The core goal of Enabling Teams is to streamline the operations of the Streams Teams in their aligned ecosystem. One of the core ways of doing this is to document and share the best ways of working. The challenge is that there is never one way of working that is best for all teams. Enabling Teams can help Stream Teams by identifying multiple good practices and empowering the Stream Teams to choose the one that best fits their context.
Purpose
While the scope of each autonomous cross-functional Stream Team is separate the work that they do is often similar. Enabling Teams can document a range of good practices to help Stream Teams deliver on specific activities without having to discover the best way of working for themselves. This documentation can be in the form of best practice guides, policies, and templates that Stream Teams can use to improve their effectiveness.
Principles and Practices
Effectiveness
| Principle | Context | Practice |
|---|
| There are many ways to solve the same problem | We need to ensure that teams are solving problems in the most effective way for their context. | By documenting good practice guidelines, playbooks and templates Enabling Teams can provide Stream Teams with a range of options to solve common problems. |
| If you build it, they won't come | We need to ensure that Stream Teams are aware of the good practices that are available to them. | By creating a central repository of good practices and making it easy to find and use, Enabling Teams can ensure that Stream Teams are aware of the good practices available to them. |
| Removing work is the best way to streamline | We need to remove the duplication of work when there are clear best practices available. | By seeding Internal Product Teams to take ownership of a defined, shared, part of the delivery process, Enabling Teams can continue to focus on the areas that make the most sense to remain decentralised while also giving the centralised function the necessary focus and support to be successful. |
Efficiency
| Principle | Context | Practice |
|---|
| Repetition reduces productivity | We need to encourage sharing of knowledge across teams to avoid repeating the same mistakes. | By documenting good practice guidelines, playbooks and templates Enabling Teams can document and share pre-existing solutions to common problems. |
Sustainability
| Principle | Context | Practice |
|---|
| Cost Centers are the first to be cut | We need to ensure that Stream Teams actively seek out the support of Enabling Teams. | By sharing success stories of Stream Teams that have used good practices to improve their effectiveness Enabling Teams can demonstrate the value that they provide to the Stream Teams. |
Table of Criticisms
| Criticism | Description | Mitigation |
|---|
| One-Size-Fits-All Approach | Assuming one standard practice can work effectively across all diverse teams. | Develop flexible "good practice" guidelines that cover a range of scenarios and allow teams to adapt them to their specific context. |
| Underutilisation | Good practices are documented but not effectively implemented or utilised by Stream Teams. | Bby linking Enabling Team funding to the adoption of good practices, we can ensure that they will focus on delivering value to Stream Teams. |
List of Anti-Patterns
- Documenting in Isolation: Creating guidelines and playbooks without adequate input from the teams who will use them.
- Overdocumentation: Compiling extensive documentation that overwhelms teams, making it difficult to find and use relevant information.
- Visibility Gaps: Good practices exist but are not adequately communicated or easy to access, leading to underuse.