Summarizing Mishkin Berteig list of “The Wisdom of Teams - Generalizing Specialists”:

  • Backups Team always has a backup specialist, if the assigned one is away, sick, or was hit by a bus.
  • Skills Every human being has an incredible capacity for learning. And even more - most of us like to learn new things. By learning even something unrelated to my current major activity, I discover something common and something new that I can bring to happy software development.
  • Rules By agreeing explicitly on the expectations inside a team, the team improves cohesion and lowers tension. Better relationships - better software.
  • Management Much less management is necessary for such team. In fact, the only real management is necessary is setting up/discussing goals from long term (years?) to short term (end of the week or today) and just giving the team the resources they need. “What can I do for you, team?”