😎Daily Life on Agile Teams

Let's talk about what day to day life looks like on Waterfall and on Agile cross-functional teams.

Video Version

Credit: Tech Fleet https://youtu.be/RjqUTMCPRLg

Cross-Functional Agile Team Structure

 How are Agile Teams Structured? It depends!

The team who is cross-functional in their nature brings many background and perspectives. They get together and build a consensus in what they will be responsible or accountable for, together as they agree to work week-to-week.

They don't stick within these boundaries either: they live a cross-functional lifestyle where they can float across responsibilities and functions for the purposes of learning.

You should never hear teammates say "That's not my job, that's their job" on an Agile team.

You should hear teammates say, "I was hired for research but this week I want to get into product strategy!"

Your team may have job titles, but their duties vary and may fall outside of those titles. Everyone should be celebrating and encouraging this kind of environment for all of the reasons we talk about regarding making strong Agile teams.

The more your team collaborates across functions:

1. The quicker they will get to Performing stage.

2. The more they will all "self-heal" from team conflict.

3. The stronger your self-organization becomes.

4. The stronger your continuous improvement becomes.

Functions Are Not Roles

The title you have doesn't mean that you only do that kind of work on a cross-functional team.

If you operate with different responsibilities, it does not mean you have multiple job titles.

A title is the function. A role is not a function. A role is a set of responsibilities that you agree to on an Agile cross-functional team.

Learn more details about cross-functional functions, duties, and people here:

⛓️Commitment vs. Job Function vs. People on Teams

Daily Life on Agile Teams

Let's talk about what day to day life looks like on Waterfall and on Agile cross-functional teams.

Life on a Waterfall Team

It's more common that teams call themselves agile and they don't live in the agile philosophies.

If you're building things on a waterfall team, this is what happens:

Waterfall daily life on teams. Credit: Tech Fleet.

Everybody in the beginning of a project agrees to the scope before doing the work. Someone produces what's called a Product Requirements Document which outlines everything in scope for the whole project.

Waterfall Client agreement to requirements phase. Credit: Tech Fleet

When the product requirements are outlined, each team works in phases. Every team function is working alone. They meet alone, they talk alone, they decide alone. They don't communicate across functions. They don't collaborate across functions. They ship their work in silos to the next team.

Waterfall research, design, and development phases. Credit: Tech Fleet.

When the project is finished, they ship it, and gather feedback from clients and users. When it may be too late!

Waterfall launch phase. Credit: tech Fleet.

Life on an Agile Team

Life on an Agile team is the opposite of Waterfall teams.

The teams are working together across functions in cross-functional teamwork.

Life on Agile teams. Credit: Tech Fleet.

When they start the work, all functions rally to understand high level goals and outcomes to achieve.

Agile client intake. Credit: Tech Fleet.

Everyone collaborates across functions to gather the most important requirements to deliver first.

Agile requirements. Credit: Tech Fleet.

Everyone collaborates to quickly deliver those requirements across research, design, and development. They check their work as they go with users and with clients.

Agile cross-functional team work across functions. Credit: Tech Fleet.

They ship in usable, small chunks quickly, and gather feedback in order to pivot and refine their plans ahead.

Agile feedback loop. Credit: Tech Fleet.

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