Module 2: Team Model
2
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At the end of this module, you will be able to
„
Understand the challenges of traditional teaming
„
Understand the rationale behind the team model for
infrastructure deployment
„
Understand the team model’s roles and
responsibilities
„
Understand some underlying team model principles
„
Understand how to scale the team model for large and
small projects
„
Understand the risks involved in combining
roles
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Lessons
1. Teaming Concepts
2. Underlying Team Principles
3. Team Model for Infrastructure Deployment
4. Scaling the Team Model
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High process overhead
The traditional team structure has certain disadvantages that the MSF team
model is designed to overcome:
„

The traditional structure imposes a relatively high overhead, which inhibits
communications.
„

Team members will not communicate clearly unless they understand their
roles and the roles of others on their team.
„

Team members who do not communicate directly increase their chances of
being misunderstood.
„

Team members are likely to disengage if they do not understand what is
happening or where they are going.
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Principles
„
Small, multidisciplinary teams
„
Interdependent roles and
shared responsibilities
„
Deep technical and business acumen
„

Teams incorporate customer feedback continuously throughout the project.
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Principles
„
Shared project vision
„
Full participation in design
„
Deliberate efforts to learn from
past projects
„
Shared project management
and shared decision-makin
g
„
Team members working
together at one site
„
Large teams working like
small teams
The following are additional principles for project teams at Microsoft:
„

Everybody on the project team must share a common vision as to what the
solution should encompass and what combination of factors constitutes
success for the project.
„


„
Shared project vision
„
Product mindset
„
Zero-defect mindset
„
Customer-focused mindset
„
Willingness to learn
We will explore each of these principles in detail in the following slides.
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„
What it means
„
Clearly understanding
project goals and objectives
„
Understanding and buying
into a vision that all team members and the
customer hold
„
Why it is important
„
Provides the team with a uniform sense of purpose
„
Resolves conflicting and contradictory visions
„
Clarifies project goals and objectives

versioned release strategy
„
Increases team identity and
accountability
MSF advocates creating project identities so resources see themselves less as
individuals and more as members of a project team.
A product mindset allows the team to use a versioned release strategy to
prioritize features, change issues, and deploy the solution in a timely manner.
Versioned releases will be covered in detail later in this course.
Focus on execution does not mean that process is bad, but that it should be used
to accomplish the goal, not just for the sake of using process.
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„
What it means
„
Committing to quality
„
Performing work at the highest
possible level of quality
„
Focusing on achieving the quality bar set by
the team
„
Why it is important
„
Increases solution stability
„
Increases schedule predictability
„

deployment process allows the team to better manage customer expectations
and achieve a better alignment with customer needs. This involves choosing the
technology that aligns best with those needs and developing a deployment plan
that is focused on solving the business problem. The ability to trace every
component of the solution back to a customer or user requirement offers a way
to measure success.