The Situation Context Framework (SCF) is created by Agilist Scott Ambler and Mark Lines in 2020. This framework defines contextual factors which need to be considered when you are defining a way of working for your team. The SCF is used to provide a base framework that will help you to design a way of working – WoW which will be suitable for the work or project you are undertaking
Key Areas to Consider while creating an Agile Team
When you initiate a team you need to identify key areas that will impact of your WoW, some of the important ones are described below:
Decide Team Composition
When you are trying to design a team composition you have several issues to consider. These issues will help you decide how best to organize your teams
- Will the team be made up of people who have mostly specialized / individual skills like Business SMEs, Technical architects, UI/UX experts and so on or will team members be more along the lines of T-skilled generalizing specialists? DO you really need some niche skills that cannot be easily picked by other team members? Can you start with specialized roles but have internal cross skilling plans?
- What will be the team size? Do you need large teams?
- Will the team be located in the same place or be in multiple locations – This will also impact your tooling strategy
- Will they work for a single organization or several?
The choices you make will be driven by the situation that you face.
Decide Team Process Framework
Similarly, you have several process-related issues to consider.
- What way of working is most appropriate? For example, will you take a generic agile approach? Or a specified framework? A lean approach? A traditional approach? A hybrid approach?
- Will your team be able to follow a light, goal-driven process or a prescriptive one?
- Will your process be constrained by compliance to frameworks such as CMMI or ISO standards? Do you need to do certain legal compliances and documentation?
What tools are you going to use?
Usually every modern project will benefit from an underpinning of technology framework to ensure smooth operations. These days there are ample tools in the market that will help you. Some key issues to consider when choosing tools are.
- Are you open to using open source tools? Will you adopt open source tools, commercial tools, or a combination thereof? Are there any organizational policies that impact usage of open source tools?
- Will your tools be integrated or stand alone?
- Do you prefer to obtain tools from a single source whenever possible? Tools from a single platform usually will lead to better integration and less effort on customizations. Or will you go with the best suitable tools not worrying about the vendor?
- Will you host your own tool environment with your own infrastructure? Or you will go for an end to end dedicated hosting by vendor? Or will it be hosted externally via a SAAS-style approach?
- If hosted externally, where will your intellectual property (IP), be hosted? What are the precautions you need to take to protect your IP?