Is there hope for my team?
Posted by Electrical-Ask847@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 16 comments
Our team was formed by extracting 'data engineers' from different teams . We are now a central 'data engineer' teams.
Now the way we operate is that we get requests to provide datasets from feature teams. Our teams 'customers' are other feature teams.
- * even though we are a team we all work on our own stuff on individual requests ( that sometimes can take months)
- * We have our own jira board with random assortment of projects that are mostly unrelated to each other.
- * We have no way to prioritize tickets because we don't know how each ticket/request prioritizes wrt to others . Our manager talks to other managers who request these tickets and assigns priorties.
- * We have daily standups but we are all working on individual projects and give updates about that. These updates seem uninteresting to other ppl on the team.
- * We operate in sprints but don't measure velocity, story points ect.
- * We don't have a product owner for our team. We sometimes work with product owners of teams that raised those tickets but a lot of it engineering driven.
I obviously find this highly unsatisfying and feel like a 'ticket monkey' .
dhir89765@reddit
It can be pretty fun if you are in cahoots with the customer team you work with most often. Neither your manager nor your customers have full control over your roadmap, since you need to serve your customers but your resources don't belong to them.
You can try to negotiate with the customer team to work on more interesting stuff, based on product needs you notice yourself. But it only works if you can convince them that the projects you proposed add more value to them than the tickets they request.
Basically become your own PM
Interweb_Stranger@reddit
Would the things you talk about in the dailies be better suited for the customer teams meetings?
We have a dozen developer teams and some overarching teams, like architecture, ops, security, quality etc. The latter teams do have their own meetings but all members are assigned to one or more development teams as "attaché". So they work and communicate more closely with those dev teams and attend some of their meetings, some contribute even in the dev teams dailies and have tickets on the dev teams boards.
As a dev it's great to have those people involved more closely. I think it works well for us though I don't have enough data about how those attaché see it, I guess it depends a bit if it fits their workflows. Also I can't tell how well such a structure would translate for data engineering.
angrynoah@reddit
Sounds bad!
Except that part. "Measuring" "velocity" is a crime against god and man. Never do it.
International_Cell_3@reddit
If you're onsite, something I have done multiple times at different jobs when this happens is to ask the team I'm working with to relocate to an open desk near them. You can dip out for your standups with your "team" as needed but still keep close to your real team.
Even if it doesn't result in a real reorganization it's effective for getting work done and keeping in the minds of the rest of the org, rather than being siloed off somewhere where people vaguely recognize your name.
mxldevs@reddit
What was the point of creating this team? Does the company have other similar teams? All the sales people from different products are together in one "sales team" or something?
suntehnik@reddit
Looked for other comments and came out if I would be in your shoes I would start a discussion with my team mates: is it okay for them? And if it is NOT okay - than maybe start with classic retrospective and start to discuss the issues you have as a team?
LogicRaven_@reddit
You could look up swarming in the agile context.
The idea is that instead of every engineer working on a standalone project, they pick the top priority project, decide how many engineers can work on that in parallel, deliver than pick the next one.
The benefit of this setup is often 2-3 engineers are working on the same thing, the top priority project gets done sooner and there is automatic knowledge sharing across team members.
Works only if the tasks in the project are not fully sequential.
scataco@reddit
On the upside, at least you don't have a Scrum Master who insists you collaborate on Jira tickets solely for the sake of collaborating.
If others in your team feel the same, you could organize a show case Friday or something like that. Share the stuff you're proud of. Or start a channel where team members can ask for a sparring partner. Don't wait for management to bring you together and don't expect anyone to join if they don't want to.
czeslaw_t@reddit
Your management should read Team topologies book.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
One person’s dream team structure can be another person’s nightmare. There’s nothing inherently incorrect about what you’ve described if it’s accomplishing what the business needs from the team.
I think you should stop looking at this as a hopeless team and start looking at it as a team structure that simply isn’t for you.
Many people would love to operate like you’re describing, but obviously you don’t like it. Your chances of changing the team to work the way you want are low, so look for opportunities to move to other teams or companies that work the way you want. It’s either that, or you learn to love the way this team operates.
Electrical-Ask847@reddit (OP)
appropriate username . just kidding :) .
yea i agree i feel current structure is soulless and unexciting. i do have some influence over how things are organized but i agree i am unlikey to make any fundamental changes.
I am looking for other operrtunities within the company .
whdeboer@reddit
I worked on a team where we were essentially a collection of engineers working on our own projects, based on tickets coming in from the outside.
It can feel very isolating, and I guess it suits people who really like working alone.
I’m assuming it’s the sense of being part of a team with a common goal that you are craving.
I don’t think you’re gonna find it where you are now. Could you ask to transfer teams maybe?
Electrical-Ask847@reddit (OP)
yep mostly a sense and feeling of working on something meaningful instead of being a nameless ticket monkey.
PragmaticBoredom@reddit
If that’s the case, maybe you need to interact more with the internal “customers” who are requesting these tickets.
notmastersprecious@reddit
I worked for a team similar to yours. It was incredibly isolating. No one really cared for the others update during stand-up - when it ever happened. Knowledge sharing was limited because of the 'siloed' way we operated.
The team eventually got dissolved, and the smart ones already had other opportunities lined up. I chalked it up the dissolution to mostly strategy and politics.
the300bros@reddit
Maybe part of a reorganization that isn’t finished yet?
If you’re working for months just for an outside team I don’t see why you wouldn’t be transferred to that team. But like with the musical chairs game that could lead to you finding yourself without a team one day