Page 27 - The Book

COMMUNITIES OF
PRACTICE
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (COP)
By contrast to Chapters COP’s are transient in nature, they will come and go based on the needs of the IT organisations maturity in specific practices, tools and behaviours. Some will last longer than others but this will be down to the need and interest level and relevance I.e. Some will just cease to be of value.
COP’s have no organisational boundaries, as mentioned a move they are topic based I.e. Servant Leadership, Lean, Innovation, Jira, WSJF (weighted shortest job first) prioritisation. Their members can be anyone who wants to be involved, from any role, any level, any portfolio.
What brings a COP together is a shared interest in a topic and the need to share ideas, learning, stimulus and discuss/collaborate with like minded people on topics people are passionate about. Therefore a COP typically has a common set of capabilities, a knowledge base, a members directory, discussion forum, practice library and a calendar of events.
COP’s are typically seeded/fuelled initially by a ‘core team’ who are passionate about the topic and want to share knowledge and collaborate with others.
COP’s are a great way of accelerating knowledge sharing and engagement/adoption of practices throughout the organisation.
COP’s can be based on competencies such as product management and scrum mastery, even agile coaching. This is where COP’s can get confused with ‘Chapters.’ A competency based COP is focused on practices, tools and ways of working, likely to be instigated by the chapter leads as a tool to mature and grow the chapter, not a replacement for the Chapter.
COP
Page 27