The document explores the self-organization of agile teams based on research and practical observations, highlighting essential roles, practices, and environmental factors that influence their effectiveness. It emphasizes the importance of autonomy, collaboration, and continuous learning, while also addressing common challenges and suggesting practices to overcome them. Key tips are provided for team effectiveness, including the need for management support and a collaborative culture.

1. self organizing agile
teams
roles, practices, factors
Nikos Batsios, Agile Coach/ScM @ IXG, PDU Mobile Core
Ericsson’s HTE Learnathon, 4th & 5th February 2015

2. based on
• a grounded theory on “self organized agile teams”
Dr. Rashina Hoda
• a single confirmatory case study on a new agile
team, through participant observation for one year
and individual interviews - personal study

3. how agile teams organize themselves in
practice?
after the workshop it is expected that you will
better understand the various roles, practices
and factors affecting self-organization and you
might get a few insights how you could enable
self-organization

4. –Jurgen Appelo M3.0
“self-organization cannot be a best practice. it is the
default practice of any system, including teams.
but what happens, also happening in the right
direction? ”

5. –Jurgen Appelo M3.0
“command and control is a special case, our
attempt to steer self-organizing systems
towards a direction that stakeholder considered
to be valuable”

6. let’s self-organize

7. principles of self
organization
• minimum critical specification
• requisite variety
• redundancy of functions
• learning to learn

8. conditions for self
organizing capability
• autonomy
• cross fertilization
• self-transcendence

9. informal, transient, implicit, spontaneous self-
organizing roles on agile teams

10. imagine that a new agile team is formed in your
organization!
which spontaneous and informal roles (other than those
described by a specific framework) do you think that this
agile team should handle that will help them to self-
organize? which responsibilities should take care?
your view as team member, agile coach, manager matters.
(5’)

11. <mentor>
• provide initial guidance and support
• getting team confident
• encouraging continued adherence
• encouraging self-organizing practices

12. <co-ordinator>
• coordinating customer & stakeholders collaboration
• coordinating change requests
• managing customer & stakeholders expectations
• encouraging self-organizing practices

13. <translator>
• overcoming the barrier language
• using translator tools

14. <champion>
• securing senior management support
• propagating more teams

15. <promoter>
• understanding customer and stakeholders
concerns
• securing customer involvement

16. <terminator>
• identifying threatening team members
• removing members from the team

17. tips
• consider Richard Hackman’s 60-30-10 principle
• 60% of team effectiveness is related to team
design
• 30% of team effectiveness is related to team
launch
• 10% of team effectiveness is related to
continuous coaching

18. “balancing acts”
practices that enable self-organization

19. what challenges this newly agile team might face in their
journey to self-organziation? what practices could enable
self-organization?
(5’)

20. balancing freedom and
responsibility
• collective decision making (collective estimation
and planning, collective deciding team norms and
principles, self-commitment and shared
responsibility on team goals)
• self-assignment (boards, ownership)
• self-monitoring (daily meetings, information
radiators)
• clear roles responsibilities, boundaries, purpose

21. balancing cross-functionality
and specialization
• need for specialization (multiple perspectives)
• encouraging cross-functionality (group
programming, seek opportunities to work outside of
their area of expertise, shared responsibility,
rotation)

22. balancing continuous learning
and iteration pressure
• self evaluation (retrospectives, reviews)
• self-improvement (pair in need, learning spikes)

23. tips
• work on the agile mindset (goal is to learn, learn from
failures)
• a team assessment could help to identify team’s
strengths and weaknesses
• a team launch to define purpose, norms, agreements
and values will help team to set their direction
• using OKRs could help to define their measurable
goals in alignment with the organization goals

24. factors
influencing self-organization

25. which do you think are the factors in the environment
a team is operating that can influence the success
of a self-organized agile team?
(5’)

26. mangement support
• organizational “collaboration”culture that embrace feedback,
transparency, openness, trust, synergy, partnership, interaction.
such values are deemed important to achieve and sustain
responsible autonomy
• negotiating contracts
• financial sponsorship
• team stability, hiring-removing members based on their fit into
an “agile” culture
• understand the benefits of being agile for business drivers and
trigger required changes

27. customer & stakeholders
collaboration
• gathering and clarifying and prioritizing
requirements
• securing feedback
• changing mindset
• demos and e-collaboration

28. tips
• understand your culture and “tweak” it to make it
work in an agile environment
• train management, customer, stakeholders on
agile methods and the benefits of being agile
• pilot ensuring their support and involvement

29. inspiration
• Hoda, R., Noble, J., Marshall, S. Self-Organizing Roles on Agile Software Development
Teams. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Vol. 39, Issue 3, Pages
422-444, 2013 (pdf)
• Hoda, R., Noble, J., Marshall, S. Supporting Self-organizing Agile Teams What’s Senior
Management Got to Do with It?. In A. Silitti, O. Hazzan, E. Bache, & X. Albaladejo
(Eds.), Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming (Vol. 77, pp.
73-87). SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN, 2011
• Hoda, R. Self-Organizing Agile Teams: A Grounded Theory. PhD Thesis ,Victoria University
of Wellington, New Zealand, 2011 [PDF]
• Agile Undercover: When Customer Don’t Collaborate. Agile Professionals Network (APN),
Auckland, August 2013 [Slides]
• High Performance Team Coaching, Peters & Carr (book)
• Objectives and Key Results (refer to Learnathon folder)

30. thank you