From Group Psychology to Software Engineering Research to Automotive R&D: Measuring Team Development at Volvo Cars
Lucas Gren, Christian Jacobsson
TL;DR
The paper documents Volvo Cars' scale-up of a group-development measurement approach rooted in Wheelan’s Integrated Model of Group Development (IMGD) using the short GDQS survey. A tailored in-house software tool was built to securely administer surveys, anonymize responses, and provide team- and unit-level insights, complemented by a developmental toolbox and trend visualizations that benchmark teams against normative data. Training programs and a train-the-trainer model were essential to achieving broad adoption across hundreds of teams and thousands of employees, with special guidance for virtual teams during COVID-19. The findings underscore that automated, concise measurement paired with actionable guidance supports autonomous team development, while preserving trust, data privacy, and management support as critical factors for sustained transformation.
Abstract
From 2019 to 2022, Volvo Cars successfully translated our research discoveries regarding group dynamics within agile teams into widespread industrial practice. We wish to illuminate the insights gained through the process of garnering support, providing training, executing implementation, and sustaining a tool embraced by approximately 700 teams and 9,000 employees. This tool was designed to empower agile teams and propel their internal development. Our experiences underscore the necessity of comprehensive team training, the cultivation of a cadre of trainers across the organization, and the creation of a novel software solution. In essence, we deduce that an automated concise survey tool, coupled with a repository of actionable strategies, holds remarkable potential in fostering the maturation of agile teams, but we also share many of the challenges we encountered during the implementation.