Cross-Pollination

Play Description

Pattern Summary

The “Cross-Pollination” pattern exposes existing teams to the work of other agile teams so they can see agile in action, better understanding how agile is applied in a true work environment, much like cross-pollination spreads pollen from one flower to another one, increasing the diversity of the plant species while triggering the growth of fruit in the plant world.

Also Known As/Similar To

Embedding, Benchmarking, Site Visits, Go See

Pattern Group(s)

Transformation

Challenge Categories

Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Expertise, Setting Expectations, Increasing Confidence

Definition

In gardening, cross-pollination spreads pollen from one flower to another one, increasing the diversity of the plant species while triggering the growth of fruit.

For scaling patterns, the “Cross-Pollination” pattern exposes existing teams to the work of agile teams so they can see agile in action, better understanding how agile is applied in a true work environment. In doing so, this increases confidence and effectiveness in the use of agile practices.

Cross-pollination helps teams that are ‘stuck in a rut.’

Cross-pollination can take many forms, including:

1. Site visits or field trips, where one agile team visits another, learns about how they operate and observes for a day or less.
2. Embedding, where members of an agile team spend a week or more sitting alongside an agile team observing, and sometimes participating in their work.
3. Benchmarking, where one team collects quantitative and qualitative data to understand where are the areas of success for an agile team.

In Frameworks

The Cross-Pollination pattern is supported and encouraged in several agile frameworks. Scrum@Scale promotes the use of Communities of Practice (CoPs) (Registered Scrum@Scale Practitioner Training), where practitioners from different teams come together to share knowledge, challenges, and best practices. This aligns with cross-pollination as team members can observe and learn from each other in these settings.

LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) also supports cross-pollination through its emphasis on cross-functional teams and rotating team members to different roles or teams to spread knowledge and skills (Communities, Go See).

In the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), cross-pollination is facilitated somewhat during PI (Program Increment) Planning, when team members circulate during team breakouts . These frameworks recognize that exposing team members to different working methods and environments enhances their understanding and application of agile practices, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

None of the above-listed frameworks, however, explicitly encourage visiting and observing an existing team for a day or more to learn how their team operates. Note that the gains from cross-pollination are most often achieved through extended observation.

How to Use

1. Identify Opportunities for Cross-Pollination: Select mature or struggling teams that could benefit from exposure to different agile practices or environments.
2. Plan Visits or Embedding: Arrange site visits or embedding experiences where team members observe or participate in the hosting team’s activities.
3. Facilitate Knowledge Sharing: Encourage discussions and Q&A sessions during visits to clarify practices and share insights.
4. Follow-Up and Reflect: Conduct a debrief session post-activity to discuss learnings and potential applications in the visiting team’s context.
5. Document and Share Learnings: Share and capture key insights and good practices observed during the cross-pollination activities and add these to a backlog for future implementation.