All teams collaborate with people that are not regular team members. They are more peripheral to the team, and the more peripheral they are the more chance of you getting in trouble related to handover.
This post is about why it is a good idea to give them your team's t-shirt. The solution is simple, low cost, low tech and high value :) It remove pain and minimize the risk of handover trouble.
Examples of "peripheral team members" I have had are people in
operations, in support and in technical writing. Ordering the three of them a
team t-shirt did trigger important questions:
- What does it take for them to want to wear the team t-shirt?
- What does it take to make it feel natural?
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| Picture: http://vintagetshirtsguide.co.uk |
In my case the answer was simple and pretty obvious areas for improvement and involvement. Realizing that we the only focused on our day-to-day team members, forgetting about other important ones that should have had been included more.
The answer on what to improve and start doing:
- invite to sprint reviews
- include them regularly in the sprints, so that
- they know if an area with more need for collaboration on solutions is needed
- share what is going on
- provide opportunity for early feedback
- invite to informal lunches with the rest of the team
- invite to informal coffee
- invitation to team events and if the team grabs a Friday pint
Why not order team t-shirts today, and see what it takes to make your peripheral team members feel at home in it?
