Standard : Teams operate at a sustainable pace

Purpose and Strategic Importance

This standard ensures teams maintain a healthy, maintainable pace of work. By balancing ambition with wellbeing, teams remain creative, resilient, and able to deliver value consistently over the long term.

It supports our policy "Sustainable Pace". Without this standard, teams risk burnout, falling quality, and attrition.

Strategic Impact

  • Sustained high performance without burnout
  • Improved morale and retention
  • Consistent delivery quality over time

Risks of Not Having This Standard

  • Burnout and high attrition rates
  • Declining product quality due to overwork
  • Loss of innovation capacity

CMMI Maturity Model

Level 1 – Initial

  • People & Culture: Long hours and urgency are normalised. Wellbeing ignored.
  • Process & Governance: Planning ignores team capacity. Workload set top-down.
  • Technology & Tools: No tools for monitoring or managing workload.
  • Measurement & Metrics: No tracking of team wellbeing or workload sustainability.

Level 2 – Managed

  • People & Culture: Some awareness of sustainability, but overwork persists.
  • Process & Governance: Occasional attempts to reduce load, but reactive.
  • Technology & Tools: Basic scheduling tools, no systematic workload management.
  • Measurement & Metrics: Burnout noted in surveys, but not consistently acted on.

Level 3 – Defined

  • People & Culture: Teams and leaders openly discuss pace and wellbeing.
  • Process & Governance: Planning incorporates capacity; sustainable pace considered in commitments.
  • Technology & Tools: Tools used to track velocity, WIP, and workload distribution.
  • Measurement & Metrics: Regular monitoring of pace, throughput, and wellbeing scores.

Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed

  • People & Culture: Sustainable pace becomes cultural expectation.
  • Process & Governance: Portfolio management actively balances ambition with capacity.
  • Technology & Tools: Integrated tools provide real-time insights into workload and burnout risks.
  • Measurement & Metrics: Quantitative data links sustainable pace with quality and retention.

Level 5 – Optimising

  • People & Culture: Teams model and advocate sustainable practices across the organisation.
  • Process & Governance: Continuous improvement of planning and forecasting for wellbeing.
  • Technology & Tools: Predictive analytics anticipate risks of overload before they occur.
  • Measurement & Metrics: Continuous improvement loop connects pace, quality, and engagement.

Key Measures

  • Average working hours per team member
  • Employee wellbeing/engagement survey scores
  • Attrition rate linked to burnout indicators
  • Velocity consistency over time