Inside of ThoughtWorks, we have several long term themes that we try to apply at our clients and inside our companies. One of the global themes is Innovation. That's a very broad, almost empty term until we start to use Sam Newman's (the lead of the Innovation Theme within ThoughtWorks) definition: > Innovation is the application of disruptive thinking. A place where our clients and ThoughtWorks can apply disruptive thinking is how we structure and maintain teams. Often we will build a set of tools for the team and never attempt to disrupt those tools. I see this at every client and with nearly every project. These tools and practices are a form of tribal knowledge that sticks with teams, companies and the industry. The challenge comes from the complacency of the members of team to the process of developing software. Why challenge what works? we ask. The problem is that if we aren't actively disrupting, we are stagnating. Competitors and industry will continue to disrupt--often in the form of upstarts that aren't holding the baggage of previous assumptions, practices and norms. The best way to challenge the tribal knowledge that we build inside of our companies is to approach everything from an outsiders perspective. This can often be seen when a new team member joins a team and is constantly challenging why the team is doing a practice "in *that* particular way" or suggesting "we did *this* on my last project." These challenges are healthy even if they are sometimes uncomfortable. Beyond bringing people in from other teams, we can approach our own experiences through the eyes of the beginner. We get to play the role of someone that is newly joining the team and challenging assumptions but also get to leverage the experience that we've built up. The combination of a beginner's viewpoint and impartial experience can be a huge boost to disruptive thinking.

1. DESIGNING AGILE
innovating the agile team
1

2. Innovation is the application of
disruptive thinking.
2

3. 3
ThoughtWorks Agile
ThoughtWorks agile
VS

4. 4
inception
business analyst
quality analyststandard project template
being on-site 4x10s
5x8sdesigns upfront web software
cst modeldelivery mode
consulting mode
account meetings
continuous delivery
devops
offshore
nearshore
stories
roadmaps
feature mapsvertical slicing
qa as a step
ambitious missions
disruption pairingretrospectives
ipms estimation velocity lean process
value stream mapkanban
story wall
wip limitsstand ups
team celebrations mingle/jira/trello onboarding pair rotation
story splitting epics features trunk based development
feature toggling team lunch lunch and learns swimlanes
mob code review360 feedbackproject managercycle time

5. And that’s just a small sample…
5

6. Just like you design your software to
your customers, you should design your
processes to your team
6

7. It’s difficult. There’s no silver bullet. We
have to evolve our teams over time as
we find new information.
7

8. We have some best practices that are
created by tribal knowledge.
8

9. Tribal knowledge is biased.
9

10. The best way to fight tribal knowledge
bias is to have an outsider perspective.
10

11. Approach what we do as a beginner.
But leverage your experience to
challenge.
11

12. 12
inception
business analyst
quality analyststandard project template
being on-site 4x10s
5x8sdesigns upfront web software
cst modeldelivery mode
consulting mode
account meetings
continuous delivery
devops
offshore
nearshore
stories
roadmaps
feature mapsvertical slicingambitious missions
disruption pairingretrospectives
ipms estimation velocity lean process
value stream mapkanban
story wall
wip limitsstand ups
team celebrations mingle/jira/trello onboarding pair rotation
story splitting epics features trunk based development
feature toggling team lunch lunch and learns swimlanes
mob code review360 feedbackproject managercycle time
qa as a step

13. 13
ipms
estimation
qa as a step

14. 14
inception
business analyst
quality analyststandard project template
being on-site 4x10s
5x8sdesigns upfront web software
cst modeldelivery mode
consulting mode
account meetings
continuous delivery
devops
offshore
nearshore
stories
roadmaps
feature mapsvertical slicing
enterprise software
ambitious missions
disruption pairingretrospectives
ipms estimation velocity lean process
value stream mapkanban
story wall
wip limitsstand ups
team celebrations mingle/jira/trello onboarding pair rotation
story splitting epics features trunk based development
feature toggling team lunch lunch and learns swimlanes
mob code review360 feedbackproject managercycle time

15. 15
value stream map
360 feedback
cycle time

16. 16
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
PERFECTION IS ACHIEVED NOT
WHEN THERE IS NOTHING
MORE TO ADD, BUT RATHER
WHEN THERE IS NOTHING
MORE TO TAKE AWAY

17. what are you doing on your project?
DESIGN YOUR AGILE