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| <mainDescription><h3>
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| Getting started&nbsp;
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| </h3>
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| <p>
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| There are several steps to get started with the Whole Team practice.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Understand the underlying philosophies behind this practice.&nbsp;</b><br />
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| These philosophies are captured in the&nbsp;<a class="elementLink"
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| href="./../../../practice.mgmt.whole_team.base/guidances/guidelines/self_organize_work_assignments_F47FC314.html"
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| guid="_rmBEkJjsEduad8I_c-ogIA">Self-Organize Work Assignments</a>,&nbsp;<a class="elementLink"
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| href="./../../../practice.mgmt.whole_team.base/guidances/guidelines/maintain_a_sustainable_pace_A132240B.html"
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| guid="_KzYHYMLmEdysDsQChI42QQ">Maintain a Sustainable Pace</a>, and&nbsp;<a class="elementLink"
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| href="./../../../practice.mgmt.whole_team.base/guidances/guidelines/daily_meetings_3690A7AD.html"
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| guid="_251UMCmREdyy6Oss2-0s1g">Daily Meetings</a>&nbsp;guidelines.&nbsp;
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Discuss the implications of this practice with management.&nbsp;</b><br />
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| The Whole Team practice often requires changes to the way that projects are managed and&nbsp;governed, because "whole
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| teams" are&nbsp;often more self-contained than traditional project teams.&nbsp;For example, with self-organization,
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| detailed planning is typically&nbsp;performed at the beginning of each iteration in a just-in-time manner and not at
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| the beginning of the project.&nbsp;The implication is that management will receive different and often better-quality
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| artifacts at different points in time than from project teams that do not adopt this practice.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Discuss this practice with your team.&nbsp;</b><br />
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| The concept of maintaining a sustainable pace is often attractive to&nbsp;team members.&nbsp;But are
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| they&nbsp;comfortable with self-organization?&nbsp;Are they comfortable with sharing their current status in daily
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| meetings?&nbsp;Do they appreciate how a Whole Team approach can improve their overall productivity?
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Identify viable aspects of this practice for your situation.</b><br />
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| Your team may not be able to adopt all aspects of this practice.&nbsp;For example, if your project is a high-priority,
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| "emergency" project, perhaps you will not be able to adopt a sustainable pace in the short term.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Prioritize your adoption efforts.</b><br />
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| Some project teams can adopt this practice all at once, while&nbsp;other teams find that they need to ease into
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| self-organization or into daily meetings.&nbsp;Adopt the aspects that are easy for your team right away, and then adopt
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| the other aspects one or two at a time, as appropriate, over a period of several weeks.
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| </p>
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| <h3>
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| Common pitfalls
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| </h3>
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| <p>
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| There are several common pitfalls that project teams run into when adopting this practice.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Traditional project management culture<br />
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| </b> In many ways, the whole team practice is all about pushing many management activities into the hands of the people
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| who do the actual work, a philosophy&nbsp;that goes against the grain in some organizations.&nbsp;For example,
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| your&nbsp;organization may&nbsp;have a belief system where "managers do the planning; the rest of the staff does what
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| they are told" or an "estimation should be left to estimators" mindset. You will need to overcome those kinds
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| of&nbsp;beliefs when adopting this practice.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <b>Insufficient time to change<br />
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| </b> It can take weeks, if not months, for experienced professionals to get used to some of the aspects of this
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| practice, in particular daily meetings and self-organization.&nbsp;You cannot expect people to change overnight.&nbsp;
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| <strong>Individuals struggle at first to see the "whole team"</strong><br />
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| Many people, in particular specialists, are used to working on their own and not as part of an overall team.&nbsp;They
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| often struggle to understand why it is&nbsp;important to do so.&nbsp;For example, you may hear people ask why they need
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| to participate in&nbsp;a daily meeting when a weekly status report is easier to write.&nbsp;They do not&nbsp;realize
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| that it is&nbsp;critical for everyone on the entire team to understand everyone's status, not just for the manager to
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| know.&nbsp;Although the individual might be proceeding effectively on one task, they might not realize that several
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| others are being blocked by their lack of progress on other tasks that they haven't started yet.&nbsp;
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| </p></mainDescription> |
| </org.eclipse.epf.uma:ContentDescription> |
