“The CIPSA Team is the sum of all individual teams. This team consists of the CPO, PSM (or PFM), POs, SMs (or FMs), and most important of all, the developers, who are generalizing specialists.”
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In this article, I'll explain more clearly the aspects of the CIPSA Team. An in-depth explanation with hands-on demonstration is part of the CIPSA Certification course. You’ll learn practically with software tool:
- How to have resources for the CIPSA Team.
- How to segregate and distribute resources across individual Scrum or Kanban Teams.
- How to organize resources into various groups (very important for reporting).
- How to create and apply custom groups for the resources.
- How to assign and move various resources efficiently.
- How to resolve overallocations in the CIPSA team.
- How to track individual Scrum or Kanban teams as well as the entire CIPSA team, among others.
There are many important differentiations. The following are some of them. To read all articles of this series use this link: What It's and What It's Not series for CIPSA.
CIPSA Team – What It’s and What It’s Not!
1. Not Many Teams, but One Team: The CIPSA Team is not just a sum of individual Scrum or Kanban teams. The CIPSA Team is a single, cohesive unit.
The CIPSA Team isn’t just a group of separate Scrum or Kanban teams working in parallel. It acts as a unified, cohesive team aligned toward a common purpose and goal. See the next point!
2. Not CIPSA Sprint Goal, but Product Goal: The CIPSA Team's final goal is not the CIPSA Sprint Goal. The CIPSA Team's final goal is the Product Goal.
While individual Scrum teams may focus on respective Team Sprint Goals, the CIPSA Team is aligned with the overarching Product Goal - not the CIPSA Sprint Goal. This ensures long-term value delivery.
Similarly, for CIPSA Kanban, it'll be Product Goal, not CIPSA (Kanban) Goal or individual Team Goals.
3. Not Task-Focused, but Goal-Focused: The CIPSA Team is not task-oriented. The CIPSA Team is goal oriented.
Considering the CIPSA Scrum framework, the short-term goal for the CIPSA Scrum Team is the CIPSA Sprint Goal and for long-term it's the Product Goal.
The focus of the CIPSA team is not on completing tasks for the sake of activity. Rather, the CIPSA team focuses on achieving meaningful Product Goals. Remember there can be more than one product goals.
4. Not Untested, but Tested Value: The CIPSA Team's Integrated Increment is not untested. The CIPSA Integrated Increment is tested, integrated, valuable, and usable.
Work delivered by the CIPSA Team is not just an assembled output. The CIPSA Integrated Increment tested, integrated and valuable from the customer’s point of view.
5. Not Role-Bound, but Collaborative: The CIPSA Team is not bound by job descriptions. The CIPSA Team is collaborative and utilizes practices like swarming and mobbing.
Team members in the CIPSA team aren’t limited by rigid job roles. They collaborate freely using practices like swarming and mobbing to solve problems. Swarming and mobbing are Agile practices and can be used at scale.
6. Not Managed, but Self-Managing: The CIPSA Team is not managed by the Principal Scrum Master or Principal Flow Master. The CIPSA Team is self-managing.
The team doesn’t rely on top-down control. It organizes itself with support and with facilitation by the Principal Scrum Master (PSM) or Principal Flow Master (PFM).
7. Not Short-Term, but Long-Term: The CIPSA Team is not a short-term team. The CIPSA Team is long-term.
This is not a temporary setup that gets disbanded after a goal, i.e., the CIPSA Goal. That may happen in a traditional project, which can be temporary. The CIPSA Team is a stable, long-term team focused on continuous product delivery. It exists to meet the Product Goal – one at a time.
CIPSA Team – Table Representation
Now, we can have the above points represented in a table. It’s easier to read and remember.
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Concluding Remarks
The CIPSA Team itself is the soul of the CIPSA framework. It’s the team that breaks the features down into tasks and execute those tasks. Without the team, there is no CIPSA Integrated Increment – one that finally matters to the customer or user.
As a CIPSA-certified professional, or an aspiring one and a Practical Scaled Agile Practitioner (PSA) you need to know the above fundamentals about the CIPSA Team.
This article touches upon and highlights a few aspects of CIPSA Team. To dive deeper and gain practical, real-world expertise, becoming a CIPSA professional is your next step. It’s a great way to get the most value from your investment.
What It's and What It's Not Series:
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