I’ve been conducting Team Launch workshops for awhile now; some for teams doing software development work and some for other types of supporting products.

I’ve noticed teams that go through a significant amount of effort on these types of chartering exercises seem to always be “awesome” compared to most of their peer teams. They get more done; what they get done is more on target with what the end user needs; and they have less post-deployment problems. I really don’t think this correlation is a coincidence.

My views on launching teams are 99% +/- 2% congruent* with Ainsley Nies’ and Diana Larsen’s views as expressed in their book Lift-off. (If you don’t have this book, go get it!) I had about 5 categories of agreement I used, but they easily collapsed into the 3 from the book: Purpose, Alignment, and Context. Now I use those.

Out of these I view Alignment as the most important one. If I can get to a team that is aligned in HOW they will work together, they can overcome the shortcoming in understanding of the purpose (or on a project where the purpose is emergent) and certainly they can handle an evolving context as they probably thought about those ever shifting sands.

The teams I see that are challenged almost always short change this area as it feels soft and squishy. Why should I understand what my co-workers value? Who cares how decisions are made – let the boss do it as he always has… Why do we need to think about what and how we celebrate things? Ignoring this ignores the first Agile Value: Individuals & Interactions over processes and tools. Launching teams correctly celebrates the former and ensures the latter is subservient to it. Every team I see struggling as of late has short-changed this Team Chartering, particularly around Alignment. A guarantee the missile will miss the mark.

Want more info on how to be successful? See my post on Excella’s blog. And/or get the Lift-Off book and think about what Purpose, Alignment, and Context mean in your environment.

*You’ll notice that the upper end of this is 101% which is where I think my congruent thoughts are most of the time…