The team is about to finish the last set of work in the latest iteration of the plan, but you have run into a problem. With the work that is left, only some team members are able to complete the work and of course they are also the ones busy on other things. And just about when it looks like you will miss the plan, an developer raises their hand and says “I’ll take on those items.”
Self-selection is a critical tool in our ability to complete work in as little duration as possible and it is something that all teams should embrace. This is not about creating a team of generalist either, it is about putting the team and plan above the individual. Every individual contributor on a team has what they concentrate on, what they know/believe they are good at. So in the beginning of an iteration of work, team members will sign up for the work they know they can do and do well. However, near the end of the iteration is when self-selection is really powerful and lets team’s master a few different things:
- Mitigation of the risk of missing the planned productivity. Team members taking on open items based on what they think they can accomplish removes lag from the equation. There is a lot less/no more waiting to start the work because it is reliant on “one” person to do it and a team is always there to answer each other’s questions.
- Brings opportunities to the team members to learn new things. So many times I here statements like, “I want to move to a new team so I can have exposure to new types of work.” Self-selection allows team members to do that without having to move. Are you a back-end engineer that wants to learn more about GUI development, take on a GUI task then. Or for the timeless, all the development work is done, but there is still testing to do; instead of continuing to develop items, have the team take on the testing together to ensure completeness to the plan.
- Allow work managers to size their teams in a leaner fashion. This should make the business folks happy also. Not having role being a hard limiter to what the team needs to accomplish and who can work on what can, over time, allow for a consistent value of productivity from a team with fewer team members.
The assignment of work is an antiquated process that is built on keeping team members in boxes. Allowing for self-selection breeds opportunity for learning, growing, and getting work done in a shorter period of time. Trust the team to make the right decisions.