Our team has been together now for about 15 weeks and things are going well. We've got a sustainable pace that's delivering value every week, our Product Owner and Product Sponsor are both happy, and everyone is having fun. So what's bugging me?

Well, it's 2 things. First, I've been sensing that there is additional capacity in the team that we haven't been able to tap into. And second, we've not been able to sustain our hustle for anything longer than a few days, perhaps a week. Reassuringly, over the last few iterations, the team has become aware of our inability to sustain hustle and in the last retrospective the team described its overall performance as pedestrian. That's a harsh word to describe an experienced agile team but its use demonstrates that the team isn't satisfied with its current pace and supports the idea that there is more to be had.

Can we tap into the additional capacity I think is there by sustaining hustle? I think so and I believe the key is more intensive collaboration because it creates a buzz. We've already seen improved collaboration by slicing stories more. This has created more frequent opportunities to obtain feedback from testers, the Product Owner, and the customer. It generates more conversations. We've also got our new bullpen layout removing the physical obstacles presented by pods of desks. This has given us the space to huddle and have timeout s, it allows people to move freely throughout the team area with chairs whizzing across the floor, and it facilitates conversation and osmotic communication . But I feel the big win will come if we pair more promiscuously. In his paper on promiscuous pairing , Arlo Belshee reported:

Promiscuity, it turns out, is a good way to spread a lot of information through a group quickly. Rapid partner swapping ensures that a good idea, once envisioned, is soon practiced by every pair. Replacing individual accountability with team accountability empowers each person to do those tasks at which he excels - and allow someone else to take over for his weaknesses.

Each of our practices provided the team with more flexibility and better communications. More creative ideas were formed, and each idea was automatically disseminated to the entire team by the end of the day. Each person was expected to continuously learn what was happening and contribute in a very short amount of time. Working on this team often felt like drinking from a fire hose, but it was empowering.

The data shows that we were more productive the more promiscuous we were - as long as we remained with each partner long enough to exchange knowledge. What they don't show is that we also had a lot more fun. It took the team a little time to adjust to the more rapid pace, but working with that team was a career high point for every person involved.

I know promiscuous pairing will generate a buzz, I've experienced it with a previous team. But it will also consume energy. Ron Jeffries wondered whether hustle was sustainable citing success and rest as the key regenerators of the energy required for hustle. I believe we can sustain hustle if we continue our strategy for energized working , and we're already achieving success every week by delivering what the Product Owner prioritises. But, because we have 3 more weeks before we go live, visibility of success is restricted to the showcase s and a demonstration environment (which is treated like a production environment). Somehow this diminishes the feeling of success (especially when you achieve it week in, week out). When we're live we'll be able to deploy to production every week and users will see a flow of new functionality. That's real success and that ought to help us sustain hustle too.