To build and run a DDaT service or product successfully requires different views, skills, and experiences. Therefore, our services and products are built with multidisciplinary teams that reflect the needs of the delivery at differing stages. Throughout the delivery there will be different needs that require different roles. This section helps to understand the roles within a team, their scope and how to tools to help build a successful team.

An Agile team is a cross-functional (or multi-disciplinary) group of people that is self-contained to the point that the people in the group can deliver without needing to draw on skills outside the group.

The phase that the project/service/product is in determines the capabilities and capacity required in a team:

• Baseline Delivery Team - the minimum viable team needed to run and maintain the service or product (e.g. small continuous improvement work to keep in line with customer expectations, upgrades/patching to keep the service secure, etc.).
• Spike Delivery Team - additional capacity needed to deliver change work on the service.

We promote having rainbow teams - which we define as diverse, trusting and collaborative teams - where all different perspectives are heard, valued, and used to contribute to more effective problem-solving. The more diverse a team is, the more solutions and insights it can achieve.

Our teams are staffed with a blend of NHSBSA permanent staff and people from our partners, depending on the permanency of the team size needed. It is imperative to ensure that all members of the team feel involved and part of the same NHSBSA DDaT culture and working towards the same goals.

In order to build a team for a new service (subject to funding approvals - discussed in governance section), requirements should be discussed in a collective meeting with the Professional Leads from the relevant areas. Any changes or impacts to current people arrangements should be discussed with Professional Leads, Team Managers and (Lead) Delivery Managers given our DDaT matrix management structure.

Making teams effective

It is fundamental that any public sector Delivery Team and organisation strives towards effective and efficient use of public resources. In agile delivery it is critical that we can create the spaces and conditions for our people that allows them to produce brilliant services. This requires being supportive to individuals and fostering team working that can maximise everybody’s output. This section outlines ways that the DM can support teams to deliver effectively.

To make our teams as effective as possible, Delivery Managers should be focusing on and facilitating improvement and activities in the following areas:

• Communication
• Training (professional capabilities and soft skills)
• Equipment and Tools
• Team Building
• Continuity and stability
• Ownership and empowerment

One thing to note is to reflect on the different stages a team may be in. A team that has only recently been stood up will require a significantly different approach to an established, mature team. Each team will be different, and it is the role of the Delivery Manager to understand their own teams needs and use the following areas as required. We use Tuckman’s framework of ‘forming-storming-norming-performing-adjourning’ to help determine where a team is currently at, and then tailor approaches for Delivery Management accordingly.

https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development

N.B. we are working as a professional community to determine ways in which we can measure and monitor team performance and effectiveness.

Communication

The goal is to encourage more open and honest communication across the team, to increase transparency, trust, and honesty.

• Creating “safe spaces” as part of team meetings/ceremonies to ensure team members can speak freely and share opinions/thoughts.
  • Allowing the team to create ground rules for discussions
  • Explicitly stating rules around safe space.
• Encouraging people to talk
  • Encouraging discussions with other groups
    • Peers
    • Professional communities
    • Team managers
    • Other DM’s
    • Colleague networks (e.g., MHFA)
  • Introduce some non-work-related discussion
    • Recreating the “watercooler moment” - outside interests
    • Networks outside the NHS BSA
  • The “Why” - explaining at every opportunity
    • “Ask, don’t tell” - Phrasing updates/comms as a request as opposed to a command to increase engagement
  • Ensuring other areas are aligned with comms if dependencies
    • Standardised message across multiple teams
    • Using DDaT showcase to highlight work completed and challenges faced so people can learn from each other
  • Celebrating team/individual achievements across the directorate
    • Using We Care app to recognise achievements/kudos

Training Needs (professional capabilities and soft skills)

• Identifying training needs
  • Highlighting skills gaps within the team for future work with Professional Leads
• Finding the “Best Fit” for team and individual
  • Ensuring peoples skillsets are being utilised
• Regular calls with Team Managers and Professional Leads
  • Discussions/reviews around team skills and requirements and performance feedback
  • Highlighting personality clashes within the team and having a targeted plan to resolve for all parties
• Ensuring we signpost individuals to MyHub Learning section

Equipment and Tools

• Onboarding
  • Ensuring New Starter Forms completed by Team Manager
  • Ensuring equipment delivered by IT Support and is working as needed to complete role in delivery team
  • Access/Permissions considerations
  • Ensuring we as DM carry out team welcomes and introductions
  • As DM facilitating service introductions with stakeholders/Product owners
  • Making sure shadowing/mentoring is in place in tandem with Professional Lead/Team Manager
  • Being a point of contact to progress issues/challenges
• Signposting and walking through to ServiceDesk + for IT/Software issues

Team Building / Social Interaction / Physical Meets

• Team building exercises
  • Encouraging healthy competition within team
  • Selecting groups to mix common working areas (mixture of Dev/Test/UR across teams)
• Social Interaction
  • Organising social activities, or giving someone this role
  • Encouraging “Cameras on” within virtual meetings, sometimes just making sure your own camera is on will encourage others to follow. We know that people feel more - connected if they can see who they are talking too.
• Physical Meets
  • Encouraging days in the office as a team to do activities that are more productive face to face tasks (e.g. Discovery type work; retros)
• Hybrid working reinforcement
  • Ensure everyone is comfortable with working arrangements

Continuity and Stability

• Ensuring you have the right capacity and capabilities to deliver what is needed and not stretching other team members.
  • Resolving (and escalating if needed) any resource issues
  • Involvement in discussions around resource movements to highlight issues/impact on your team well in advance
  • Participating in the recruitment process to feedback suitability
• People moving on
  • Getting exit interview feedback and ensuring we as DM’s action anything under our control
• Prioritising initiatives to help stabilise your team and area, to ensure the team aren’t getting drawn into ‘non-value add’ activity repeatedly.

Ownership and Empowerment

• Encourage team to take responsibility for their work, owning the work and receiving the credit when things go well
• Collective responsibility when things don’t go so well - no blame culture
• Increase enthusiasm and pride in the work by motivating the team and keeping the ‘why’ we are doing things at the front of everyone’s mind.

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