Chapter 4. Building an MSF Team

In this chapter:
MSF Team Model: Team of Advocates	47
Adapting the Team Model	90
Summary	96

What is the best division of labor when a team is trying to deliver solutions? How does a team make sure it represents the interest of all stakeholders sufficiently? How should a team be structured to facilitate being a high-performing team? How should a team be organized to work naturally toward quality goals? As you well know, many factors influence how to structure a team. Over the years, Microsoft has experimented with various teaming models. What has worked best has been distilled into the following concepts surrounding teaming. The next few sections map how these concepts relate to the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) foundational principles, mindsets, and proven practices.

This chapter describes a scalable and extensible teaming strategy developed, refined, and validated over many years. It represents not only a means to organize a team to represent stakeholder interests but embeds a set of natural checks and balances to help increase quality and minimize bureaucracy. It embodies the MSF foundational principles and incorporates core disciplines and key concepts.

Lesson Learned

Of all the recommendations made within MSF, this one is the most valuable. It is also one of the most difficult to implement. It often involves changing peoples' jobs and what they do on a daily basis. As such, it typically causes great resistance from some people.