When adopting a microservice architecture, maintenance is needed to keep the system working. Maintenance can sometimes involve more than one team that needs to collaborate in order to fix a maintenance issue. This procedure requires coordination and correspondence between teams which can have a negative impact on the autonomy of the teams. The microservice architecture does not only introduce new benefits but also new challenges. This study creates a strategy guideline that organisations can use to address these challenges. The study highlights challenges with collaboration in maintenance and gives suggestions on strategies to use to counter the challenges. This guideline can help organisations new to the microservice architecture and help organisations to make future maintenance decisions in a microservice architecture with multiple teams. The guideline is developed using the Convergent Parallel Design and by interviewing product owners, architects, and developers in three organisations working with microservices. A survey was sent out to people working with microservices in different industries to validate the findings from the interviews. The interviews and the survey is analysed using the five steps described in the book “A Step-By-Step Guide To Qualitative Data Analysis” by O'Connor and Gibson (2003). This paper is focused on how agile teams collaborate with maintenance across microservices and does not cover teamwork within the agile team. This paper does not cover any technical aspects of microservices, such as application programming interface endpoints between services, but rather how teams work with them.

With a culture focused on leadership, the purpose in this study was to explore untested assumptions about followers and their being ignored as independent productive actors in the workplace. The lived experience of followers and their impact on the success or failure of organizations during periods of absent leadership was explored via 4 independent situations. A qualitative, phenomenological research design based primarily on the theoretical framework of Moustakas and the research design of Patton guided the study. The 3 key research questions were explored with regard to followers during periods of absent leadership: how they respond, what actions they take to fill the void, and the purpose of their actions and reactions. The qualitative data were coded and centered around 4 themes: (a) productivity, (b) morale, (c) direction, and (d) interpersonal behavior during periods of absent leadership. The results indicated that followers did not descend into chaos without leaders, thus refuting a primary conjecture about their assumed workplace behavior. Instead, emergent consensual self-managing teams arose, and this research resulted in a proposed organization-member exchange (OMX) construct for further research to account for the environmental context as a potential substitute to the traditional leader-follower relationship. Social change may occur by increasing efficiencies if additional training is provided for followers to prepare themselves for absent leadership and for leaders to realize the full potential of followers. Attempts at developing self-managed groups to fully utilize the leadership potential might serve to negate negative effects of the departure of a designated leader and promote employee wellbeing as contributing and valued members of the organization.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5924.pdf: 2807754 bytes, checksum: 3d23771c039861a524611ded561280a7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-30 / The manufacturing companies are increasingly investing time and attention to improving its operating performance by accepting that this is one of the few ways to be competitive in the medium and long term and thus leaving the short-term vision where operational improvements are mainly evaluated as cost reductions of production and labor. The manufacturing management must seek the proper standardization of operations, compliance with these standards and continuous improvement, using this as a basis for synchronization of material flows and information, and to guarantee the quality and safety requirements, as well as the increase responsibilities and autonomy of people in the workplace. This is the main base of lean manufacturing (lean), which, associated with the concept of semi autonomous teams (this aimed at increasing the responsibility of the workers), significant operational success is bringing to companies that have deepened in its implementation and support. This thesis presents six case studies where there was the application of a model of standardized work and the concept of semi-autonomous teams simultaneously in different plants of the same company in the Brazilian chemical industry. The developed approach was the adaptation and application of a systematic model with five pre-defined steps, and structuring teams with semi autonomous work patterns as well as their roles and responsibilities. The model applied in the six cases studied was adapted based on a reference from the company's headquarters and research of market practices, adapted to reality and to the organizational structure of these units. The plants studied have different levels of technology and products portfolio, as well as operation time that distanced up to four decades of each other, where it was observed significant impact on speed of deployment, with different levels of acceptance by the leadership and comprehensiveness of results arising from the application of the model. Quantitative aspects of implementation, such as Safety, Quality and Productivity, which showed significant weight gains after the implementation of the model were evaluated and achieved medium gains of 25% in Productivity, 33% in Quality and 47% reduction in setup times as well as qualitative aspects such as absenteeism, the perception of those involved on the shop floor by the physical change in the working environment and the impact of standardization and systematization of activities on the motivation and performance of employees working in the semi autonomous teams. As conclusions, it´s discussed the potential constraints that influence the greater or lesser success of the applications in each of the six units. / As empresas manufatureiras estão investindo cada vez mais tempo e atenção à melhoria de seu desempenho operacional aceitando que este é um dos poucos caminhos para serem competitivas no médio e longo prazo e desta forma saindo da visão de curto prazo onde melhorias operacionais são principalmente avaliadas como redução de custos de produção e de mão de obra. A gestão da manufatura deve buscar a correta padronização das operações, o cumprimento destes padrões e sua melhoria contínua, usando isto como base para a sincronização dos fluxos de materiais e informações, e para a garantia dos requisitos de qualidade e segurança, assim como o incremento das responsabilidades e da autonomia das pessoas no ambiente de trabalho. Esta é a base principal da manufatura enxuta (lean), que, associada ao conceito de equipes semi autônomas (este visando o incremento da responsabilidade dos operários), tanto sucesso operacional está trazendo às empresas que se aprofundaram em sua implementação e sustentação. Nesta tese apresentam-se seis estudos de caso onde houve a aplicação de um modelo de trabalho padronizado e do conceito de equipes semi autônomas de forma simultânea em diferentes fábricas de uma mesma empresa do setor químico brasileiro. A abordagem desenvolvida foi a adaptação e aplicação de um modelo sistematizado com cinco etapas pré definidas, e estruturação das equipes semi autônomas com padrões de trabalho bem como de seus papéis e responsabilidades. O modelo aplicado nos seis casos estudados foi adaptado com base em uma referência da empresa matriz e pesquisas de práticas de mercado, alinhado à realidade e à estrutura organizacional destas unidades. As fábricas estudadas possuem diferentes níveis de tecnologia e tipos de produtos, assim como tempo em operação que as distanciam até quatro décadas umas das outras, de onde se observou significativo impacto na velocidade de implantação, havendo diferentes níveis de aceitação das lideranças e abrangência dos resultados oriundos da aplicação do modelo. Foram avaliados aspectos quantitativos da aplicação, tais como Segurança, Qualidade e Produtividade, que apresentaram ganhos significativos médios após a aplicação do modelo, da ordem de: 25% em Produtividade, 33% em Qualidade e 47% de redução dos tempos de Setup, assim como os aspectos qualitativos como o absenteísmo, a percepção dos envolvidos do chão de fábrica quanto à mudança física do ambiente de trabalho e o impacto da padronização e sistematização das atividades na motivação e desempenho dos empregados atuando no formato semi autônomo. Como conclusão, discute-se que condicionantes influenciam o maior ou menor sucesso das aplicações em cada uma das seis unidades.

Bakgrund: Organisationer förändras och övergår mer till teambaserad struktur samt utvecklar med självstyrande team. Självstyrande team har visat öka effektivitet och produktivitet i organisationerna. Den organisationsstruktur och -kultur som teamen besitter anses unik med strävan efter auktoritet i det vardagliga arbetet samt beslutsfattandet. Det är utmanande med självstyrande team som ska bestå av individer som ska förlita sig på varandra med ett gemensamt ansvarstagande och arbeta mot ett gemensamt mål. Vid första tanke är självstyrande team uppbyggda med grund att vara ledarlösa. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och öka förståelsen för vardagligt beslutsfattande inom självstyrande team. Det som avses undersökas är förståelsen kring beslutsfattandets tillvägagångssätt samt teammedlemmars befogenhet för det vardagliga beslutsfattandet inom teamen. Metod: Metoden som har använts i denna studie är en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med abduktiv ansats. Det empiriska material som samlats in till studien bygger på sju semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en mängd sekundärdata från det valda tillverkningsföretaget. Det insamlade empiriska materialet har för avsikt med hjälp av den teoretiska referensramen, att analysera likheter och skillnader mellan teamen samt tidigare forskning. Slutsats: Studien bekräftar tidigare forskning om att självstyrande team ska styra över sitt eget ansvarstagande samt vardagliga beslutsfattande. Studien illustrerar dock att definitionen av självstyrande team är begränsad och behovet av stöd från ledarroller behövs. / Background: Organizations change and transition more to team-based structure and develop with autonomous teams. Autonomous teams have shown increased efficiency and productivity in organizations. The organizational structure and culture that the teams possess is considered unique with the pursuit of authority in everyday work and decision-making. It is challenging with autonomous teams that will consist of individuals who rely on each other with a shared responsibility and work towards a common goal. At first thought, autonomous teams are built on the basis of being leaderless. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and increase the understanding of everyday decision-making within autonomous teams. What is meant to be investigated is the understanding of the approach of decision-making as well as the power of team members for the day-to-day work of the teams. Method: The method used in this study is a qualitative research method with an abductive approach. The empirical material collected for the study is based on seven semi-structured interviews as well as a variety of secondary data from the selected manufacturing company. The collected empirical material intends to use the theoretical frame of reference to analyze similarities and differences between the teams and previous research. Conclusion: The study confirms previous research that autonomous teams should control their own responsibility and everyday decision-making. The study illustrates that the definition of autonomous teams is limited and the need for support from leadership roles is needed.