A view into how most IT organisations structure their teams to deal with business demands and possible inefficiencies that emerge as a result. An alternate to the traditional project team composition is a way to deliver end to end features to the business, using what is known as feature teams.

1. USINGFEATURETEAMSTODELIVER
HIGHERBUSINESSVALUE
Sameer Deans

2. How can IT organize to deliver
higher value to the business?
2

3. AGENDA
! What does business expect from IT?
! How is IT set up to deliver?
! Introducing feature teams
! Q & A
3

4. 4
All businesses are driven by Return on Investment
RoI can be in monetary form or intangible like a brand
or social recognition

5. 5
The role of business is to maximize
Customer Experience
and Revenue
or to Reduce Costs
Software project aims to achieve at least one of
these

6. 6
Once a business idea emerges, time to market is
critical
Can value be delivered to the business
incrementally?

7. What does business expect from IT?
! Visibility into progress
! Flexibility to change requirements
! Ability to change priorities of requirements
! Expectation that domain knowledge will be retained in
the organization for future development
7

8. So how does IT set themselves up to deliver?
Typical team organization is around competent teams
formed around architecture modules of the system.
8
User
Management
Security
Account
Maintenance
Transaction
Processing

9. Quite often organized by layer of application
9
UI
team
Business
Logic team
Services
team
Database
team
Number of
applications in
the system under
development
UI
team
Business
Logic team
Services
team
Database
team
UI
team
Business
Logic team
Services
team
Database
team
UI
team
Business
Logic team
Services
team
Database
team

10. What do component teams lead to?
10

11. HANDOFF AND DELAY
Team A Team B Team C
Consider a requirement from the customer that needs
to be developed by 3 component teams
Handoff Handoff
Waste due
to rework
and
handling
partially
finished
work
Waste due
to delays

12. DUPLICATION
Team A Team B Team C
Writes method to
calculate interest so it
can show this in the
UI
class SimpleInterestCalculator
def initialize(principal,
interestRate, numberOfYears)
@principal = principal
@interestRate = interestRate
@numberOfYears =
numberOfYears
end
def compute
(@principal * @interestRate *
@numberOfYears) /100
end
end
Writes method to
calculate interest
so it create a
reusable service
Class InterestCalculator
def
self.compute(loan_amount,
rate_of_interest,
term_in_years)
(loan_amount *
rate_of_interest *
term_in_years) /100
end
end
Writes method to
calculate interest so
totals can be updated in
database
class SimpleInterestCalculator3
def initialize(options = {})
@loan_amount =
options[:loan_amount] ||
@rate_of_interest =
options[:rate_of_interest] ||
@term_in_years =
options[:term_in_years] ||
end
def compute
@loan_amount * @term_in_years *
rate_of_interest_in_fraction
end
private
def rate_of_interest_in_fraction
@rate_of_interest / 100
end
end

13. BAD CODE AND DESIGN
Work with the same code month after month
Acceptance of bad design
No outside eyes look at the codebase
Do not seek to refactor

14. COORDINATION AND INTEGRATION
Team A
Team B
Team C
Requirement
that spans
several
component
teams

15. EXTRA MANAGEMENT

16. SEQUENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
UI team
Business
logic team
Services
team
Database
team
UI team
Business
logic team
Services
team
Database
team
UI team
Business
logic team
Services
team
Database
team
!!!
Requirements analysis
!!!
Planning
!!!!!
Testing

17. DO THE EASY WORK
Team A
Team B
Team C
A A A A
B B B B
C C C C
This comprises a
customer
requirement

18. PROMOTES SPECIALIZATION
!!! !!!
!!!

19. ANOTHER RESPONSE FROM IT : FEATURE PROJECTS
Spin up a project to deliver a particular
feature of the larger system
Unfortunately this has its drawbacks too
Feature touches 3 different components
Component A Component B Component C
! ! !! ! !

20. NEW TEAM : LOWER PRODUCTIVITY
Component A Component B Component C
! ! !! ! !

21. RESOURCE ALLOCATION TEAM USES KEY
PEOPLE AS BAND-AIDS
Component A Component B Component C
! ! !! ! !
!
Component C

22. !
Component C
Impact to
existing
team
OVER ALLOCATION
Component X Component B Component C
! !! !
Component
A
Component
B
Component
C
! !! !
!!
100%
25%
!!

23. LOW MOTIVATION AND JOB SATISFACTION

24. INTRODUCING : FEATURE TEAMS
What is a feature?
Functionality that delivers
usable value to the customer

25. FEATURES : EXAMPLES
Internationalization
Adding a new
service provider to
eCom site
Ability to
grant and
service loans

26. What does a Feature Team look like?

27. NOT ALL GENERALISTS
! ! ! !!
! ! ! !

28. IDEALLY WOULD BE CO-LOCATED

29. TEAM MEMBERS WORK ON
ANALYSIS, CODING AND TESTING
Requirements analysis TestingCoding
! ! ! !!! ! ! !

30. HOW DOES A FEATURE GET DELIVERED
UI task
Business
logic task
Services
task
Database
task
A A A A
B B B B
C C C C
This comprises a
customer
requirement
A B B B C S S S S S S S
Analysis & Planning Analysis & Planning
S

31. What are the advantages of
feature teams?

32. LEARN AND JELL TOGETHER

33. NO HAND OFFS
UI task
Business
logic task
Services task
Database
task
S

34. VALUABLE WORK CAN BE PRIORITIZED
8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Analysis & Planning
UI task
Business
logic task
Services
task
Database
task
1
Business Idea
UI task
Business
logic task
Services
task
Database
task
18 7 6 5 4 3 2
Analysis & Planning
This gets
channeled into two
features and two
feature teams

35. VALUABLE WORK CAN BE PRIORITIZED
8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Analysis & Planning
8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Analysis & Planning
UI task
Business
logic task
Services
task
Database
task
1
UI task
Business
logic task
Services
task
Database
task
1
The business wants a change
and re-prioritizes the backlog
6 5 4 3 B A 2
Analysis & Planning
7 6 5 4 3 2 A
Analysis & Planning

36. LESS MANAGEMENT OVERHEAD

37. So, can IT now organize differently
to deliver higher value to the
business?

38. THANK YOU