they forgot to invite UX.
So, in the lines we got a list of team members. Template matrix is ​​ready, we begin to fill. It is better if someone draws one blank of circles for the whole matrix, at the intersection of the rows and columns. Below is an example of what should happen.
Step 4. Suns
Each team member fills the matrix with one of 4 types of “sun”. Under the sun is a circle, divided into 4 segments.
Filling Rules:
Please note that if a member of the team basically does not want to perform any task, even if he knows how to do it, we do not ask him to fill out the circle. Here, it is rather necessary to work on motivation, understanding the importance of teamwork and support, but you should not force people to do something that does not bring them joy. Most likely, this project will not bring any benefit.
Step 5: Analysis
Now let's see what all this means for us.
Pattern: empty columns - the first thing we can pay attention to. This means that the team is not yet staffed, you need to open a vacancy or look for someone from “family, fools, friends” in the case of a startup.
If a skill is rare and rarely used, there is a temptation to find someone part-time or to use contract services. I do not advise it very much: the dependence of a team on external people can lead to expectations, a division into “we” and “they” and the ball on someone’s side.
If you are really limited in resources or can’t find a permanent team member at all, then at least stick to the rule: an external specialist should never work alone . Try to find a T-person on your team who wants to master this area, at least at the “half-sun” level, and invite him to work in pair with an involved specialist.
I am ready to respond with objections about the double cost of pairing work, but a little later, since I’m still going to talk about project risks below.
Pattern: lonely "suns", filled more than half . They create a deceptive confidence in the presence of a real “star” in our team. Therefore, it is useful to check such people on the “bus factor”.
Lonely sun-stars (as well as external specialists, which I wrote about above) are potential “clients” of the bus factor. Despite all their qualifications, skillful enough headhunting, vacation or childbirth, so that the project would be in danger.
What to do? Determine who would like to master this skill or the scope of the project, offer work in pairs or switch between tasks, grow T-people.
Pattern: Not a single painted sun next to half painted. The conclusion is obvious: we have average specialists, perhaps with a desire to learn, but the lack of internal mentors. What is fraught with? Doubtful quality or lack of speed. Solution: training within the company, external or corporate training, hiring a steeper "sun" - to choose from.
How else can you use the skill matrix:
Maybe you have other ideas for use?
It is useful for any paper artifacts to hang on the wall in the team room for some time - they, together with the discussions during the exercises, create group social memory , which is very important in the team building process.
On the latter, I plan to collect ideas and tools for the next publication. Of course, it is not about joint attacks on nature and corporate parties. I have a strong belief that team building created at picnics and parties, unfortunately, ends there.
Thank you for your attention, I will be glad to answer the questions and comments below.
I will say right away, working with client teams and assembling your team is not the same thing. There are advantages and disadvantages, but there are also common practices that will be useful for both agile coaches and technology entrepreneurs.
I want to share a couple of tools that will help you quickly understand who is who in the team and save time for some team-building processes.
So, suppose that we have a group of people (5-7 people) who will have to work together on the project. How to start assembly? Let's start with dating ...
')
SELL / BUY
What for?
- meet, learn about the strengths and interests of colleagues
- feel pride in yourself and the resource status of the team
How much time will it take?
- 30-40 minutes
What is required?
- index cards or stickers
- markers
- flipchart
- markers
Step 1. Preparation
We offer team members to take the index card and divide it into two parts: the left one is called Sell, the right one is Buy. We write down 2 questions on the flipchart and give participants 2-3 minutes to answer and fill out their index card.
- SELL: What skills and qualities do I have in abundance, can I easily “sell” them?
- BUY: What skills and qualities would I like to “buy”, i.e. develop in yourself even more?
Step 2. Submission
We offer each team member (in a circle) to introduce themselves, if they are not yet familiar, to voice their strengths and their interests in professional growth. This can take 1-3 minutes per person, in general, per team - up to half an hour.
Step 3. Debrief
Each team exercise is useful to strengthen the debriefing. Here you can simply ask the question: “What have you noticed?”. In my experience, the observations were as follows:
- there are quite a lot of intelligent people in the room with whom it will be interesting to work
- there are people willing to learn and people willing to share knowledge
- we have almost everything to make a cool product
* In my opinion, the question “What have you noticed?” Is the easiest and fastest way to debrief, no matter how much teamwork you do. It enhances internal reflection (awareness) and pulls to the surface, both obvious and implicit conclusions. I strongly advise you to ask it, or its modifications more often.
The next team activity I would suggest is to make the formation of a matrix of skills . His goal will also be the study of skills and knowledge, but not for general acquaintance, but for the analysis of the composition and level of cross-functionality of the team. A small digression on the topic of cross-functionality.
Command cross functionality
It is often misunderstood, as if it is proposed to use the front-end developer for designing the database architecture, and the designer for writing test cases.
In fact, this is a command cross-functionality , not an individual one. That is, by cross-functionality, we understand the ability of the whole team to perform all the functions necessary for the implementation of the project.
The old school team coach in me always offers to concentrate the skills and knowledge of the team in one place, literally - in one room. In the world of distributed projects, this is less and less possible, but if I were building my team now, I would have neglected the savings in office and payroll expenses in favor of high productivity that people working together in a common time zone, country, culture, and physical space.
Individual cross-functionality
Another important aspect of high productivity is the presence, or even the vast majority of T-people in the team. Here we are talking about individual cross-functionality, and that's what I understand by it.
The T-form specialist received this name because it has a deep (as the basis of the letter T) understanding of one discipline / domain and broad (as the cap of the letter T) interests in other related fields.
Such a person brings 3 types of project benefits:
- can qualitatively realize its main purpose
- can replace or work in pairs in areas requiring resource support
- can listen and understand, share opinions, and generate fresh ideas on many project issues
The importance of the last point should not be underestimated, especially in dynamic technological projects, in which developers develop a wide knowledge of domain and functional areas, and generate a value much higher than just the lines of high-quality code.
We need a star team, not a team of stars , therefore, it is useful to raise T-people and to observe the balance of command and individual cross-functionality.
The first step on this path can be a workshop on creating a matrix of skills .
SKILLS MATRIX
What for?
- map the skills required to implement the product
- find out about all the people available on the project (it is desirable that everyone be present, even part-time and contractual participants, if any)
- analyze how sufficient knowledge and skills of the team
- understand bottlenecks and potential resource risks
- plan actions for the transfer of knowledge and the development of cross-functionality in a team
How much time will it take?
- 60-180 minutes
What is required?
- flipchart
- markers
- stickers
- markers
- Product backlog (on scrum), specification, or requirements (whatever your name)
Who to invite?
- whole team
- Product owner (scrum), customer, or someone who has the most clear idea of ​​what we will develop (whatever you call it)
Step 1. Vision
Ask your Product Owner (maybe it is you) about a short pitch of the product idea:
- what problem will he solve
- who are the key users
- how he plans to make money
- what competitors are on the market
- how do we want to be different
- what technologies are you planning to use
- what are the limitations
Of course, if you write the integration interfaces of the two corporate EPR systems, the content of the pitch will be different, but its purpose remains the same: to get a quick understanding of what we will write, what skills we will need, what technologies we are free to choose, and which ones are already a predetermined limitation .
Step 2. Skills
Guided by the pitch and specification, write down the skills and technology that the team should have. You can write them first on stickers, or immediately on a flipchart, depending on how free you are in discussing and choosing technologies.
The flipchart sheet is filled with a matrix, in the columns of which there will be technologies and skills, and in the rows - the names of people.
Example columns:
- html5
- css3
- Php
- Js
- DB
- Ux
Step 3. People
Colleagues from the old-school project management, I suggest that you immediately stop calling people resources. People are people. In the rows we will have names, surnames or nicknames - as the team wishes.
Please try not to forget anyone “in the closet”, as often happened in my practice with designers: after a week of training and coaching with the launch of the project, at the stage of filling the matrix, the management “remembered” that they forgot to invite UX.
So, in the lines we got a list of team members. Template matrix is ​​ready, we begin to fill. It is better if someone draws one blank of circles for the whole matrix, at the intersection of the rows and columns. Below is an example of what should happen.
Step 4. Suns
Each team member fills the matrix with one of 4 types of “sun”. Under the sun is a circle, divided into 4 segments.
Filling Rules:
- Empty: Can't or don’t want to perform this task at all
- The first quarter is painted over: Sign with the elements of the task
- Vertical half painted over: I can do it with someone's help
- Three-quarters painted over: I can complete the task myself
- Everything is painted over: I can do it myself and teach another
Please note that if a member of the team basically does not want to perform any task, even if he knows how to do it, we do not ask him to fill out the circle. Here, it is rather necessary to work on motivation, understanding the importance of teamwork and support, but you should not force people to do something that does not bring them joy. Most likely, this project will not bring any benefit.
Step 5: Analysis
Now let's see what all this means for us.
Pattern: empty columns - the first thing we can pay attention to. This means that the team is not yet staffed, you need to open a vacancy or look for someone from “family, fools, friends” in the case of a startup.
If a skill is rare and rarely used, there is a temptation to find someone part-time or to use contract services. I do not advise it very much: the dependence of a team on external people can lead to expectations, a division into “we” and “they” and the ball on someone’s side.
If you are really limited in resources or can’t find a permanent team member at all, then at least stick to the rule: an external specialist should never work alone . Try to find a T-person on your team who wants to master this area, at least at the “half-sun” level, and invite him to work in pair with an involved specialist.
I am ready to respond with objections about the double cost of pairing work, but a little later, since I’m still going to talk about project risks below.
Pattern: lonely "suns", filled more than half . They create a deceptive confidence in the presence of a real “star” in our team. Therefore, it is useful to check such people on the “bus factor”.
The Bus Factor is a fun project “metric” that shows how many experts in your project can knock down a bus and the project will still be alive.
Lonely sun-stars (as well as external specialists, which I wrote about above) are potential “clients” of the bus factor. Despite all their qualifications, skillful enough headhunting, vacation or childbirth, so that the project would be in danger.
What to do? Determine who would like to master this skill or the scope of the project, offer work in pairs or switch between tasks, grow T-people.
Pattern: Not a single painted sun next to half painted. The conclusion is obvious: we have average specialists, perhaps with a desire to learn, but the lack of internal mentors. What is fraught with? Doubtful quality or lack of speed. Solution: training within the company, external or corporate training, hiring a steeper "sun" - to choose from.
How else can you use the skill matrix:
- when you enter a new team member in the course of affairs
- as the project grows: it may make sense to divide the team and add new people to each of the subcommands
- when turning (pivots) ideas and connecting new technologies
Maybe you have other ideas for use?
It is useful for any paper artifacts to hang on the wall in the team room for some time - they, together with the discussions during the exercises, create group social memory , which is very important in the team building process.
On the latter, I plan to collect ideas and tools for the next publication. Of course, it is not about joint attacks on nature and corporate parties. I have a strong belief that team building created at picnics and parties, unfortunately, ends there.
Thank you for your attention, I will be glad to answer the questions and comments below.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/146306/
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