Don’t Agree to Projects Individually. Negotiate as a Team.

A while back I was approached by a team about upgrading a library that is widely used in our infrastructure to a new one that would be more performant. Initially it seemed like this was the sort of thing that could be done easily and be a quick win for myself to individually show the team. However, it turned into something that required a lot more work from our end, and the terms of the implicit agreement became unfair to us. What would’ve been better is to have an entire team meeting with the other team and negotiate terms of the deal—specifically how much work each team was going to do and how much we were willing to sacrifice from our development velocity. This would’ve given us a better look at what the work would’ve been like and no members of the team would’ve felt like the agreement was unfair.

Lesson learned: when working with another team, don’t agree to take on a joint project individually, hoping that the benefits will impress your teammates. When shit hits the fan (and it will—e.g. if the project turns out to take longer or introduce more risk than expected), these downsides become liabilities for my team, not just for me individually.

Agreeing to take on joint projects with another team is a negotiation, just like an external business deal. Key stakeholders from each team need to be present and agree on the parameters of the project.