Practice: Whole Team
The Whole Team practice describes how a development team organizes itself to enable it to work effectively.
Why adopt this practice

The single most important productivity factor is the people on the team and the way that they interact. The Whole Team practice describes strategies to increase overall productivity through streamlining the organization structure of the team and through streamlining collaboration within the team.

Application

These are the three best ways to understand this practice:

  1. Familiarize yourself with its overall structure -- what it is in it and how it is organized.
  2. Read the main description to understand the thinking behind the practice.
  3. As appropriate, read these detailed guidelines: Maintain a Sustainable Pace, Daily Meetings, and Self-Organize Work Assignments.

For more instructions on how to adopt this practice, see How to Adopt the Whole Team Practice.

Additional Information

For more information on the Whole Team approach:

  • Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (2nd Edition) by Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004)

  • Generalizing Specialists by Scott W. Ambler

For more information on this practice,  see the practice resource page on IBM® DeveloperWorks®.