Cross-functional Teams

December 19, 2008

One of the ways that agile methods help boost efficiency is through its mandate for cross-functional teams. When approaching an agile adoption, many developers hear this and mistakenly assume that it means each individual should be able to perform every function in the development lifecycle. In fact, that’s the opposite of what cross-functionality means. Instead of populating a team with individuals who share redundant skill sets, agile methods prefer teams to be composed of individuals with a wide range of skills, so that all the necessary job functions are distributed across team members. After all, they’re cross-functional teams.

So how does cross-functionality help teams improve efficiency? First of all, because team members each have distinct specialties (UI design, Testing, business analysis, etc.), specialists can take the lead within their area of expertise. While it might be helpful if team members share overlapping skill sets, remember that a jack-of-all-trades is usually a master of none. So, in this case, having a dedicated specialist allows the team to move forward quickly and confidently. From a big picture standpoint, the fact that teams are made up of individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise is also a good thing. Because everyone has their own experience and perspective, everyone approaches business problems from a slightly different vantage point. Taken together, the team can then form a clearer picture of the problem and then work to collectively solve it. Compared to the phenomenon of “group think,” in which individuals with the same areas of expertise all tend to agree on the first solution, divergent perspectives can help teams arrive at the right solution.

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Written by admin · Filed Under Agile Project Management, Scrum 

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