<aside> 💬
This was originally developed by Chris Mather for USTP, as a way to share context on how we keep teams moving.
It’s been updated to reflect the new library structure.
</aside>
Background: Project team health is a key factor in and amplifier of project success. When your project team is healthy, your team is more likely to be productive, efficient, and collaborative. So, what contributes to team health? Alignment, good communication, role clarity, support, psychological safety, reasonable accommodation.
What this is: This is a collection of rituals and resources that 18F typically uses to ensure continuing project health and team alignment. While these resources were curated with government teams in mind, they could be extrapolated or modified to be used with a vendor team.
Note: We’re not including all sprint rituals (e.g. sprint planning, sprint reviews, etc.), but we definitely consider those to be core to good team health, as well. Better communication and alignment lead to better outcomes, etc.
| Ritual | Description | Regularity | Resource/template |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Stand-up | Daily check-in. What we did, what we’re doing, blockers y/n. | Daily | |
| Weekly Ship | Weekly update on project progress. Team compiles, one person sends at the same time every week. | Weekly | ‣ |
| Weekly Engineering Sync | Opportunity for all tech contributors to meet and work through existing issues. | Weekly | |
| Weekly Engineering <> Design sync | Opportunity for tech and design to get into alignment once prototyping starts. | Weekly | |
| Co-working | Regularly scheduled time for the whole team to get together. Can be used for workshops, exercises or other team work. | Weekly (or as needed) | |
| 1:1s | Project lead meets with each individual contributor to touch base. | Weekly or Bi-weekly | ‣ |
| Risk tracking | Help teams verbalize and keep tabs on major risks facing the project. | Bi-weekly (or as needed) | ‣ |
| ‣ |
And update as needed.
| Ritual | Description | Regularity | Link(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Charter | Tool for establishing “norms” for new teams, like: navigating disagreement, communication, working hours, feedback, etc. | As needed | ‣ |
| Team ReadMe | Core directory for projects. Includes: shared vision + goals, as well as important resources. | As needed | ‣ |
| Personal ReadMe | Place for folks to share more about themselves, including their skills, work style preferences and interests. | As needed | ‣ |
| Hopes and Fears | Exercise to establish a baseline understanding of a group’s expectations and concerns about a project. | As needed | Hopes and fears - 18F.org - Methods |
| Ritual | Description | Regularity | Link(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What I need from you | Exercise for teammates to practice clearly and unambiguously articulating needs. | Quarterly, as needed | ‣ |
| Project Reflection | Different from a retro. Held every three months or so to reflect on project goals and whether or not they’ve been achieved. | Quarterly | ‣ |
| Calendar Audit | Confirm that recurring meetings align with current team needs. | Quarterly | N/A |
| Ritual | Description | Regularity | Link(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Troika Consulting | Team members (in groups of three) play “consultants” and “client” to better understand each other's needs, practice listening, and practice asking truly open questions. | As needed | Troika Consulting -- from Liberating Structures |
| Lara Hogan’s 20 Great Open Questions [PDF] | |||
| Speed feedback | Short, lightweight ritual that makes space for personal and professional growth, gives folks an opportunity to practice giving and receiving feedback, and contributes to ongoing reflection and team-building. | As needed | ‣ |
| Lencioni Model (debugging teams) | A tool to help locate and remediate issues in teams that are experiencing dysfunction. | As needed | AddyOsmani.com - Debugging teams with the Lencioni Model |