ITSM / Guide: What is a FAST Team?

Purpose

  • To provide information for IT Services about FAST Teams: a small group assembled to focus on an IT improvement initiative of short-term duration of approximately eight to ten weeks
    • Focused
    • Action-oriented
    • Solution-centric
    • Tenacious

User

  • IT Services staff

Environment

  • FAST Thursdays

Guidelines

How we advance 

  • We advance strategy through small, focused teams assigned to clear, targeted deliverables
  • Each team is empowered to evaluate available alternatives and recommend solutions 
  • Accountability for deliverables is well-defined and clearly understood by all participants
  • We produce concrete, incremental improvement versus wholesale change via “big bang” implementations

 

FAST Team construct

  • Teams are not permanent; we assemble only for the duration of accomplishing the assigned task
  • We establish simple, intuitive governance for decision-making and escalation
  • We actively exercise and promote the values to which we aspire
  • We helpfully and constructively encourage one another to live the values to which we aspire
  • We identify and reflect on unproductive behavior and develop new approaches that better align with our values and improve our outcomes
  • We strive to continuously evolve and grow the IT division's functional capabilities, and in doing so, satisfy our customers
  • We produce concrete, incremental improvement versus wholesale change via “big bang” implementations

 

Rules of engagement

  • FAST Thursdays: 
    • Ideally, FAST team work should not occur outside of FAST Thursdays
      • Some exception may be required, but it should be minimal
    • Dedicated meeting time for FAST teams is every Thursday afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00 pm
      • Those who are not participating on a FAST team should discuss use of this time with their manager
  • Focused initiatives are of short-term duration (approximately eight to ten weeks) and aligned with strategic imperatives
  • Staff may only participate on one FAST team at a time
  • FAST team membership can include staff internal to IT or from other University units and should be limited to no more than eight individuals
  • Participation from certain areas may be limited to avoid creating single points of failure or service disruptions
  • Teams are expected to adhere to guidelines and standards, once they have been defined
  • Regular communication updates are expected; the frequency and mode of communication will be determined and defined
  • Teams will be expected to produce a tangible output such as a recommendation, solution, or implementation plan to be reviewed with the Leadership Team
  • Issues will be escalated in a timely fashion

 

Print Article

Related Articles (1)