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Spotify Model

Last post 08:39 pm October 24, 2019 by Curtis Slough
8 replies
08:04 pm October 23, 2019

Hi

What do you think about spotify model? In some cases ,i think spotify model conflicts with self-organization and commitment. Is there any evidance usabilty of tribes and guilds are usefull for any project?

Thanks


01:00 am October 24, 2019

The Spotify Model is just something that a particular company found useful to organize at scale. It's useful to look at what Spotify, and any other company that's writing about their method, is doing, but it doesn't mean that the techniques they use will be useful for anyone else in a different context. Maybe some elements of it will be useful, maybe some elements won't be. One should not blindly apply other methods or patterns without understanding the contexts in which they are successful.

I'm curious as to what aspects of the Spotify Model conflict with self-organization and commitment and why.


08:53 am October 24, 2019

Exactly what Thomas said, and in addition, keep in mind that "The Spotify Model" is ever changing, so depending on the point in time, you can refer to a completely different model. Even Spotify have turned their model upside down once or twice because it was (no longer) working....


12:01 pm October 24, 2019

In some cases ,i think spotify model conflicts with self-organization and commitment. Is there any evidance usabilty of tribes and guilds are usefull for any project?

Let's step back a bit. What evidence do you have that the so-called "Spotify model" conflicts with self-organization and commitment?

I can see that this might happen if an excessively prescriptive approach were taken (e.g. by copying an implementation), but that would be true of any model.


01:13 pm October 24, 2019

The "Spotify model" is agile that is being scaled extremely well.  There is not conflict in terms of self-organization and commitments.   IF that were conflicts, the "hoards" would be coming after the management :) 

The foundation of the Spotify Tribe is autonomy and trust. When there is trust, then there is ownership and accountability of the work done.

 


03:18 pm October 24, 2019

A recent engagement that I had as a coach was with an organization that was loosely utilizing the Spotify model in their Agile Implementation. Remember, I said "loosely". They used the Tribes and Squads model and honestly, I loved it. It made so much sense to group teams (squads) that were working on a similar/related product together in the same tribe. It helped tremendously with improved transparency and collaboration. 

I don't see how it would hinder self-organization when it was built on self-organization. So much so that it was called out "is the Daily Standup/Scrum not necessary for your teams? Awesome, try every other day or a cadence that works for you team." Not sure how that hinders self-organization....

At the very basic level, the Spotify model is all about forgetting a specific framework or process and find what works for your team, company, and larger organization. 


04:05 pm October 24, 2019

Hi All,

Thanks for your all valuable sharings.

@Ian actually in a telecommunication company I see tribes and squads. That squads have developers and testers. But developers and testers are not cross functional. But they are self organized. So it seems to be a little far away from scrum. Neverthless, I think spotify model is agile.


04:54 pm October 24, 2019

But developers and testers are not cross functional. 

Keep in mind that Scrum does not advocate for individual cross-functionality, instead promoting the cross-functionality of the team.

If the tribes/squads (teams) are self-organized, cross-functional, and have all the skills needed to deliver, then I would argue they are complying with Scrum, and not "a little far away from Scrum".

 


08:39 pm October 24, 2019

+1 @Timothy Baffa


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