RE: Teams Leaders what are they, and do we need them? - Extension from Re: [xpAdopti

-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Emery [mailto:[email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [xpAdoption] Teams Leaders what are they, and do we need
them? - Extension from Re: [xpAdopti

Hi Glen,

>> This team is lead by the CIO, BUT there is not a single
>> "leader" on this team. It functions by sharing the leadership
>> roles. Only the tough (legal, regulation, high dollar)
>> decisions get close scrutiny of the single "leader." Otherwise
>> no work would get done.

>I'm interested in how teams make decisions, and how they decide
>how to make decisions, and how all of that affects emergence.

This is a very important area for XP and other agile processes, since the
decision making process "may" be different. For us it seems to work like
this:

(1) We collectively agree on the outcome of the effort. This is usually done
with a Customer Rep (CRM) and even at times a real customer. The CRM's are
domain experts that come to our building (we're 7 miles from the site)
nearly every day so we can have face-to-face talks for a few hours at a
time.

(2) A "proposal" is made and some light weight code is done to show how
things might work. Our apps are very simple compared to many folks here.
Mostly Oracle forms and web applications.

(3) We incrementally deliver code to the customer.

Most of the XP-like activities are concentrated on UT's and fast iterations.

>How does the team typically make decisions?  How did the team
>come to make decisions that way?

Through shared outcomes...

>It seems that, for this senior management team, certain kinds of
>decisions (legal, regulation, etc.) are predefined to require
>some specific person's input or approval.  Is that person on the
>team, or at a higher level, or what?  Does the team sometimes
>find itself wanting to bring other decisions -- other than the
>pre-defined ones -- to this single person for input or approval?


At the formal level yes, at the operational level we are partitioned along
clean lines or have overlapping skills that don't seem to get in the way.
When there is conflict it is worked out as a group. The outcome of our
efforts are never unclear, so maybe this helps up stay focused.

>Does the person sometimes, ad hoc, require the team to accept
>input or approval for other kinds of decisions?

We rarely make ad hoc decisions.

>How does this team stay aligned with the higher needs of the
>larger organization?

Yes, this is done through Balanced Scorecard.

Dale

Glen


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