As organizations embrace agile practices to drive innovation and accelerate value delivery, new organizational structures emerge to support this transformative approach. Two key concepts gaining traction are enabling teams and stream aligned teams. Let’s dive into what they are and how they work together to supercharge your agile journey.
Enabling Teams: The Agile Force Multipliers
Imagine having a dedicated squad of experts at your disposal, ready to empower your teams with their specialized knowledge and tools. That’s precisely what enabling teams bring to the table. These cross-functional powerhouses comprise specialists in areas like architecture, security, operations, user experience design, and more.
Their mission? To act as consultants, providing guidance, best practices, and shared services to the frontline teams delivering value. By centralizing this expertise, enabling teams ensure consistent quality, scalability, and adherence to organizational standards across multiple initiatives.
Stream Aligned Teams: The Value Delivery Engines
At the core of this agile model are the stream aligned teams, also known as product teams or value stream teams. These cross-functional squads are laser-focused on delivering specific products, features, or capabilities end-to-end. They encompass all the necessary disciplines – product management, software development, testing, operations – to drive a particular value stream from concept to customer.
By aligning teams around the complete flow of work required to deliver value, organizations minimize handoffs, reduce waste, and foster a deep sense of ownership and accountability. Stream aligned teams are the primary value-delivering units, working closely with stakeholders to prioritize initiatives and iterate based on customer feedback.
The Symbiotic Relationship
Now, here’s where the magic happens: enabling teams and stream aligned teams form a symbiotic relationship, amplifying each other’s strengths. Stream aligned teams leverage the expertise and services provided by enabling teams, allowing them to focus their energy on delivering value to customers more efficiently and effectively.
Enabling teams, in turn, ensure that stream aligned teams have access to the latest best practices, tools, and support, empowering them to operate at their full potential. This collaborative dynamic creates a virtuous cycle, where continuous learning and improvement fuel ongoing innovation and delivery excellence.
Bringing Agility to Life
Implementing this organizational model requires a cultural shift towards cross-functional collaboration, open communication, and a shared commitment to delivering value. Leaders must foster an environment that encourages knowledge-sharing, continuous learning, and a relentless focus on customer needs.
Start by identifying the critical expertise areas that can be centralized into enabling teams. Build a strong foundation of best practices, tools, and processes that can be leveraged across the organization. Then, form stream aligned teams around your key value streams, ensuring they have the necessary skills and autonomy to deliver end-to-end solutions.
Encourage frequent interactions between enabling teams and stream aligned teams, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge transfer. Celebrate successes, learn from failures, and continually refine your approach to keep pace with evolving customer needs and market dynamics.
Embracing enabling teams and stream aligned teams is a powerful step towards realizing the full potential of agile methodologies. By aligning your organizational structure with the principles of cross-functional collaboration, customer centricity, and continuous improvement, you’ll unlock new levels of agility, innovation, and value delivery. Get ready to unleash the full potential of your teams and soar in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.