Starting a New Team

Outline

Teams should create first version of methodology that might not be 100% adherent to team maturity
Teams should vote or choose person who is responsible for adherence
Team should improve its maturity continuously

Notes on project starting

There are a couple of issues we tend to struggle with:

Not having proper Product Ownership - the team should ensure that there is a PO who creates proper backlog. Sometimes the team can be PO for themselves.
Not thinking about technologies and spending too much time reimplementing something that already exists. We want to build on top of existing code when possible.

Default technologies for us are in this order:

1. Xiana + frontend in one of following: re-frame/Reagent, React, HTMX

2. Python (mainly FastAPI, but can be other framework) + React, sometimes just HTML+jQuery, sometimes HTMX

3. TS/JS (node.js or deno.js) + React

4. All other technologies
Not thinking economically. The team should know from the sponsor how much we want to spend on this.

A person pointing at a wall-mounted screen showing a project board

One person teams

In one person team, this person decides on all things. This person is responsible to grow maturity. One person teams are usually working in very fast mode, on spike solutions, prototypes

Exceptions

Person is doing code review himself/herself
It is somewhat acceptable to have lower level of documentation, more technical tasks in backlog

A person drinking from a takeaway cup at a desk with a tablet on a stand

Two person teams

Exceptions

It is somewhat acceptable to have lower level of documentation, more technical tasks in backlog

Two colleagues looking at the same screen, one leaning over the other shoulder

Multiple person teams

In teams of 3+, there’s expectation to achieve 100% compliance with team maturity over time.