Build a Core Team

I meet a lot of people who went to the IDesign course(s). A common theme I start to see is the struggle people have to implement it in their daily work and in their company.

There are several reason for that:

• Knowledge: The Method is not easy to learn and there are many aspects to it
• Possibility: you never have a clean sheet: already running projects, agile environment, no formal architect role
• Too fanatic and/or too outward focused

Knowledge

You can learn every aspect of The Method on your own. This will set you up for a couple of years of intense study, trial and error. It works and is great fun but it just takes long… and is hard work. You can speed this up by dividing up the work, focus on one aspect (system design) and outsource another aspect to your colleague (another member of the core team).

Possibility

This reason is false… it is the excuse generator at work. You can not start implement The Method on a green field. There are just too much moving parts and too much options. Take your existing project and start implementing one piece of The Method. You know the team, you know the business, hopefully you know the technology, so start with doing system design or project design. Keep everything constant and improve on one area.

Fanatic

It is very good that you are triggered, enthousiactic and full of energy coming out of a IDesign class. But your colleagues were not in the class and they have not been rewired over the course of a week. So do not start to schedule meetings with peers, colleagues or management. Find your core team and start there.

Core team

Gather people in your organization who did the IDesign courses, or who think alike (true engineering). Start to meetup frequently and discuss topics like system design, project design, … do kata’s for existing projects or fictitious ones. Iterate… learn…

Split up the work amongst the core team, by assigning each of them an area of expertise for the upcoming year. Let them come back to the group and present lessons learned and way of working.

You must create a group that protects the members from the outside pressures. Build a team, drink beers…

Good luck 🙂