Team and Organisational Design Principles

TeamForm enables all operating models and organisational frameworks as outlined https://www.teamform.co/solutions-for-teams .

These design guidelines manifest themselves as organisational design principles, typically created by the organisation as guardrails when transitioning to, or as part of, cross-functional, agile or lean ways of working methods.

TeamForm has predefined principles grouped into principle sets that can be configured to meet a particular measure. Multiple principle sets can be created to accommodate different team archetypes (e.g. cross-functional, flow-to-work, service, platform, etc). Further, where predefined principles are insufficient, as part of a client engagement, TeamForm Services can be engaged to create custom principle sets.

Examples of principles and principle sets include (outlined in more detail below):

Individual/Role/General Principle Set

• X layers from the CEO

• Role diversity (individual) and total role diversity (organisation)

Team/Squad Principle Set

• Between X & Y members (e.g. 5-9), full or part-time

• Location e.g. same city, same building, same floor, timezone, if distributed - no more than X locations

• Specific and/or dedicated roles included e.g. Scrum Master or Product Owner, etc

• Number of line managers

Group/Tribe/'Team of Teams' Principle Set

• Maximum number of individuals e.g. 150

• Maximum number of teams/squads

• Specific and/or dedicated roles e.g. Tribe Lead, Group Performance Lead, etc

Domain/Business Unit Principle Set

• Maximum number of individuals e.g. 500

• Maximum number of groups/tribes/'teeam of teams' e.g. 7

Configuring Principles

Principles are enabled in a workspace by default, but can also be toggled off via settings / workspace feature toggles

Principles sets are defined via Settings / Principle sets using a JSON file.

Principle sets are then chosen per team type via Settings / Org Structure type config. Select a team type, then choose a preferred principle set for that team type.

JSON parameters for Principles:

Member Count

^parameter maxMembers(optional), minMembers(optional)

^title Should consist of no more than ${maxMembers} direct members.

Should consist of at least ${minMembers} direct members.

Should consist of between ${minMembers} and ${maxMembers} direct members.

Total Member Count

^parameter maxMembers

^title Should consist of no more than ${maxMembers} direct and indirect members.

Spread

^parameter maxTeamsPerMember, teamType

^title Each member should be in no more than {maxTeamsPerMember} teams.

Role Spread

^parameter role, roleDisplayName, limit, teamType, teamDisplayname

^title ${roleDisplayName} should work in no more than ${limit} {teamTypeDisplayName}

Ownership

^parameter maxTeamsPerMember, teamType

^title Should have 1 ${ownershipRoleDisplayName}.

consist of between 1 and ${limit} ${ownershipRoleDisplayName}.

Locality

^parameter maxLocations

^title Where teams are distributed it will be across no more than ${maxLocations} premises

Line Manager Count

^parameter maxManagers

^title Team should have no more than ${maxManagers} line managers.

Role Diversity

^parameter maxTeamsPerMember, teamType

^title Each member should be in no more than {maxTeamsPerMember} teams.

Total Role Diversity

^parameter requiredRoles

^title Team should be cross-functional and include the following capabilities:${requiredRoles}

Same City Co-located

^parameter null

^title All members in the same city should work at the same address.

Child Team Count

^parameter maxTeams, minTeams, subGroupName

^title Should consist of no more than ${maxTeams} direct ${subGroupName}.

Should consist of at least ${minTeams} direct ${subGroupName}.

Should consist of between ${minTeams} and ${maxTeams} direct ${subGroupName}.

Direct Workforce Count

^parameter minCount, companyNames

^title Should consist of at least ${minCount} direct workforce members

Timezone Overlap

^parameter goodOverlap

^title Members geographically distributed should have at least <${goodOverlap} overlapped working hours.

Related articles