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Standard : Team members consistently feel safe and included

Purpose and Strategic Importance

This standard ensures every team member feels safe, respected, and included-regardless of role, background, or perspective. It fosters a culture where people can contribute fully, challenge ideas, and grow with confidence.

Aligned to our "Psychological Safety First" policy, this standard strengthens collaboration, trust, and innovation. Without it, voices go unheard, engagement drops, and team cohesion suffers.

Strategic Impact

Clearly defined impacts of meeting this standard include improved delivery flow, reduced risk, higher system resilience, and better alignment to business needs. Over time, teams will see reduced rework, faster time to value, and stronger system integrity.

Risks of Not Having This Standard

  • Reduced ability to respond to change or failure
  • Accumulation of technical debt or friction
  • Poor developer experience and morale
  • Decreased confidence in releases and features
  • Misalignment between technical implementation and business priorities

CMMI Maturity Model

  • Level 1 – Initial: Inclusion is not actively measured or discussed.

  • Level 2 – Managed: Some teams foster inclusivity but outcomes vary.

  • Level 3 – Defined: Practices supporting inclusivity and belonging are consistent across teams.

  • Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed: Inclusion is measured and influences leadership action.

  • Level 5 – Optimising: Inclusive practices are deeply embedded in team culture, reviewed through lived experience, and constantly improved.


Key Measures

  • Adoption metrics relevant to the standard (to be defined)
  • Quality, throughput, and system health metrics aligned to capability
  • Maturity scores based on structured assessment
Associated Policies
  • Psychological Safety First
Associated Practices
  • Collaborative Story Refinement
  • Engineering Onboarding Playbooks
  • Guilds & Chapters
  • Dev-Product Pairing
  • Engineering Office Hours
  • Mob Programming
  • Pair Programming
  • Psychological Safety Practices
  • Retrospective Action Loops
  • Shared Learning Days
  • Swarming on Issues
  • Tech Talks & Showcases
Associated Measures
  • Developer Satisfaction (DevEx NPS)

Technical debt is like junk food - easy now, painful later.

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