Empowered squads are the key to success

Since 2017, the teams in BNP Paribas Fortis' IT department have been working in the agile way with squads, tribes and chapters. And since last year, businesspeople have also been part of the squads. What benefits does this bring, and how does it work in practice? Here's everything you need to know.

At BNP Paribas Fortis, IT is organised in tribes. A tribe is a large group of about 100 to 150 employees, run by a duo. Each tribe is divided into squads of around 10 people, depending on the squad's scope.

Each squad is a multidisciplinary team that deals with a specific objective. This means each squad includes developers, testers, business analysts, a scrum master, a product owner and more. Someone from the business decides what is required or what needs to be done. Someone from IT then determines exactly how this is to be done.

"These empowered squad teams are at the heart of our operations", says CIO Marc Camus. "By putting business and IT together in this way, you can achieve co-creation and respond very quickly. You avoid needless back-and-forths, and that's what we aim for. Managers play a coaching role."

Welcome to your chapter

As well as being part of tribes and squads, IT staff at BNP Paribas Fortis also belong to a chapter based on their job. All developers, for example, are in one chapter, architects are in another, and so on. This means you come into contact with colleagues who do the same job, but have very different goals.

Each chapter is headed by a chapter lead who monitors employee well-being and facilitates and follows up on personal development and training courses. The chapter lead also acts as a coach for all employees within the chapter.

Community of practice

Every two weeks we hold an event called the community of practice, where developers exchange knowledge. Bas has been working as a Java developer in the log-on squad for a few months now. About the community of practice, he says: "Anyone who wants to share knowledge will have the opportunity to do so at that time, like a new technique you've discovered. Right now I mostly just listen during these meetings. I learn a huge amount. I'm sure that one day I'll also be able to share finds or tips with my fellow developers."

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Source: Amon

This article was written as part of our partnership with Amon to organise the ‘This is IT’ event.