Smaller teams, with a narrower focus of responsibility, may be able to deliver better results. This happens due to lesser distractions, clarity in objectives, and higher team coordination. However, as explained earlier, teams can get too focused on their internal priorities, and lose track of the larger context. We also discussed how adding a program management overhead, to solve cross-team coordination, only adds to the chaos, since program management has responsibility without accountability.
When there is responsibility without accountability, it causes a mismatch in expectations. Managers can choose to get things done in areas where they have better control, because it makes them succeed with little effort. It helps them to check things off the to-do list, whether or not there is value delivered. However, because they have no accountability, when there is a delay, the tendency is to blame people or to optimize productivity...