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• Hinders communication of inter-tier dependencies
• Enables tier "bubble" culture if unmitigated
• Difficult to take advantage of generalist leadership
• Hinders generalists

• Can lead to isolation of tiers and thus hinder inter-tier communication
• Enables tier "bubble" culture if unmitigated
• Difficult to take advantage of generalist leadership
• Hinders generalists

Recently I have worked in a group that transitioned from horizontal teams to diagonal (nearly vertical) teams. It has been particular instructional to see the same group of people aligned two different ways. It makes some advantages and disadvantages quite clear.

Recently I have worked in a group that transitioned from horizontal teams to diagonal (nearly vertical) teams. It has been particularly instructional to see the same group of people aligned two different ways. It makes some advantages and disadvantages quite clear.

• All the parts of a user story in one team ("one stop shop")
• Fosters inter-tier collaboration and growth of generalist skills
• Supports generalists

As others have mentioned, secondary structures/behaviors that slice the other direction can help mitigate the drawbacks of either system.

• All the parts of a user story in one team ("one stop shop")
• Specifically assists delivering n-tier stories in a single sprint (although do you really need that?)
• Fosters inter-tier collaboration and growth of generalist skills
• Supports generalists

As others have mentioned, secondary structures/behaviors that slice the other direction can help mitigate the drawbacks of either system. One interesting mitigating factor is sprint duration. Short sprints render some of the disadvantages of horizontal teams more tolerable. If you can build the backend this week and the frontend next week, that might be fast enough?