The Team Swarm

Towards the end of a project or product deliverable, you sometimes need a final push to close the deal, and this agile pattern allows for a team to come together and rally around the work until it's all over the line.

This can be different from a team's normal operating mode as this is a short tactical period of high intensity to achieve some short term objective, whereas normally we tend to focus on long term sustainability in teams and encourage long term thinking.

Philosophy

The intent here is to enable the teams to do their thing and the leadership being conscious that they are only needed to help clarify the needs, set the priorities and remove any blockers or impediments that stop the team. It's very important that the leadership support and encourage teams' ownership of the work and support their critical thinking about how this is to be done.

Ingredients

• The Mission - This approach really works well when there is a clear cut mission as to why this tactical approach is needed. This indicates the urgency and the purpose of why the team are here. Be clear, concise and to the point and the team will respond in kind.
• Boundaries - The approach is to allow the team to deliver a short term tactical objective, so an indication of the time boundary will help the teams focus and make critical decisions. Durations of less than 3 weeks tends to work well, any longer and the high intensity cannot be sustained by the team.
• Visible Backlog of Work - Having the work to be done for the short term objective highly visible so that all of the team can see it allows them to make conscious decisions about what to do. Using simple Kanban boards tend to help that are easy to understand and use by the team. The emphasis is on providing clarity of the work to be done rather than on having a complex process to complete it, so keep it really simple.
• Prioritised Work - If the work is clearly prioritised with a brutalist approach to define what is actually needed, what we can live without and what is optional will help the teams to focus on the real needs and provide some flexibility to get the high priority work completed. The aim here is to get done what is really needed, not to get everything done, so be brutal with your prioritisation.
• Let The Team Figure It Out - Describe the need and the urgency, show them where the work is, show them how it is prioritised, and then stand back and let the team figure out how they want to respond to get the work done. Don't get too involved here, you've set up the boundaries, the mission and made the work visible, now it is time for the team to do their thing without any meddling from yourself.
• Support Critical Decision Making - Once the team are off and running then support the team in their critical decision making with how the work is done and how they want to deliver it
• Know When The Work Items Are Done - Having a specific done criteria to indicate what needs to be done for each work item for it to be deemed Done will help to clarify for the teams when they are done.
• Remove The Blockers - Take away all of the blockers and hold ups away from the team and allow them to keep on running forwards. The faster you can remove the blockers, the faster the team will run.
• Encourage Collaboration - Encourage team members to collaborate on the work items rather than working alone. This can be more relevant when items are finished and team members start to look for new work, but rather than start something new, can they help other team members finish off their work instead.

Approach

The Situation Meeting Part 1: Orientation

Gather everyone in a room and clearly indicate the mission, the boundaries, where the teams can see what work needs to be done and who they can go to for help and removal of blockers.

The Situation Meeting Part 2: Team Take Over

In the same meeting now stand back and allow the teams to use the rest of the time to figure out how they want to complete and deliver the work. Nothing else is needed just allow them to do their thing and be available if they need clarification or help to remove blockers.

Daily Catch Up

If the teams don't tend to communicate with each other all day and every day, then a regular catch up may help them to coordinate their efforts and raise any blockers to be removed. Similar to a Daily Scrum or Daily Standup these should be run by the teams and for the teams with anyone else just quietly observing and available if clarification or blocker removal is needed.

Reviewing The Work

This is an activity rather than a meeting and allows the teams to obtain feedback for items that are in progress and to close out items that are done.

Celebration

When the work is done, celebrate it and allow the team to enjoy the moment.