Interviewer:
If everyone is co-located, how do we prevent siloed development?
Mr. Agile®:
Co-location actually encourages what’s called “osmotic communication,” which is going to prevent that siloed development that you’re talking about. Historically, communication itself was somewhat siloed. I send you an email as a point to point type of communication. But when you’re physically co-located I’m hearing all of the communication that is directed toward me, Mark. But I’m also hearing all the communication that is happening around me.
So, whether I want to or not, I’m much more dialed in to what everybody else is doing. And it prevents those situations where I’m making decisions with imperfect information, because I never even got exposed to what you’re trying to do at the same time. So, really, co-located teams are a tool that are often used to prevent the silo development that you’re talking about.
