Splitting the Team

[George Paci]

All,

In spite of the fact that every horror movie I've ever watched has taught me that splitting up is a Bad Idea, the team I coach is being split in two: one to continue work on the original product, one to work on a new project.  Each team will have four or five developers.  This raises many questions, among them:

Should we have joint retrospectives, or separate ones?  What about standups?  CI servers?

We're using two-week iterations; should we try to keep them in sync? try to keep them staggered?  Take the opportunity to finally go to one-week iterations or just kanban?

How do I handle being on one team and coaching somebody on the other?

Are there any negative dynamics I should watch out for, or policies I should reject?

For the record, the team rooms are 15' (4572 mm) apart, and we'll both be going to the same refrigerator and snack table, so it's not like we'll be in separate time zones or anything.

Thanks in advance for any advice, insight, or personal experiences.

--George

[George Dinwiddie]

George[0],

It's my experience (and the evidence of a lot of research on teams) that
both teams will have to go through a process of reforming. They are two
separate teams, now, working on separate things. There's no need to keep
things in sync between them.

- George[1]

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* George Dinwiddie * http://blog.gdinwiddie.com
Software Development http://www.idiacomputing.com
Consultant and Coach http://www.agilemaryland.org
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[Alan Dayley]

In part, a team is defined by the things team members do together that other people do NOT do with them. The retrospective is the primary event that defines a team as separate from other people. If you split the team, the two new teams should be having separate retrospectives.

The standup is also a team defining ceremony, though not as rigid as the retrospective. I would suggest having separate stand ups for each team, with members from the other team invited to attend and only listen.

Shared or separate CI servers is more of a technical choice than one about team identity. Do what makes sense for the product development.

I don't know enough about your situation to tell if the iterations should be synchronized or not. Again, the needs of the product and its release cycles will strongly influence that decision.

Are you a full-time coach for the joint team?  If so, maybe you can handle coaching both teams. If you are not a full-time coach, maybe you need to decide to make that transition. I'm just guessing here because the "right" answer is very dependent on the situation.

Don't allow an "us vs. them" culture to grow between the teams.

Policies about what?  That is a huge question and odd to me. As a coach I do not strive to establish or reject policies.

Alan

--George

[Mark Kilby]

George:

I agree with what Alan and George D said.  I wonder if the work on the old product and new product need to be coordinated?  Are they using a common platform? Are they part of a related suite of products?  If so, there are things that can be done to coordinate the teams (let us know and we'll be happy to elaborate)

If not, but there is angst within the team about the split, keep the social interaction going.  As Alan said, they can attend each others' standup (if they are curious and remembering they are now guests and should not interfere).  You might even invite them to each other's sprint reviews so they get a better sense of what technologies they are using and achievements made.  I would not invite them to each others' retrospective.

For you, it may be a challenge if you are coaching two teams, but not impossible.  Ask if you can stagger standups, reviews, retrospectives and planning so you can attend both. You might want to set up a "guest desk" in each space where you can alternate time sitting with each team.  You may also want to look for team members who can be proxy scrummasters if there is a conflict in team events where you cannot be at two places at once.

Let us know where you need more info.  The shift requires reforming around values and goals and making sure that you inspect and adapt. ;)

Mark Kilby

http://about.me/mckilby

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.