The Squad Life

a recipe for self organising

geospatial teamsElise McKenna@mappingmckenna

“Nothing endures but change”

“Nothing endures but change”

2045 - All of human intelligence combined

Now

Agility: Delivering major pieces of work in smaller chunks, with quicker implementation;

From individual contributors and bureaucratic leadership

From individual contributors and bureaucratic leadership

To teams of collaborators and distributed leadership

DataAnalyticsInfrastructureAPI’sAppsConsulting

GEO

THE RECIPEfor self organising geospatial teams

INGREDIENTS

• No larger than a 2 pizza team• Everyone must be empowered to make

decisions • Safe environment• Learning and growth mindsets

Set the common goal

Work in smaller iterations

Continuously improve

Communicate and track progress

METHOD<=QUARTERLY

<=MONTHLY

<=WEEKLY

1/4LY OKR SETTING

FORNIGHTLY SPRINT PLANNING

MONTHLY RETROSPECTIVES

DAILY STANDUP

METHOD<=QUARTERLY

<=MONTHLY

<=WEEKLY SHOWCASES/DEEPDIVESHACKTIME

155

60

120

60

EQUIPMENT

Collaborative code version control

Collaborative document control

Collaborative task management

git

wiki

tasks

DO WE NEED THIS RECIPE?

43.2%

32.4%

18.9% We dont use agile

0 - 2 years

2 - 5 years

5 + years

38%

27%

24%

Fully remote

Hybrid

Flex team

All onsite

Other

DO WE NEED THIS RECIPE?

47%use sprints

46%use git

“This shit works” “Agile as currently executed by most

projects is an abomination”

“biggest problem we face is the willingness of clients to understand the benefits of agile development”

“What is agile?”

15%“Parts of the org use Agile techniques but not the geospatial section.”

use design thinking

• 6-7 people on a team

• Everyone can make

decisions

• Safe environment

• Learning and growth

mindsets

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4ly goal setting

• 2-3 Weekly sprint planning

• Daily standups

• End of sprint retrospectives

• Hacktime

• Showcases

METHOD EQUIPMENT

• Github/bitbucket

• Wiki/confluence

• Trello/jira/taiga