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Create cross-team-retrospectives.md
This adds a new pattern at initial state that recommends running regular cross team retrospectives in particular for long running collaborations between host team and a stable set of contributors.
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## Title
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Retrospectives for continuous improvement
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## Patlet
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A host team working with contributors outside of their own line of management constantly runs into misunderstandings.
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As a result collaboration becomes brittle and frustrating.
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Setting aside time for regular retrospectives for the InnerSource team consisting of trusted committers and contributors can help make communication smooth.
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## Problem
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For long running collaborations friction between host team and collaborators is substantially reducing focus and energy for everyone involved.
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Willingness to continue the collaboration is shrinking.
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## Context
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A host team of trusted committers has started a long running collaboration with a group of contributors.
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* Over time the number of misunderstandings grows.
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* People may run into mis-communication.
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* Teams may discover slight differences in development culture.
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* Team members may discover that assumptions they made about the other team are false.
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* Contribution processes may not be entirely clear and workable for everyone involved.
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## Forces
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* Participants are inclined to take "written over verbal" as "only written".
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* Trusted committers are all part of the same team.
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* There is a group of contributors all coming from the same team.
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* As a result trusted committers know each other well and understand constraints, prioritization side effects and team dynamics without ever sharing them with contributors.
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* Also contributors form a well knit group.
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* The contribution process is seen as transient and temporary.
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As a result little is invested in forming a shared team of trusted committers and contributors.
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* There is no clear path from contributor to becoming trusted committer - other than becoming a member of the host team.
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## Solution
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Bring host team and contributors together:
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* As a first step it can help to share a meal together and get to know each other.
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* For collaborations running over several weeks establish a monthly 30 minute retrospective meeting that involves everyone who is needed for a successful contribution.
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* Make sure that action items for each restrospective are being followed up upon, ideally check these action items at the beginning of the next retrospective.
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* Keep the agenda of retrospectives stable and predictable: It's already uncomfortable enough to name and resolve collaboration issues.
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Example agenda:
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* 5 minute checkin so everyone can test their audio setup, silly questions preferred so people can laugh together, reducing overall stress.
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* 5 minute review for action items from last meeting (each item presented by its owner)
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* 10 minutes to gather strengths and weaknesses of the past collaboration time period. Do this as a combination of writing (sticky notes on a digital white board) and verbally explaining the stickies to make sure introverts get involved as well.
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* 2 minutes to put dots against weaknesses that should be addressed in the next cycle.
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Pick the top 1-2 weaknesses.
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* 10 minutes to gather potential remedy actions to address the picked weaknesses.
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Again use time for writing sticky notes to involve everyone.
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* 2 minutes to put dots against action items (each participant may add 2-3 dots), pick at most top 3 items, assign each item two owners - one trusted committers and one contributor.
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* 5 minutes for checkout so everyone can wind down and leave feedback on the meeting.
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Caveat: In particular for cases where people have tried to collaborate for a long time already, the initial meeting may need more than 30 minutes.
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## Resulting Context
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* Trusted committers understand how to improve communication and contribution processes.
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* Contributors understand how to support trusted committers in improving documentation and processes.
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* Likely both uncover issues that are beyond their direct control but also see ways to address these in the organisation adopting InnerSource.
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* Ideally several learnings can be shared with other InnerSource teams so they avoid running into the same trouble.
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* When done regularly after a handful of retrospectives collaboration improves, issues uncovered reduce, turning the session more and more into a lot of positive feedback.
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As a result motivation on both sides increases.
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## Known Instances
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* Europace AG
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## Status
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Initial

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