Part 4 | Defining Your Hierarchy - Identifying Your Teams

What is a Team?

Teams are the subgroups within a Department that are focused on specific functions.? Teams typically form through the need to have specialized knowledge or skillsets.? For example, within the Accounting Department, there is typically an Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable team.?

Properties of a Team

• Name – The name of the Team.
• Description – A robust description of the Team's purpose.
• Department - The Department where the Team resides.? A Team can have only one Department.?
• Core Function(s) - A list of core functions that help define the Team's purpose.? I'll include more information on this later.
• Owner Role - The role of the person who heads the Team as defined by your Human Resources department.?Later you will use roles, and not specific individuals, while completing your analysis.?
• Owner Name - The name of the individual that currently has responsibility for the Team.? This information is only important for getting questions answered and ensuring assumptions are correct.
• Number of Members by Job Title - The number of people that are currently members of the Team.? This will be used later for calculating Step and Process velocity as well as Team capacity.

Single Person Teams

If a team with only one member is immediately a cause for alarm.? Single-person teams indicate a single point of failure in your operation.? At this point in the process, you won't need to take immediate action unless you discover that the risk is very high.? Otherwise, note the discovery to ensure it is being monitored.? In my experience, these types of issues tend to work themselves out as you follow the transformation process.? Fixing the issue at this point will only be a short-term solution.? Allowing the process to reveal the answer will ensure it is a long-term solution.?

Core Functions

For each Team, it is important to understand their purpose for existing.? This is used later during analysis to ensure that the work being executed is in the right part of your organization.? I've experienced many instances where a Team is executing a process or a step that is not part of their core purpose.? When this happens it is typically inefficient, creates redundant work, and increases friction.

Examples of Core Functions:

In this example, I'll use the Accounts Receivable team under the Finance Department within the Administration Function Area.

• Collect Revenue from Customers.
• Ensure Quoted Revenue is Recognized when Expected.
• Ensure Customers are Billed Correctly.
• Ensure Customer Statements are Delivered when Expected.

As you can see, this list of Core Functions provides a clear definition of the reason for the Accounts Receivable Department to exist.? These will be very useful while you are analyzing Processes and Steps later in the process.

Building Your Hierarchy

Now you can add your Teams to your hierarchy.? As you can see, it is beginning to become clear who is executing work within your organization.? Remember that building your hierarchy won't show you what or how work is being done.? This part of the process is to understand who is doing the work.