HKSM
Cross-Functional Team
A team whose members collectively have every skill needed to create, test, and deliver valuable increments of the product.
Key Points
- Combines diverse disciplines (e.g., development, testing, UX, operations) within one team.
- Reduces handoffs and external dependencies, enabling faster flow of value.
- Shares responsibility for delivering working product increments, not just individual tasks.
- Self-managing and empowered to plan and execute end-to-end work each iteration.
Example
A Scrum team building a mobile app includes developers, a tester, a UX designer, and a DevOps engineer. Together they design, build, test, and deploy a new checkout feature within a sprint without waiting on other departments.
PMP Example Question
A product team experiences delays due to waiting on the database group and UX department. The project manager proposes forming one team with developers, testers, UX, and database specialists who can complete features end-to-end each iteration. What team structure is this?
- Component team
- Cross-functional team
- Program management office
- Virtual team
Correct Answer: B — Cross-functional team
Explanation: A cross-functional team contains all skills needed to deliver a working product increment, reducing external dependencies and handoffs.
