Someone in my network sent me the following question the other day:
One question that's been surprisingly hard to answer is "Where did the concept of a long-lived team (vs a team that adjourns after a project is complete) first surface?"
And it started me to thinking about the notion.
Today, we talk a lot about moving from a Project focus to a Product focus, that is from:
Teams are formed and then disbanded or reorganized around the dimensions of a specific project. When the project is done, the team is done.
To
Teams are formed around a product area (or function) or around a functions area (infrastructure, architecture, etc.). The teams in this case are longer-lived in that there are no artificial closures based on their work.
Clearly, the latter strategy aligns better with the notion of a self-directed, cross-functional, high-performance agile team. But to the questioner’s point, when did that surface as an intentional focus, or even a directive or thing, in the agile community?