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