Author: olesiaprots

Acquiring top-tier talent remains a significant challenge in modern business, and the numbers reflect the struggle. According to Forbes, 36% of HR leaders report they don’t have the necessary resources to attract, let alone manage premier talent. This resource constraint underscores the need for a creative solution — Managed Team Augmentation. 

But what is managed team augmentation, and how can it revolutionize your talent acquisition and management approach?  

This article will delve deep into this innovative strategy, exploring its fundamental principles, benefits, and real-world applications. By the end, you’ll understand how Managed Team Augmentation can empower your organization to remain agile and competitive in a rapidly changing market. 

Continue reading. 

What is Team Augmentation? 

Team augmentation is a method that allows businesses to strengthen their existing teams by adding skilled professionals from third-party providers. This strategy offers the flexibility to scale teams based on varying project needs and provides access to specialized expertise that might be challenging to find in-house.  

…And managed team augmentation? 

With Managed Team Augmentation, this process is streamlined, ensuring that these external professionals blend seamlessly with the existing team. Moreover, the third-party provider typically handles different responsibilities, such as payroll and HR, freeing clients to focus on other equally important aspects of their operations. 

By adopting Managed Team Augmentation, companies can maintain a sharp focus on their core competencies. This approach minimizes administrative overhead and reduces the challenges associated with traditional hiring. Furthermore, it facilitates the rapid integration of skilled professionals, allowing the core team to zero in on strategic tasks and essential business operations. 

Managed Team Augmentation vs. Staff Augmentation vs. IT Outsourcing 

Initially, it might appear that managed team augmentation, staff augmentation, and IT outsourcing are interchangeable terms. However, they each offer distinct approaches to enhancing a company’s workforce with external expertise. 

This table concisely compares the three approaches, making it easier to understand their key differences and select the most suitable one for a specific business situation:

	Managed Team Augmentation	Staff Augmentation	IT Outsourcing
Management and Oversight	We oversee select team members; client and designated manager lead.	The client manages the team	The external provider manages the team
Scope of Engagement	Involves supplementing a project with a dedicated team that often focuses on end-to-end projects	Focused on adding skills/resources to an existing team	Contracts specific functions or projects to experts
Flexibility	Highly adaptable to changing needs. The provider can adjust team size and composition	Offers flexibility but may be less adaptable	Adaptability depends on the outsourcing contract
Expertise and Skillsets	The external provider actively selects and manages the team	The client selects individual team members	Provider selects based on project type and specialized expertise
Cost Structure	Pricing is often project-based or  milestone-based	Pricing is typically hourly or monthly rates	Offers various pricing models, including fixed contracts or outcome-based
Risk and Responsibility	Team productivity is largely the client’s responsibility, especially regarding management and oversight.	The client retains most project-related risks	The provider is responsible for the team’s productivity
Communication and Collaboration	Communication is streamlined through the service provider	Communication is more decentralized, with the client leading interactions	Involves elaborate communication and collaboration due to geographic differences

The Current Need for Managed Team Augmentation 

Managed team augmentation is becoming increasingly crucial for businesses for the following reasons: 

Technological Advancements 

Managed team augmentation empowers companies to quickly assimilate dedicated teams, perfectly aligning with their in-house workforce. By doing so, businesses ensure they are consistently ahead of technological trends and equipped with the agility to scale at pace. This adaptability is crucial in maintaining a competitive edge in our increasingly tech-driven business landscape. 

Bridging Skill Deficits 

In some instances, internal teams might lack the expertise required for a project. Managed team augmentation offers a pragmatic solution to this challenge. By leveraging this approach, companies can tap into a reservoir of external expertise tailored to their unique project needs. This assures project success and eliminates the logistical and financial challenges of extensive training or new permanent hires. 

A Multi-faceted Approach to Benefits 

Managed teams offer streamlined project management, risk-sharing, flexible pricing, simplified communication, and a hands-off or quasi-hands-off managerial system. These benefits align with the diverse needs of businesses seeking efficient and cost-effective talent acquisition and project execution. 

Tapping into Specialized Talent Pool 

Managed team augmentation is like having access to a vast talent pool. It allows organizations to hire technical experts with unique skills and perspectives to enhance complex projects. 

Scalability and Adaptive Resourcing 

One of the standout features of managed team augmentation is its inherent scalability. Projects often evolve, and with them, their requirements. The ability to swiftly and seamlessly adjust team sizes and competencies is no longer just a luxury — it’s a necessity. This scalability in hiring and adaptability keeps companies agile and ahead of the curve. 

A Cost-Effective Approach to Talent Acquisition 

Managed team augmentation offers a budget-friendly solution. Its flexible pricing options based on project goals or specific milestones are especially beneficial for startups and small businesses. This method also lets companies tap into top-notch talent without the long-term financial commitments of standard hiring practices. 

Accelerating Project Delivery 

Speed is the currency of today’s business realm. Managed team augmentation amplifies project pace by melding external specialists with internal teams, potentially operating around the clock. This synergy trims down project durations, fostering enhanced productivity — thus providing a time-to-market advantage, which is crucial in a competitive marketplace. 

Explore the differences between traditional hiring and team augmentation to make informed decisions for your IT projects.

Mechanics of Managed Team Augmentation 

So, what does building a managed team entail? As already established, this process is entirely handled by the service provider. Here’s what to expect: 

Evaluating Company Needs 

This first step involves an initial assessment to identify the project requirements or areas where additional expertise is required. The process may include analyzing in-house teams, identifying skill gaps, and determining the scope and duration of the necessary augmentation. 

Talent Matching 

Once the company’s requirements have been defined, talent matchmaking is next. This phase involves sourcing individuals or teams with the essential skills and expertise to fill identified gaps. The service provider conducts interviews and evaluates qualifications and experience to determine the perfect match for the client. 

Melding Augmented Teams with Existing Units 

After talent matching, the focus shifts to team integration. This step entails defining clear roles and responsibilities, facilitating necessary training or onboarding, merging the augmented teams with the existing units within the organization, and fostering a collaborative work environment. The aim is to create a unified, cohesive team capable of working harmoniously towards the company’s objectives. 

Tracking and Feedback 

The final step involves tracking and feedback. Here, the service provider puts in place a system that helps to monitor and maintain the dedicated team’s efficiency. Regular team performance monitoring ensures they meet client expectations and deliver desired results. The goal is to sustain high efficiency and effectiveness throughout the project. 

If you’re in the market for the perfect partner to assist you in building and managing an augmented team to complement your in-house talent, look no further.  

Symphony Solutions boasts a proven track record of seamlessly building, integrating, and managing skilled professionals within organizations. You can rely on our team augmentation services to bridge gaps and elevate your team’s capabilities, ultimately ensuring success in your projects. 

Choosing the Ideal Partner for Managed Team Augmentation 

Managed team augmentation can help your business grow, but choosing the right partner is crucial. Here are essential factors to consider when selecting a partner to enhance your in-house team. 

Considerations for Choosing the Ideal Managed Team Augmentation Partner

This chart shows critical considerations—Expertise, Communication, Cultural Fit, and Pricing—essential for selecting the ideal partner to enhance your team and project success. 

The Power of Reviews and Case Studies: What to Look For 

Reviews and case studies in hiring can also provide valuable insights into partner capabilities and client satisfaction. Here’s how to go about it: 

• Read reviews from previous clients to understand their experiences working with the potential partner.  

• Look for patterns or recurring themes in the feedback to gauge the partner’s strengths and weaknesses.  

• Positive reviews highlighting excellent communication, technical expertise, and successful project outcomes indicate a reliable partner. 

• Examine case studies that showcase the partner’s previous projects and achievements.  

• Pay attention to projects similar to yours and assess their ability to deliver results within the desired timeframe and budget.  

A partner with a strong track record of successful projects demonstrates their ability to meet client expectations and deliver high-quality work. 

Challenges in Team Augmentation and Strategies to Overcome Them 

Like most effective strategies, there are particular challenges with implementing IT team augmentation that organizations looking to leverage this model should be aware of. Here are some key challenges and their solutions. 

Common Pitfalls and Solutions 

Table showing the common challenges faced in technical team augmentation and the strategic solutions to solving them:

Challenges	Strategies to Overcome Them
Integration Difficulties	Foster open communication  Provide cultural awareness training  Establish clear roles and responsibilities
Skill Mismatch	Clearly define skill requirements  Collaborate with specialized staffing agencies
Remote Collaboration	Implement robust collaboration tools  Establish regular communication protocols  Schedule frequent virtual meetings
Maintaining Motivation	Conduct team-building activities  Recognize and reward achievements Align project goals with individual motivations
Quality Assurance	Implement quality control processes Conduct regular reviews and assessments Provide constructive feedback
Legal and Compliance Issues	Consult legal experts Establish clear contracts Stay updated on relevant regulations
Scalability Challenges	Maintain flexibility in contracts Work with agencies offering rapid scalability
Security Concerns	Establish robust data security protocols Conduct regular security audits
Communication and Time Zone Differences	Establish a clear communication plan Schedule overlapping working hours Use collaboration tools to bridge time zone gaps

Case Study 

Wondering whether managed team augmentation is the best option for your business? Discover how this company harnessed the power of team augmentation to overcome challenges and achieve remarkable success in their projects. 

How KTO Group leveraged managed team augmentation to access niche skills 

The KTO Group, a global gambling operator, focuses on delivering exceptional online gambling experiences using in-house built technology. 

End Note: Reflecting on Managed Team Augmentation 

Managed team augmentation represents the future of the modern workplace. According to Statista, hiring for highly specialized positions in big data/ analytics, cyber security, and DevOps may be challenging in the coming years. This flexible workforce strategy will allow organizations to access these specialized skills, scale resources, and reduce costs while prioritizing seamless team integration, collaboration, and quality assurance. 

As more organizations adopt this model, we can expect to see the emergence of specialized talent marketplaces, increased reliance on AI and automation, data-driven decision-making, an enhanced focus on cybersecurity, the proliferation of hybrid work models, and a greater emphasis on multicultural teams. These trends will further improve the effectiveness of augmented teams in our ever-evolving work landscape. 

Conclusion 

The adaptability, cost-efficiency, and access to specialized skills of software team augmentation make it a cornerstone in modern business strategy.  

As you explore this approach, remember that choosing the right partner is vital. Symphony Solutions is your top choice for managed team augmentation, offering tailored solutions to empower your success. Contact Symphony Solutions to elevate your projects and stay ahead in today’s competitive business landscape. 

FAQs

The more companies testify to the benefits of implementing the Agile ways of working into their daily life, the more popular and mainstream it grows. It has become the new corporate lifestyle and comfortably found a place in many industries. The positively new mindset manifested in the Agile workflow gives companies that competitive edge that defies traditional project management and methodologies. If you’re not Agile, are you even trying? 

Organizational transition to Agile makes your business flexible to customer’s needs and requirements. It helps you churn out ready-to-use projects fast without a loss in quality. In fact, with this approach, you can give the clients just what they desire all the while building a strong bond. And, when it comes to team management, it is aimed at nurturing self-sufficient teams with a high level of personal responsibility and commitment to a common cause. 

Even if your team is fully or partially remote, Agile is probably the best model to be chosen for team workflow. Read more about helpful tools and tips for distributed Agile project management.  

As the current trends show, this is just the right time to get on board with remote work for your software development teams. If in the past, you would usually hear of distributed teams in terms of outsourcing, with the way the world is turning in the new Covid reality, working remotely is becoming part of the new normal and is likely here to stay. And with Agile becoming the preferred way of working in many companies both in IT and other industries, the next logical thing would be to implement its principles for setting up distributed Agile team management. 

Agile and distributed teams incompatible? 

Tools and practices for distributed Agile development 

Distributed vs Traditional team management: Challenges and risks 

Tips for distributed Agile team management 

Going through my personal Agile journey as a Scrum Master led me to some conclusions that this role (accountability according to the new Scrum Guide) is a combination of soft and technical skills. Some of them you can learn and develop from the courses and books, and some are very hard to acquire and it might take ages to master them. I would like to share my findings in the form of a Periodical Table. Similarly to Mendeleev, it came to me in my night dreams and those competencies started popping up and taking their respective places.  

A competency or a skill is a very far-reaching concept. Does It mean technical or soft skills? Is it something inherent or can it be developed over time and with effort? And what about personality traits? Where do they fall in the equation? 

When it comes to Scrum Master competencies, you can distinguish them by placing the skills and traits into three categories, i.e. Behavioral, Contextual, Technical. A good set of well-developed competencies will have the Scrum Master right in place in a team. Depending on specifics of your company or team, your list of SM skills and competencies may vary and you may have a different focus for your particular needs. However, a rule of thumb would be to strive to be a well-rounded personality with a good grasp on each of the categories. Find your balance and figure out what works for you and your team. 

You can see a general overview of the core competencies for a Scrum Master in the “periodic table” of Scrum Master Competence Elements. 

Let’s take a closer look at the elements that make up the Scrum Master competency matrix and what they constitute, which ones you may be lacking and what you can do to further develop your skills to become successful in your role as a Scrum Master. 

Contextual 

A Scrum Master is only as good as their team is. It’s important for them to establish good relationships within the team, encourage open communication and facilitate their work. Contextual competencies focus on the role of the Scrum Master as the leader and facilitator. So let’s see what elements in the Scrum Master skills matrix are helpful for this: 

1. Servant Leadership. Lead by example, be leveled with your team, and they will follow. Ask yourself what you can do for your team right now and do it. 
2. Leading Change may come as a tricky endeavor. Not everyone wants to leave their comfort zone and risk failing. As a Scrum Master, you should be able to deal with that and introduce change to your team as an exciting opportunity. 
3. Impediments removal required the Scrum Master to handle the team’s dependencies and blockers. They should be able to address these issues in a team and help rearrange workload or handle any communication with the people involved to find a solution. 
4. Mentoring means becoming a good role model and encouraging your team to overcome any hardships, either by offering sound advice, sharing your own experience, or providing support. 
5. Coaching in the context of Scrum Master’s duties constitutes prompting the team to discover their potential, improve collaboration, develop their skills and knowledge, and learn how to be self-sufficient. 
6. Teaching means that you can put aside your personal experience and opinion and share the knowledge remaining objective and unbiased. 
7. Team Building is something that a good Scrum Master will encourage and facilitate to establish interpersonal relationships in the team, teach them trust and improve teamwork. 
8. Facilitation is probably one of the most important responsibilities of a Scrum Master. Your top priority should always be to create the right kind of environment for sharing ideas and finding solutions to problems. 
9. Communication should always be efficient and timely. It’s a competency that is crucial for a Scrum Master as they not only need to approach their own team members, but act as a bridge for them and stakeholders or teams they are dependable on. 
10. Active listening is one of the essential traits of a good leader that helps create good communication. However, don’t use that as just a trick, lest it may backfire on you. Engage in the conversation without judgement or offering unsolicited advice. Not just listen, but hear what the other person is saying. 
11. Conflict resolution comes with the job description. Whenever the team starts to get entangled in drama, Scrum Master has to sense the conflict before it starts to escalate or sometimes initiate one when avoiding conflict gets the team stuck in a rut.

Technical

In this regard, you can distinguish between competencies that have to do directly with practicing Agile and those related to software development. Generally, the Scrum Master isn’t required to have a background in software development but if they do, it only works to the benefit of the team and their own. Thus, the Scrum Master should be proficient in the following: 

Conclusion 

Whether you are only contemplating how to become a Scrum Master or already have some experience in the role, you should know your strong sides and what could use some improvement. The Scrum Master skills and competencies that make up a truly great Scrum Master, offer up a broad range of possibilities for personal and professional development. It takes a strong personality and proficiency in both technical and soft skills, great communicational skills and the ability to analyze and see your own faults, being self-critical enough to know where and how to make a change.

If you’ve really got what it takes, your opportunities are beyond comprehensible. You can get a nice boost through passing professional training or obtaining Scrum Master certification, and it only gets more exciting from there on out. The world is changing. Industries and markets are changing. And so are companies and people. The role of a Scrum Master perfectly encompasses what it means to be the driving lever in this change and facilitate and accommodate teams to succeed.

FAQ on Scrum master roles and responsibilities 

Companies left and right are leveraging the Agile approach for their business. In this regard, Agile metrics play an important role in keeping track of progress and ensuring that the implemented principles bring positive change in the software development life cycle (SDLC).  

These are a set of standardized measurements that help assess team productivity on different stages of the SDLC. Furthermore, the metrics in Agile software development are essential in monitoring product quality. A well-managed efficient team puts out high-quality software that fully meets the client requirements and does that in a timely manner. That is the essence of software development that brings client satisfaction and drives profits. 

Agile metrics and measurements help keep in check: 

• Team performance.
• Product quality.
• Delivery time.
• Dependencies, and more. 

Measuring the metrics in Agile is equally important to help the team be accountable for the work being done, keep the client informed, streamline the processes, and manage blockers and dependencies better, with the ultimate goal to deliver a high-quality product and maximize client satisfaction. 

Types of Agile Metrics  

We can distinguish three types of Agile metrics: 

• Lean metrics – used to monitor and optimize processes in physical manufacturing of products (continuous quality, eliminate waste, etc.). 

• Kanban metrics – these are Agile software development metrics to manage team performance and on-time delivery. 

• Scrum metrics – most common to use in software development to measure performance and deliverables. 

Agile metrics may deal with completely different aspects of a project life cycle. That’s why it makes sense to group various metrics into categories:  

• project management.
• product quality.
• team performance.
• customer satisfaction.
• Agile productivity metrics, and so on.  

Having some kind of structure makes it easier to collect and analyze the results, and subsequently, use these metrics to help promote better quality work and higher productivity for the team. 

The combination of metrics you will be measuring and processing depends on your objectives – what conclusions are you seeking to draw from your analysis? It’s important to understand the end goal to not only pick the right metrics to measure, but also make the best of the results of the analysis. Let’s look at some Agile metrics examples, and you decide what works best for you. 

Agile Project Management Metrics 

In project management, Agile metrics help keep track of how efficiently the team is managing the workload on the given project, team productivity and time management. Or, in simple words, how much work in what amount of time can be done to show tangible results. 

• Cycle and Lead time are Lean metrics that help measure the speed of delivery. Lead time is from the moment the company receives an order to the time of delivery, including all the processing time. Cycle time improves on that metric and helps get a precise insight on the process as it includes the time from when the task is active to review. Teams with short cycle time are highly effective. Consistency is also important as it helps predict and plan out future work. 

• Agile Velocity measures how much work a team is able to complete within a sprint on average. It is measured in hours or story points. Velocity tends to improve with time. This metric also shows how efficiently the team is able to work with the backlog. Tracking velocity helps understand when team performance starts suffering and take action in order to address any problems that may arise. 

• Control chart shows the cycle time of a single task, meaning how much time passed from the moment the task was taken “in progress” to when it was “complete”. Short cycle time means a high throughput and consistency helps predict deliveries with precision. In the best-case scenario, the team strives to have short and consistent cycle time in every sprint. 

• Throughput otherwise known as deployment frequency helps assess how many tasks can be processed in a specific time period, or story points per iteration. It shows team productivity and helps understand how it relates to business performance. This metric works best when combined with other metrics. 

• Work In Progress (WIP) tracking helps keep in check delivery speed and keep the team’s focus on tasks that need to be completed before new ones can be started. This helps improve  delivery time and better manage dependencies. 

• Work Item Age shows how much time a task spends in progress, from start to completion. It helps understand and analyze your performance on your tasks, how fast the work progresses. It’s measured using the aging work in progress chart. 

• Flow Efficiency helps detect where the task is stuck and take measures to reduce waiting periods that may occur between different stages of a task. 

• Blocked time accounts for blockers on tasks due to dependencies. If a team member cannot proceed with the task for some reason, a blocker is put on the task until it is resolved. 

• Sprint Burndown Report measures the time and work left to complete a task during a sprint. It is presented in a simple chart showing time on X-axis and the work progress on Y-axis. The workload is estimated at the beginning of a sprint and is measured in hours or story points. The team works on completing the estimated workload by the end of the sprint. Similarly, Epic and Release Burndown metrics help track the progress of the team with the focus on the larger picture. Working with these metrics will be more complicated as there are many epics in a sprint and multiple versions of a product. 

• Cumulative Flow Diagram shows the number of issues that the team is working on over time. It illustrates how consistent the workflow is across the team. Ideally, the flow should be smooth. Any ideations may indicate where bottlenecks are formed or that the team’s workflow capacity is higher than expected. Analyzing this data helps better manage workflow and eliminate bottlenecks. 

• Value Delivery. Each requirement has an assigned value to it that is expressed in dollars or points system and determined by the project manager. High value features are top priority for the team in the development process. The team should work on delivering the most value to the client. Otherwise, the product won’t have the functionality that the end-user needs and makes use of. This not only has an adverse effect on client satisfaction but is a direct cause for a decrease in expected profits. 

• Cost Estimation. To make it worthwhile for the client, the cost of production should be taken into consideration. This means, how the planned budget compares to costs actually spent. How it changes over time. Tracking this metric helps understand if the client is overspending, will he be able to make profit once the product is released. Generally, the cost of production decreases with each consecutive phase of the project, while the value added goes up. 

Agile Quality Metrics 

Frequently releasing products and hitting all the milestones won’t mean much if the quality of the product is lacking. That’s why it’s important to efficiently apply QA approaches with proper Agile metrics in mind for the project’s overall success. First and foremost, they help determine if the developed product is free of errors that may render it unusable or cause any disruptions in user experience. Agile development quality metrics help predict whether or not the client will derive satisfaction from the product. 

• Code Coverage metric shows what percentage of the code is covered in unit tests. It is a good indicator of the team’s progress. However, it should be mentioned that high code coverage doesn’t equal high quality. Use a combination of metrics to reliably assess the quality of the software. 

• Static and Dynamic Code Analysis lets you evaluate the quality of the source code with the difference being in whether or not you are running the software. Analyzing the code allows you to detect bugs and security soft spots, and build a product with clean code. This process can be partly or completely automated. Analyzing static code plays a major role in assuring code quality, however, dynamic code analysis shouldn’t be dismissed as it helps detect defects that appear when the software is running. 

• Failed Deployments helps assess the overall number of deployments in relation to testing and production environments, the reliability of these environments. This metric is valuable in determining when the release is ready to go into production. 

• Escaped Defects metrics help assess the quality of the product by stating the number of bugs in a build that is in production. Bugs, although inevitable, pose a risk if they are not addressed prior to release. 

• Automated Test Coverage metric is similar to code coverage, however, its sole focus is on automation. The metric measures the percentage of code that is covered by automated tests. Test automation is important in providing continuous delivery and reducing time required for testing. 

• Net Promoter Scores helps assess customer satisfaction and loyalty. It measures how willing the customer will be to recommend your service or product on a scale from -100 to 100. 

If you still hesitate whether or not you should spend time and efforts on applying all these metrics, read about the case on how implementing QA metrics and processes radically improved product quality for PLM Solutions and helped them get new clients.  

Agile Team Metrics 

Agile team metrics help monitor performance and see where Agile team structure and efficiency can be improved. Many of these overlap with Agile project metrics. Looking over the team’s wellbeing can also help in addressing issues when it comes to team morale and motivation. 

• Agile Performance Metrics can be roughly narrowed down to productivity, quality, stability and predictability measurements, which, in turn, are expressed through some of the above-mentioned metrics, like escaped defect rate, planned-to-done ratio, cycle time, etc. All the metrics combined help assess the team performance and output, or to say it simply – Is the job done? Is it delivered on time? and, Is it any good? If the answer is “yes” to all the questions, the team is performing well. As already mentioned, many metrics tend to overlap and should be looked at in a broader context. This is especially the case with team performance, as product quality and delivery directly rely on the team output. 

• Happiness Metric and Team Morale. There is no one certain way to measure team happiness or do it in an objective and unbiased way. What you can do is to ask the team members to rate their level of happiness on a scale from 1 to 5 and offer a few open questions regarding what they like or dislike about team dynamics, what could be done to improve the situation, and the like. Arguably, it could be more effective to measure team morale, as in how team members fit in the team, are they proud of the work they are doing, are they enthusiastic and motivated to come to work every morning, do they see a purpose in what they do. 

What makes the metrics work 

As you can tell, there is a lot to measure in a team’s work but this does not necessarily mean that all these numbers are required to help the team be successful. The general overview of Agile metrics touches upon all possible project and team composition specifics. Naturally, not all will apply to your case in particular. You only really need to track those metrics that apply to the team and project that you are working on. 

Having said that, once you know what to look for, metrics are easy to calculate and understand. It’s enough to set up the process once and keep up at it. But regular assessment and analysis of the collected data greatly accommodate the team’s work. And while some metrics may be hit or miss, there are some that will work for your benefit no matter the scope or industry. 

The annual State of Agile report delved into the question of what indicates that an Agile project is successful. Out of an extensive list, the actual value delivered to the client and customer satisfaction are the two Agile metrics most often cited by respondents, year after year. This makes all the sense, as the entire point of a commercial project is to drive profits and engage users that will like the product enough to stick with it for years to come. 

Source: State of Agile

Once you know that you are building the right product, something that your customers will actually like and buy, you can focus on improving team performance in terms of quality, timely delivery and cost-efficiency. 

Here are a few more tips to help you leverage tracking metrics for Agile projects: 

• Record context as well. Without context, metrics are nothing but a bunch of lifeless stats. As we work on real projects with real-life people, it’s understandable that there will always be a bigger picture behind the numbers. Inquire about the context that comes with the measured results and draw your conclusion from that. 

• Use metrics in tandem. One isolated measurement doesn’t show the full picture. That’s why it makes sense to observe metrics and how they behave in tandem with one another. You may notice how metrics correlate and work together, what combination of factors may apply to change in team performance or product quality. 

• Cause-effect bias. It’s also important to remember that correlation does not imply causation. So, stay critical in your analysis, don’t jump to rushed conclusions, and understand what you are looking at. 

To conclude 

When implementing a new Agile way of working, it’s wise to try and be meticulous in what changes you are introducing into your work processes and how they affect the team and the quality of their output. That is the purpose of Agile metrics, whether these are Agile performance metrics, project management and quality, or even team happiness. All that can be measured and analyzed, brings orderliness and regularity into your day-to-day work, ultimately reducing chaos. Plan for future successes step by step, know that you have it under control, and use the advantages of being an Agile organization to the fullest. However, if you are still in the early stages of adopting the ways of Agile and feel overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to seek some guidance. Professional consulting of our SAFe certified experts can help you implement Agile in your team and set up the processes for metrics analysis in your business practices to make it work for you. 

As the market and industries progress and evolve, more companies tend to adopt the Agile way of working with a positively new approach to project management which allows them to reap many benefits, such as being more responsive to immediate client needs, optimizing product development process, decreasing time to market, and the like. If done right, the company gets a highly efficient Scrum team that delivers real tangible results fast.

Agile software development team structure balances out the talents, creating a close-knit and result-oriented team that works towards achieving a common goal. Such a team may become the market advantage that places the company above competitors that are sticking to the old ways of working or are still in the transition period in their transformation. 

Agile software development team structure balances out the talents, creating a close-knit and result-oriented team that works towards achieving a common goal. Such a team may become the market advantage that places the company above competitors that are sticking to the old ways of working or are still in the transition period in their transformation. 
What makes a team Agile? What is the best composition for the team? What roles and responsibilities are carried out by each member? Let’s look into the topic of what makes up an Agile team. 

Approaches to Agile Team Structure 

Before talking about Scrum team structure, we have to remember that the end result is to get together people who will work well together, not requiring excessive support or control. At the end of the day, the team has to be self-manageable and self-sufficient. It’s a good idea to involve experts for coaching in the early steps of the team’s Agile journey if the need may arise. As example, our Scrum experts provided an Agile coaching training for Casumo team, that allowed a large cross-functional team to develop and start implement an action plan for becoming more collaborative and focused on one goal.  

Scrum team composition undergoes change as the team matures and evolves in its Agile adoption. The longer people work as one team, the better they become, the more defined the team structure becomes. Depending on skill levels and expertise of each member, a few approaches to how an Agile team may be structured are defined: 

• Generalist Team consists of people with broad skill sets and experience, responsibilities including end-to-end product development. This approach is common for outsourcing companies. A generalist team usually consists of people highly competent and independent in their work. On the contrary, it may lack experts in a narrow field, which means sometimes an expert has to be involved from outside the team as development is already in progress. 

• Domain Specialist Agile Team has expert specialists with specific skill sets in narrow fields. Every team member is responsible for one part of the project. This is common for software development teams where the team can quickly build complex products because they have experts with profound knowledge in the subject. Components are built individually so there may be a lack of alignment. Some other difficulties the team may face are lack of general knowledge, communication gaps. 

• Hybrid Team is a combination of generalist and specialist. This is a high-quality separate component, integrated system. A hybrid team is high-performing and effective in development. However, it may be difficult to coordinate. Using hybrid teams for software development may be time-consuming and expensive. 

Then there are teams which are still in the process of transitioning to Agile. For big teams there may be sub-teams that operate as independent units. As observed, most companies are generalist teams which tend to create an environment in which people thrive, become self-sufficient, and learn how to take up responsibility.

Agile Team Key Characteristics

In order to understand how an Agile team differs from a traditional software development team, it’s good to take a look at some characteristics that are specific to an Agile team: 

• Self-managing  

In an Agile team, responsibilities are clearly defined, each member of the team equally contributes to the tasks and takes responsibility for the successful and timely delivery. There is no hierarchical order in the team composition or management. Solutions are achieved with joint effort and so that everyone involved is satisfied with the solution. Scrum master usually guides discussions and sees to scrum ceremonies being performed in a proper way, that everyone adheres to established rules and procedures. The team comes to a solution that everyone agrees with. Product owner sets priorities. 

• Cross-functional  

It should have sufficient knowledge to deliver a working product. This includes UX/UI, QA, integration, etc. This means not that any one member of the team should be able to deliver the product start to finish entirely on their own, but rather that all team members should work as a team, complement one another in skills and knowledge and work towards achieving the goals set for the team. This is not always realistic, especially if you are working with a small team, so introducing an SME may be a solution. 

• Co-located or Distributed 

If a team is in the same location at all times, communication is immediate and adept. A team distributed across locations may face some difficulties but this is not at all uncommon. With proper tools and preparation, they can work just as efficient, starting from online PI planning for distributed teams to daily work on the project. 

• Dedicated  

Every member of the Agile team should be fully dedicated to the project. It’s preferable to have all team members work exclusively for one project. This helps avoid distractions and delays in delivery of the product as developers don’t have to manage multiple projects at once. Focused undivided attention to the project results in better quality product and timely delivery, it helps with self-management and urges to take up responsibility for the project’s success. 

• Long-lived 

A team that has been together for a long time, works well together. Newly formed teams may need training and time to get fully aligned. Each change in its composition may also mean time for adjustment. 

• Compact 

The recommended size of an Agile team is within the range of 3 to 9 people. This minimizes the number of moving parts, making working in sync easier. Each team member is responsible for critical tasks and supports each other to meet deadlines. 

How Traditional Software Development Team Differs from Agile Software Development Team

	Traditional software development team	Agile software development team
1.	Business analyst (BA), Project Manager (PM), UX Designer, Developers (front-end, back-end), Quality Assurance Engineer (QA)	Product Owner (PO), Scrum Master (SM), Developers
2.	top-down project management	self-managed and self-organized
3.	PM responsible for the project completion	every team member takes up responsibility for completing tasks
4.	multiple projects simultaneously	one project at a time
5.	individual performance	team performance
6.	big teams (size not strictly limited)	preferably small teams of 3-9 people
7.	distinct roles and job titles	cross-functional teams with diverse skill sets
8.	employees are human resources	employees are talents
9.	team metrics not clearly defined or not tracked at all	common Agile metrics to track team performance, product quality, etc.

Agile Software Development Team Roles and Accountabilities

In Agile development, a typical Scrum team size should be 3 to 9 people. Scrum defines three major roles in an Agile team, that of Product Owner (PO), Scrum Master (SM), and Product Development team. Then you also have your Stakeholders, Business Analysts (BA), and Subject Matter Experts (SME). All the people involved share different roles and take responsibility for some part of the delivery process. 

Let’s take a closer look at what should be the Scrum team roles and accountabilities: 

• Product Owner manages the stakeholders and is responsible for making sure that the product meets all client requirements. PO manages the product backlog. 

• Scrum Master is the process owner. The role of the SM is to make sure that everyone on the team abides by Scrum rules and procedures. 

• Developers. These are in-house or dedicated developers working on the project in close cooperation including front-end, back-end developers, QAs, UX designers. 

The specificity of the product that is being developed may dictate what additional project team roles need to be introduced. SME is invited to work on a project if their specific skills or qualifications are required but the involvement is not substantial or long enough to justify a full-time hire on the team. SME may be a member of a different Scrum team, and any member of your team may be an SME for another team on a different project. SMEs are involved in a project but all responsibility for the project’s success lies on the team doing the work. It’s preferable that an SME is dedicated to one team instead of getting involved with multiple teams simultaneously. 

Business Analysts may also be of use for a Scrum team as they help gather requirements and may have the knowledge and experience that a Scrum team may find useful. However, the team should closely work with business, therefore a BA may come as a hindrance to smooth collaboration. In a Scrum team, the person responsible for the requirements is the PO. BA can support the PO and the team. 

In Scrum, it’s highly undesirable to have temporary team members as it creates confusion and risks. Try to keep the team small and simple, introduce change gradually. This way you will get a process that is fine-tuned to work well together and efficiently carry out their Agile team roles and responsibilities. 

What Benefits You Get from Having Agile Software Development Team on Your Project 

The benefits of having an Agile team working on software development stem from the Agile mindset adoption which determines how the team approaches the project and takes responsibility for the job well done. It’s all in the values and principles that ingrain a certain feeling of personal responsibility and have each team member interested in a successful delivery. 

Some benefits of having an effective Agile team are as follows: 

• Good communication and effective collaboration are important parts of teamwork. Team members make it clear what they are working on and inform of any blockers. As the delivery is dependent on many people, continuous communication assures that dependencies are well managed and any issues are immediately addressed. 

• Common goal. Specifics of an Agile team is that all team members are focused and work hand-in-hand on achieving the same goal. It goes beyond making sure that your own part of the job is done. An Agile team manages dependencies and oversees that there is good collaboration and tasks that involve multiple people are completed and don’t become stagnant. 

• Well-defined responsibilities. Every member of the team knows their scope of work and what part of the project they are responsible for. Roles and expectations are clearly defined from the start. 

• Strong team culture. This is what Agile is all about. It’s values and principles lay out the foundation for a company culture that is healthy and goal-oriented. Adopting the Agile approach and being part of the Agile culture creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and support. It is the recipe for efficient teamwork. 

• No need to be overbearing and controlling as the team is interested in doing the job right and delivering good results. This helps save time and focus on business objectives. 

• Flexibility and responsiveness to change. The essence of Agile is being flexible to change and making adjustments to the project as new client requirements arise. This being the norm in an Agile development process, the team is responsive to client feedback and needs less time to adapt. Such flexibility positively affects product quality and delivery time, saves money – the later on in the development process, the harder and more expensive it is to introduce changes – making this a big business advantage. 

• Faster speed to market. This helps manage increasing market demands and deliver ready-to-use products in a matter of weeks. As example, having applied Agile Framework for VirtualStock extended teams allowed them to significantly improve product delivery time when they were faced with an urgent need to provide product for new markets. 

• Better product quality. Since an Agile team is ready to implement change and conducts quality testing all throughout the development process, this makes the end-product high-quality and corresponding to requirements and industry standards. The team achieves that by creating an efficient feedback loop and maintaining continuous communication with the client – upon each iteration the client is presented with a built increment and gives feedback which is then used to adjust the work. 

• Saved expenses. With an Agile team everyone has a clear understanding of what should be done and alongside iterative development and frequent delivery, all major changes to the project can be done early on in the development process. This greatly saves expenses as compared to cases of miscommunication or when requirements are not properly set from the very beginning and can’t be overviewed prior to the end of development, as is the case with traditional software development model.

Agile is steadily spreading its ideology through business and industries, going beyond IT and software development companies.

A recent study by McKinsey & Company on over 2,000 global respondents shows that a successful agile transformation delivers up to 30% gains in employee engagement, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction. At the same time, organizations that take an agile approach to projects can deliver 5-10 times faster, turbocharging innovation to match or beat the competition. In other words, a successful agile transformation puts your business in a better position of being a top-quartile performer, especially among competitors who are yet to take the approach.

From these trends, it’s evident that an agile organization stays on track, while making the customers happy—the ingredients of running a competitive organization. But how do you get started with this approach and transcend to new working cultures? Here is an elaborate guide on implementing a successful agile transformation roadmap in 10 simple steps. Keep reading to learn more.

What is Agile transformation 

Agile transformation entails transitioning an entire company’s ideals and nature to a nimble, reactive culture that is based on agile principles to stimulate business change. Contrary to what many people think of an agile approach, the strategy goes beyond implementing agile software development technologies in an organization. The goal of any agile transformation is to revamp the whole company mindset and environment to embrace creativity and innovation, as well as reduce unnecessary management layers by empowering employees to think independently.

Some companies start out as Agile. For some, it takes a journey to come to the point where they can truly be an Agile company. Agile transformation journey takes a traditional company through a series of steps to adopt new Agile ways of working, which sometimes implies as much as changing the mindset by which the company exists, putting Agile values and principles at its core.

Where there’s a journey, there’s a road to be taken

An Agile transformation roadmap may help a traditional company set out on its way to adopting the Agile principles. A roadmap is not entirely a plan, but it lays out the milestones to head toward and roadblocks to try to avoid. Tailored to the specific needs of any given company, a transformation roadmap defines Agile steps to give the company an idea of how to approach its transformation. If done right, it helps align the teams involved and smoothly roll out the Agile transformation plan.

Reasons to adopt Agile in an organization 

A company should consider introducing some Agile steps in optimizing its work if it:

• can’t keep up with customer demands and industry trends
• doesn’t have an effective method of implementing customer feedback
• product delivery or service takes too long

However, as good as it may sound, change in the ways the company is working may disrupt the usual workflows and be a cause for concern. It is especially the case for large enterprises which consist of dozens of departments and have thousands of people whose livelihood depends on the profitability and competitive advantage of the company.

Some companies may want to try out Agile by first introducing it on a smaller scale: on a department, team, or individual level. If proven successful, this may expand to the entire company. The further Agile transition depends on how efficiently it’s implemented and operating in pockets.

Agile transformation should be done meticulously and through meticulous assessment and analysis. Upon examination, an Agile consultant may advise which course to take in the company’s Agile transformation. As an example of this, when Symphony Solutions Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) office accommodated Casumo introducing the Agile approach on all levels of the company, they took the already existing Scrum basics course and adjusted it to the specific company needs. As the case study suggests, the company had a series of practical training courses carried out for teams, product management and leadership. This ensured a deeper approach and a more wholesome and all-encompassing transformation journey.

To stay on top of the competition, a company needs to continuously learn and improve, adapt to change, and keep a steady focus on the goal, which should always be client satisfaction. This flexibility to change and adaptability stands at the core of the Agile approach.

Agile transformation real benefits in practice 

The Agile approach is quickly extending to companies and industries beyond IT with SAFe being a popular methodology to apply for scaling business. The business benefits of embracing the Agile mindset are unprecedented as it shows to directly impact how companies grow in business value, increase customer satisfaction and subsequently drive profits. In the next few years, Agile approach implemented on an enterprise level is expected to grow to 32%, as noted in KPMG Global Agile Survey 2019.

Companies stated that they pursue the transition to Agile approach to benefit from:

• It strains to keep up with the prevailing customer demands and industry trends
• It takes longer than necessary to deliver products and services to end users
• It can’t garner customer feedback effectively to draw insights

A cultural shift is recognized as the main challenging factor in an Agile transformation by over 59% of those surveyed. However, taking into account that most of the respondents (81%) only started their Agile journey within the last three years, the tendency may be expected to improve over time. Noteworthy is that among these respondents an overarching majority plan to implement Agile on enterprise level in the foreseeable future.

Overall, it’s a generally well received and desirable approach that companies strive to adopt. It’s safe to say that the majority recognizes the benefits that are brought about by the introduction of the Agile approach, so it’s here to stay in the long run.

10 Steps to building an Agile transformation roadmap

The complete transformation journey may take a lot more than ten steps, but you need to start somewhere. Here are some essential tips to get you set up and running.

Do an assessment 

Analyzing where the company stands in terms of structure, workflows, performance, etc., helps determine the starting point in the transformation process and come up with an Agile transformation strategy. 

Adjust your mindset 

For an established company, it may be hard to jump right into the new way of running things. Taking upon an Agile mindset may help make the transition smoother. 

Address employees’ apprehensions 

Before you can even start implementing the roadmap, Agile concepts and principles need to be well-received and accepted by the people who will be doing all the work. That’s why it is important to address any concerns and questions coming from employees. This comes hand in hand with adopting an Agile mindset – Agile can only work on company level if every person involved understands the principles and is guided by Agile values. 

Invest in coaching 

If you want to engage all company levels in the Agile transformation, it makes sense to invest in expert coaching. An Agile coach can be of much help, starting from introducing each team to the basics of Agile and Scrum, to setting up the processes, to assisting in Agile activities up until the team is self-sufficient and capable of taking up more initiative and responsibility for the successful completion of the project. Moreover, investing in Agile coaching helps you save expenses in the long run. For example, having timely applied Agile coaching allowed Ladbrokes Coral to reduce time to market by 32 days and have efficient, cost-effective delivery. 

Narrow down your vision 

A distinctive characteristic of Agile thinking is being able to set your eyes on a concrete goal of completing the task and delivering usable results to the client. This means that having one task with dependencies brought to completion is oftentimes more important than focusing on multiple of your personal tasks. So, the question is not “How do I finish my tasks?” but “How do we finish and deliver this task to the client?” 

Seek competent guidance 

Efficient leadership and guidance are important for the successful implementation of the Agile approach. The leadership needs to have a clear vision, define where the company is heading in the transformation journey. Likewise, competent guidance from an Agile coach is what can boost the company in the initial steps of its transformation and see to it that the team is well-equipped, aligned, and able to further operate independently. 

Empower team self-governance 

Having teams reach self-sufficiency is one of the goals of Agile coaching. The Agile mindset promotes democratic decision-making and effective self-management. 

Continuous communication 

This should be achieved within the team, for distributed teams, and with the customer. As the Agile approach means high responsiveness to change, flexibility to customer feedback and fast delivery, effective communication is a way to achieve this. Daily stand-ups, retrospective meetings, sprint demos, online PI planning for distributed teams: all these are Agile events that contribute to effective communication in Agile teams. 

Here are some tips on how to improve communication across your organization in preparation for a successful Agile transformation project: 

• Start your communication with the “Why” to be clear and honest about the strategy’s expectations 
• Set up multiple communication channels to accommodate employee preferences, as well as increased volume of communications 
• Display formidable agility throughout internal communications 
• Apply “MVP” thinking in your daily meetings and routine FAQ (frequently asked questions by employees) sessions 
• Communicate more frequently with leaders, so that they can pass the same trend down the management hierarchies 

Change management strategy 

An Agile management differs from that in a traditional company, in a way that a greater role is given to self-organization, accountability and responsibility of each member of an Agile team. 

Accountability and remediation 

There should be clear metrics to measure progress and analyze the efficiency of the implemented changes. Each team member should take on a proactive role in self-organization and increasing value-added to the common goal. 

Roadblocks and pitfalls to avoid on your journey to Business Agility

Any change rarely comes easy, so it’s important to be aware of difficulties that the team may face in the process. Generally, all that may get in the way of a company’s transformation journey, comes down to a few main roadblocks: 

• Culture. A set of values and principles build up the core of the Agile approach. The transformation is a lot about embracing the specific mindset, way of thinking in different categories. So, problems may arise if the company has a strong culture that opposes the very principles of the Agile approach. 

• Lack of alignment. Teamwork and accountability play a big role in adopting the Agile approach. The more teams are involved, the more dependencies, the more important it is to have good alignment within the team and across teams. 

• Unclear vision. To get to your goal, you have to set your eyes on it and know how to get it. Clearly defined goals and a transformation roadmap may help in this regard. 

• Availability of tools. Lack of proper tools may hinder the teams from successfully completing tasks, efficiently communicate, track progress. An Agile coach may introduce the teams to the right tools and train you how to make good use of them. 

• Scaling beyond team level. Whenever there’s a need to scale up, difficulties are expected. SAFe is a framework that helps bring alignment across organization and guides the company in scaling Agile practices. 

These and other difficulties, however, are possible to overcome as long as the team has good guidance and is set to succeed. With the prevalence of the Agile approach and its future prospects, there is no reason for resistance in the company’s transformation. At the end of the day, everyone who want to stay relevant on the market, will have to learn to adapt and embrace the new world. 

To conclude

With Agile, everything needs to be better and faster. The sooner the clients get to see and make use of what they’re paying for, the better. The Agile approach empowers the contractor to deliver tangible results to the client in mere weeks, creating minimum viable products sometimes as soon as two weeks into development. The company that has successfully completed its Agile transformation, bears a great competitive advantage in the rapidly changing and highly demanding market.

With optimized processes and maximized efficiency, the journey from an idea to an actual product now takes weeks, instead of months or years.

 Just about any company can achieve such astounding results by resorting to Agile Transformation services, that encompass all the phases of the transition, leading a company through assessment, to training and implementation, certification, up until the point when the teams become self-sufficient. 

FAQ on Agile Transformation 

PI plannings are an integral part of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) , even more so for big enterprises with teams distributed across multiple locations and time zones. In the business context, this means that the teams, alongside business owners and stakeholders, determine the scope of the project as well as its business value, discuss risks and dependencies, and plan out in detail their work for the next PI.

The client would hold PI planning events in London, bringing together sometimes up to two hundred people from all around Europe and spending the whole of two days planning, establishing cross-team relationships, and not to forget having fun. However, in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis and complete ban on travel, we were presented with a new challenge to overcome.

Remote SAFe PI Planning Event Preparation 

A lot of effort went into the preparation of the online PI planning, which was a major factor in its success, allowing for smooth collaboration across all locations. It was a challenge in and of itself, as the remote teams had to be flexible and adapt to the situation with the news regarding the quarantine changing by the hour.   

When talking about what exactly was done, first of all, there was a PI planning preparation checklist compiled of all the things necessary for the PI planning event. There needed to be an online alternative to whatever would usually be readily available offline – boards and artefacts, rooms for team breakouts, teamwork and face-to-face communication. Then the teams decided on who would be responsible for moderating the meetings, how to organize all the calls.  

Luckily, there were online tools available that could be easily integrated with apps which agile teams use for project management or communication. Some needed minor adjustments, to set them up for the online event. For instance, a separate channel of communication was created for each individual team, as well as chats for product owners and business analysts. There was a list of virtual “rooms” so that you could easily navigate between team chats and be kept in the picture. Then there was the agenda with all the major meetings scheduled ahead of time.  

Remote PI Planning Agenda and How it happened 

The PI planning event took place over two days and followed the agenda that was sent out to all the teams ahead of time.  

Day 1: Draft Plans, MS Teams, and Big Agile 

The first day of the PI planning started with an introductory word from the business owners, followed by the Strategy and Vision presentation, and an overview of the logistics of the day. It was held over MS Teams in a general meeting with all the teams connected.  

The next six hours were dedicated to team breakouts which shifted to individual MS Teams channels. Each team worked with the program backlog, breaking down features into user stories, planning out the future sprints, constituting the Program Increment, and setting feature delivery dates for all the tasks. 

A new addition in the online PI planning was the introduction of the Big Agile tool, which was integrated with Jira and allowed to work with all the individual team projects on one program board. The managers and product owners added all the features, PI objectives and priorities to the board.  

Every two hours there would be a Scrum of Scrums meeting, a scaled agile practice allowing the Scrum Masters of all the teams to communicate their dependencies, check if everything was going according to plan, track the features being added to the general board in Big Agile.  

The teams drafted the future sprints by the end of the first day. During the review meeting, the drafts were presented to the business owners and stakeholders who asked their questions and adjusted priorities.  

Day 2: Final Plan, Presentation, and Vision for the Future

The next day was dedicated to finishing up the draft plans, double-checking everything and making some last-minute changes according to the approved priorities. There was another program board presentation for teams who’d adjusted their plans, but for the most part, the main chunk of the planning was done on the first day.  

The Gallery walk was realized in the form of a presentation, containing all the PI objectives, with upper management and stakeholders determining the business value for the project in alignment with the client’s strategic vision in the given business context.  

Lastly, the teams looked at the potential program risks and assigned the owners to each blocker. The PI planning ended with a confidence vote, to see if everyone involved was on board with the plan and ready to commit to the scope of work, defined for the upcoming PI. 

Tools used for remote PI Planning

• Jira is the number one tool for project management and team collaboration, widely used as a way to introduce scaled agile principles in project execution. Agile teams are already using it daily to manage epics and features, keep a program backlog, and track their stories and tasks in each sprint. It’s visual, intuitive and easy to use. In Jira, you can see the whole scope of the work that needs to be done, know what your teammates are working on and see all the dependencies and blockers right away. If used correctly, Jira allows you to organize your workload and always be exactly on track with your tasks.  

• Big Agile came into play as this is a tool that can be integrated with multiple Jira projects. It gives the complete picture on all levels, accumulating Jira projects from all the teams involved in PI planning and summarizing them into one program board. In real-time, teams can determine the PI objectives, plan for the upcoming sprints and manage dependencies across all teams. In the previous PI planning, Big Agile has already been considered as a tool to keep track of the results of the planning. However, with the need to transfer the PI planning event to online mode in its entirety, the teams ended up using the full functionality of the tool, which proved to be very effective and time-saving. 

• MS Teams is a platform for team communication in chats and video meetings, with a multitude of other useful features and integrations, which can pretty much be the starting point of your every working day. Having used it before as a hub for teamwork, now MS Teams is even more relevant to help keep the teams in touch and aware of the current processes within the team and across the company. It was only natural to use it for video calls and meetings in the PI planning as every Symphonian is already an active MS Teams user (or should be, for that matter). For this PI planning, individual MS Teams channels were created for each team, that were used for conducting team breakout sessions.  

• Voting Poker is a web application, introduced as a replacement for the confidence vote that usually takes place at the end of the PI planning and is aimed at determining how confident the teams are for the upcoming Program Increment and if the results are satisfactory, what concerns may be raised in regards to the successful implementation of the project plans.  

Post PI Planning 

All in all, the online PI Planning event was a success. With diligence and dedication, all the teams managed to coordinate their efforts and communicate effectively, even when separated by distance and circumstances.  

SAFe PI Planning for Distributed Teams

What Is the Goal of the PI Planning Event? And why Plan at All?

PI planning is short for Program Increment planning. It’s an indispensable part of SAFe, aimed at bringing together distributed teams across all locations in a face-to-face event. The goal of the PI Planning event is to establish dependencies and open communication lines for distributed teams to iterate as much as needed. On top of that it harmonizes the project’s vision and updates the roadmap for faster product development and release.

When conducting PI planning with SAFe for distributed teams, it’s preferable to bring all the teams to one location. If teams are dispersed across different locations, you need to account for differences in time zones, it makes the arrangements more complicated, and as a rule, we try to avoid all unnecessary complexity.  

It’s common for the teams to travel to one destination for the duration of the PI planning event. However, resorting to online means of communication like calls and video-conferences during a PI planning isn’t completely unheard of. This can happen for a variety of reasons: difficulties with obtaining visas, financial constraints, travel restrictions, inability to coordinate transportation of large teams across multiple locations. Organizing and conducting PI planning completely in online mode is more relevant now than ever, with the restrictions and even complete travel bans in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis.  

With the need to abruptly transfer the PI planning to online mode, the teams faced with a new challenge and had to think and act fast. At the same time, it was a chance to prove that SAFe PI planning could be done in such dire circumstances and that it can be not much different from an offline event.  

PI Planning Online: Pros and Cons

So, as you can see, there’s no need in discussing the need for a PI planning as per se, however, how you are going to conduct it may result in an array of challenges to overcome. Having successfully accomplished a remote PI planning, we can reflect on the experience. 

Pros  

• With proper pre-planning, remote PI Planning is just as efficient as offline events  
• Fewer distractions. Easier to focus on work.  
• Everyone is involved in the planning. When on-call, people don’t talk over one another and take turns to present their parts.  
• It’s convenient to have all PI objectives summarized in a presentation.  
• Teams have access to the program board all the time. They can see the whole scope of work, all the features and dependencies.  
• Easy to follow the agenda and make sure you take everything into account.  
• Using online tools made the planning process easier and more efficient – all the changes can be added online, no need to walk up to a board and fidget with sticky notes.  
• Pre-planning alongside using online tools made for a faster and easier planning for the upcoming PI.  
• No expenses for transportation, accommodation, catering. Everyone is working remotely from the comfort of their home.  

Cons

• The more teams are involved in PI planning, the more complicated it becomes.  
• It may be hard to coordinate teams with many dependencies.  
• You couldn’t clearly see the program risks from the board. 
• If calls and meetings aren’t planned on the agenda, it may be difficult to get all the people on the call. 
• No way to step aside to have a quick word with someone, every call needs to be agreed on or scheduled. 
• Harder to conduct confidence vote with remote teams. 
• Everything felt very casual, no after-party. 

Lessons Learned

Looking back at the conducted event and the PI plan that it resulted in, we can draw a conclusion:  

• A bit of preparation goes a long way.  
• It’s important to find the right tools that suit your needs.  
• Collaboration and communication are of highest priority when working towards a common goal. 

Of course, we’re not looking to completely replace a collocated PI planning. Being burdened by the current situation, we were happy to find a workaround and successfully carry it out. However, nothing can be quite the same as working side-by-side with your colleagues. 

Interpersonal communication gives you a sense of belonging with other teams. You’re not only following out a plan but feel a strong responsibility to people, you’ve built quality connections with. This is a completely different level of professional relations that cannot be achieved solely through means of online communication. 

All teams went to great effort to prepare the remote SAFe PI Planning. With a bit of quick wit and flexibility, the planning was conducted without a hitch and the teams are well-prepared for their next PI planning. 

FAQ on Remote PI Planning