The following are a set of ideas and guidelines for helping a new team to get established and producing as quickly as possible. This is broken down into 4 phases.
Learn
This stage focuses on learning and evaluating the new team's membership, purpose, and place within the organization. This can involve multiple areas and activities.
- Review team members, backgrounds, and motivations
- Review organization and team place within the org
- Evaluate current makeup of team and team's purpose
- Develop relationships with related teams
Develop
During this stage, the team begins to develop an identity. This includes several key activities.
- Develop team identity including team name
- Develop team mission & vision
- Develop team goals
Process
During the process stage, the team will create processes and frameworks for the daily work to be done. This includes agreement on several key aspects.
- Project management and process for new features
- Quality assurance process
- Product management, roadmaps, and prioritization frameworks
- Determine any technical standards
- Standardize communication mechanisms
Perform
Finally, this stage is when the team is actively producing and developing. During this stage, several areas are further developed.
- Review software development process and improve where needed
- Empower the team to own the product and process
- Develop flexible decision-making model for team
- Continue to tweak the team process