Breaking down walls

In typical project development there are still clearly defined roles. A business analyst, a developer, a tester, a product owner. There are often big walls separating these individuals. “Oh, I just write the user stories and then I give it to the dev team”, “Oh, I just write the code and then I give it to the test team”.

A requirement like “I need a message sent to me when it’s 3pm” ends up being handled by dozens of parties in a mostly uni-directional flow. Are we at all surprised then when at the end of the project the BA’s are still BA’s, the dev’s are still dev’s and the testers are still testers? Are we also surprised that items have been lost in translation along the way when there are over half a dozen hand-offs throughout the process?

The concept of a ‘feature team’ in modern agile removes this. It’s a team that has all the skills required to do the job within the team. Not all the people required to do the job… all the skills. The idea is that within that team they can define what needs to be done, do it, test it, and deliver it. The skills within the team should become the skills of others over time. Maybe you come from a UX background and you can whip up a killer prototype in 10 minutes which is the equivalent of hours of user stories, a few months later everyone in the team should have that same skill.

The team also defines how they work, how to divide up work best and the ways they will manage their activities. There are obviously recommended frameworks and an expectation of measurable output, but the idea is that between the 6 or so of you, you can figure out how you run at a sustainable pace that enforces you all learn, grow and deliver.

This is a fundamental change. You’re not a BA, you’re Bob in the Calendar feature team, and depending on the day you might be a BA, a dev or a tester, but every day you are contributing 100% to the overall success of the team, regardless of the task.

It’s exciting and still not adopted enough. For more info search “feature teams” or check out the scaledagileframework.com