Succeeding with Agile

Grow and Split

The grow-and-split pattern is a variation of the split-and-seed approach. It involves adding team members until the team is large enough that it can be comfortably split in two, as shown in Figure 3.2. Immediately after splitting, each of the new teams will probably be on the small end of the desirable size range of five to nine members. After allowing the new teams one sprint at this reduced size, new members are added until each team becomes large enough that it can also be split. This pattern repeats until the entire project or organization has transitioned.

Figure 3.2 The grow-and-split pattern used to create two teams.