In Practice: A Tale of Two Projects

Jim York, an agile coach and project management consultant, shows how clarifying the purposes and contexts of two projects led to recognizing the redundancy of one—thereby releasing one team for more valuable work.

In the Beginning

For years I have used a simple framework to help teams lift off and quickly engage in productive work. The first part focuses on pulling together a team and securing their commitment. Often, people have been committed by others to be part of the project team. The goal of aligning on purpose is to shift this coerced commitment to an informed and consensual commitment. I like to make sure people know what they are getting into before setting off.

Another important part of the framework focuses on creating a shared understanding of the journey ahead. To encourage an open-minded approach, I call this phase discovery. Discovery consists of three parts: product discovery (purpose), process discovery (context), and team discovery (alignment). (Diana and Ainsley call this team chartering.)

This story begins with product discovery—and takes a quick unexpected turn into the value of understanding a broader context.

Quick Start

A client had asked me to lift off four of their teams simultaneously in an intensive two-day workshop. There we were: one workshop, one facilitator, and four teams.

In the beginning, each team concluded that some key people were missing. For example, the business sponsor was present for only one of the four teams. Three of the teams were about to begin without a critical voice in the discovery process. Although there were thoroughly documented business cases, no one was present to clear up any unanticipated questions related to the team missions that might arise. No one had the authority to revise or refine the missions should new information surface.

The teams considered their quandary. Should they postpone chartering until the product managers became available, or continue in the workshop? After some deliberation, the group decided to press forward.

For product discovery, each team tackled its purpose to develop a shared understanding of their products. They used a varity of group-process thinking tools to assist their work.

The Intersection of Purpose and Context

As the facilitator for all four teams, I had a unique perspective from which to watch the proceedings. Each team busily plastered their closest wall with their ideas for product vision, team mission, mission tests, and so forth. I wandered back and forth between teams, helping them understand how to use various process tools, getting them back on track if they drifted off on a tangent, and nudging them along if they became bogged down in the details.

Soon it became apparent that there were some similarities in the artifacts being created by two of the four teams. The names of the projects were different, but it seemed that they might be working the same problem from different angles. Team 1 had been sponsored by the internal infrastructure group. Their problem statement was based on a historical trend showing a growing number of products supported by the organization each year. The equipment and facilities cost to support this trend was deemed unsustainable. The proposed solution was to investigate and implement virtual server-farm technology to accommodate an ever-increasing number of products.

Team 2 was sponsored by the SVP of products. She was our only business sponsor participant in the workshop. Team 2’s problem statement was based on the senior VP’s concern that the organization’s product mix had become too complex, unnecessarily redundant, and in the case of some products, obsolete. She had set a personal mission to reduce this level of complexity.

Interestingly, neither team seemed aware of the other team’s intended outcomes. The context of each project became clearer as the teams worked their way through exploring their boundaries, interactions, resources at hand, and near-term assumptions.

As the teams became more absorbed in the discussions around their projects, the excitement in the room grew. Each team was beginning to see the way forward, and it was full steam ahead. After the midafternoon break, in their prospective analysis, I asked Team 1 whether they had considered which applications they might migrate first and the associated risks. One team member suggested that they should check with the SVP of products to see if she could help with prioritizing the applications to be migrated. Team 2 agreed to let Team 1 borrow their sponsor for a few minutes to help with this task.

Team 1 quickly ran through the information about purpose and context they had captured thus far in the workshop to get the SVP up to speed on their project. She nodded her head as they showed her a chart that illustrated the upward trend in the number of applications supported year by year. She readily agreed with the intent to reduce cost and the facilities footprint, but when they came to accommodate an increasing number of applications, she was puzzled. “Where are those applications coming from?” she inquired. “Why, from your group!” they returned. At this she burst out laughing. Puzzled, the team asked her why this was so funny. Still chuckling, she said, “You’ve told me your tale. Now come over and I’ll have my team tell you ours.”

Two Projects into One

As Team 2 walked Team 1 through their purpose and context artifacts, it rapidly became clear that Team 2 was going to eliminate Team 1’s problem. Debriefing this discussion, we reflected on the role of inquiry in surfacing information, and how it is the information and not the inquiry tool that is most important. Someone also pointed out the impact of having the right people on board for critical discussions and someone with the power to make decisions should the need arise.

By the end of the day, as a result of sharing their purpose and context, Team 1’s project was abandoned and their efforts redirected to help Team 2 accomplish its purpose. Team 2 set a future date for completing the team discovery/alignment portion of their chartering. After their experience in this workshop, they looked ahead eagerly.