Project teams, evolution and genetic manipulation

It seems like we're always looking for decent analogies in IT. One that has occurred to me is that building evolving IT project teams is similar to evolution supported by genetic manipulation.

I work in a project-based IT services organization. Our ability to repeat success from one project to the next depends, among other things, on how well our organization can assemble effective project teams. The nature of the project, the client, and our team members change from one project to another, but we benefit from having teams that are improving upon their predecessors in an evolutionary way.

No two project teams are alike, nor should they be. The exact nature of an individual team is a function of its members strengths and weaknesses, the nature of the project (objectives/goals, constraints) and the client environment. Once created, teams evolve independently to either succeed or fail. The teams that succeed are often used to 'seed' later teams in the hopes of replicating success. The teams that fail are often disbanded to help populate other teams.

The genetic material, or DNA, of a strong team is a function of the individuals on the team. On a strong, effective team the individuals help to get the best out of each other, overcome negative traits, and reinforce the positive ones. In that sense, a strong team evolves rapidly into something that is increasingly more effective. The converse of this is that a weak team does not evolve to highlight the strengths of its members. Through this rapid evolution a strong team can become an order of magnitude more effective than a weak or mediocre team.

Once you have a strong evolving team you'll likely want to either start another team, or even improve an existing but less effective team. To do this we often 'transplant' some of the genetic material from the strong team with the desired traits into the new or existing team – a form of genetic manipulation, if you will. If done properly the recipient team will begin to exhibit some of the desired traits of the original team. As this team evolves the 'donated' traits will merge with the inherent strengths of the receiving team to create a more effective entity.

We don't always have the luxury of putting an 'ideal' team together – one in which all the individual members have a strong background in both the business domain and the target technologies. Sometimes, only a single member will have the desired experience. Despite this, we need teams that build upon our accumulated knowledge of similar projects.

Natural selection (i.e. Darwinian evolution) is also a big factor in the evolution of teams. The DNA of successful teams will be propagated out into other teams in multiple ways. Firstly, the successful team will not be disbanded or killed off before it reaches its prime. Secondly, the organization will want to transplant the characteristics of the successful team into other team – often by transplanting individual members to other teams in the hope of transplanting the desired team characteristics.

OK, so perhaps it's not a perfect analogy, but consider evolution and genetics if your organization needs to create successive IT project teams that are improving upon prior results in an evolutionary way. I know I am.