A multidisciplinary team is a group of workers from different professional backgrounds, academic qualifications or work disciplines who collaborate together on one-off projects or on an ongoing basis.. This type of teamwork is increasingly common in the business environment because of its value in solving problems or tackling challenges from different perspectives.
At present talent is the competitive advantage that allows companies to differentiate themselves from one another. Organisations, in their search for the best candidates, are no longer oblivious to geographical or cultural barriers. Flexibility is the new approach that opens them up to heterogeneity and enriches their workforces.
This new approach overcomes the gaps associated with homogeneous teams, where similar weaknesses led to a narrow perspective that made it difficult to deal with complex, multidimensional problems. From the decision to move towards a company formed by a multidisciplinary team comes the adaptability and agility needed to position itself in today's market environment.
In a recent HBR article, “How Agile Teams Can Help Turnarounds Succeed”The report shows that More and more companies are deciding to take an agile approach to their work. The Agile methodology is no longer reserved for IT development, but extends its reach to all industries.
90% of the world's executives want their organisations to be agile (Forbes), but to achieve this, some changes are needed, one of which is to transform the staff into a strong multidisciplinary team.
Multidisciplinary teamwork is one of the criteria for success in agile projects. It is considered essential for this type of process, as its special set-up helps to meet the project objectives and to ensure stakeholder involvement in both the process and the outcomes.
Ideally, agile software development teams should be multidisciplinary, i.e. possess all the skills needed to deliver the business solution. This is documented in the rule of eXtreme Programming called “Move people Around”.”, The report explains that a team is much more flexible if everyone knows enough about each part of the system to work within it.
To achieve a multidisciplinary team, whether or not it is oriented towards software development, three steps need to be taken:
Approaching every business challenge from a holistic approach is the main benefit of having a multidisciplinary team.
Through this broad vision, it is possible to take advantage of the different business opportunities that arise and to experience other advantages such as:
Although building a multidisciplinary team is not easy, once it is achieved, the benefits for the business are obvious. The importation of proven methodologies from the IT world to other business sectors is much more than a passing fad, and so is the need to nurture the organisation with a variety of profiles, enriching it and opening it up to new horizons.
