Atlassian Team Health Monitor

Check your project team against eight attributes healthy teams share.

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What is the Atlassian Team Health Monitor?

The Team Health Monitor comes from Atlassian's Team Playbook. It lists eight attributes that healthy project teams tend to share: Full-time owner, Balanced team, Shared understanding, Value and metrics, Proof of concept, One-pager, Managed dependencies and Velocity. There's no score out of five. Your team votes each attribute red, amber or green, because the point is the conversation about why something isn't green. This version describes the eight attributes in TeamRetro's own words, so your team can run it in minutes and track how the colors change between sessions.

Dimensions

Eight attributes

The eight attributes that healthy, high-performing project teams tend to share, drawn from Atlassian's Team Playbook. Vote each one red, amber or green and talk through the reds together.

  • Full-time owner

    We have one clearly accountable lead, dedicated enough to champion this work.

    • No clear owner
    • Owner but stretched thin
    • Dedicated, accountable lead

  • Balanced team

    We have the right skills and clearly defined roles to deliver what we own.

    • Skills or roles missing
    • Gaps or fuzzy roles
    • Right skills, clear roles

  • Shared understanding

    We share a common understanding of our mission and the milestones to get there.

    • No shared picture
    • Partial alignment
    • Aligned on mission

  • Value and metrics

    We know the value we deliver and how we'll measure success.

    • Value unclear
    • Value clear, metrics fuzzy
    • Value and metrics defined

  • Proof of concept

    We've validated this is worth doing and have a clear path forward.

    • Unvalidated
    • Some evidence
    • Validated, clear path

  • One-pager

    Our purpose and goals are captured somewhere anyone can quickly grasp.

    • Nothing written down
    • Exists but scattered
    • Clear, accessible one-pager

  • Managed dependencies

    We have a clear view of who we depend on and who depends on us, and we manage the risk.

    • Dependencies unknown
    • Known but not managed
    • Visible and managed

  • Velocity

    We're making steady, visible progress and shipping to stakeholders.

    • Stalled progress
    • Uneven progress
    • Steady, visible shipping

When to use this health check

  • At a project kickoff, to agree on how the team wants to work.
  • Every quarter, to track how the eight attributes are trending.
  • When a project feels stuck and you can't say why.

Tips & tricks

  • Project teams need one full-time owner. A red here usually explains the other reds.
  • Don't fixate on the vote. Ask why any attribute is amber or red.
  • Start with the reds, since that's where the biggest gains are.
  • Re-run it after a few weeks of action to see whether ambers and reds are moving toward green.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Atlassian Team Health Monitor?
It's a check from Atlassian's Team Playbook in which a team rates itself against eight attributes healthy project teams tend to share. There's no score: the team votes each attribute red, amber or green and talks through the results together.
What are the eight attributes?
For project teams they are full-time owner, balanced team, shared understanding, value and metrics, proof of concept, one-pager, managed dependencies and velocity. Each is a condition high-performing teams tend to have in place.
Can we use it commercially?
The framework can be used with attribution: Atlassian releases the Team Playbook under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Because that license is non-commercial and share-alike, this check describes the eight attributes in TeamRetro's own words instead of copying Atlassian's text.
How do you run a health monitor session?
Everyone rates the eight attributes privately as red, amber or green, then the group looks at the combined result. Start with the attribute that has the most reds, or the widest disagreement, and agree on one action for it. Run it again in a quarter and compare, because the movement tells you more than the first snapshot.
Is this Atlassian's official Health Monitor?
No. Atlassian publishes the Health Monitor plays in its Team Playbook. This is TeamRetro's own version of the project-team monitor, run asynchronously with trend tracking, and TeamRetro isn't affiliated with Atlassian.

Adapted from Atlassian's Team Playbook (Team Health Monitor: project teams), licensed under CC BY-NC-SA. Wording is TeamRetro's own.

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