Recently I read this joke: James went to the canteen on the 24th of December and the cook served empty dishes. “What are you doing there? he asked. Where’s the food?” The cook answered, “Today it’s a half-day holiday, so I’m serving but haven’t cooked”.
As an end-to-end tester, I feel sometimes like James. Here is a situation I’ve experienced once.

Our product gained its whole functionality through several microservices. The teams were divided according to the microservice they developed. Once a customer had complained that they were waiting for 10 minutes for their dashboard to get loaded. The support forwarded the problem to the UI-team, “a clear UI-case”. The team investigated and refactored their code and finally delivered an optimized version. Then a colleague did an end-to-end load test before deploying to the customer’s site. After the test, he came back and said: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the frames on the dashboard are loaded now in one second. The bad news is, it takes again 10 minutes to see something in them”. Oops, the data comes from the backend.
I was embarrassed and angry that we were so divided and isolated that we couldn’t feel anymore that we contribute to a whole eco-system where you cannot exist without the other teams. Autonomy is absolutely necessary but what it was missing from us was the glue keeping the parts together. What this glue is made of, I found it in my favorite management lesson, Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi.

The rebels want to destroy the Death Star (I call this the product). A big Assembly is called, where officers, commanders, and crew participate. The leader of the rebels explains to them why they have to do this “product”. Then the officers analyze the plan of the attack, what they have to do. One team has to go to the moon of Endor and deactivate the energy shield of the Death Star (microservice Shield-deactivation) and a second-team should be prepared for an attack on the reactor of the Death Star (microservice reactor-destruction). Their dependency is clear. Lando Calrissen volunteers to lead the fighter attack to the Death Star and Han Solo undertakes the mission to disable the energy shield on the moon of Endor. The Who is clarified and the teams are set. Han Solo offers his spaceship to Lando with the words “You need all the help you can get. She’s the fastest ship in the fleet”. The mission goes on, and instead of the impediments, Lando trusts that Han Solo will deactivate the shield and thus he doesn’t quit. They were divided in smaller teams but they were not conquered. What has led to their success?

One leader
They all have the same leader. Can you imagine what could happen if Han Solo had a different leader than Lando and those two had to agree before and during each step of the mission?
One vision
They all understood why it is important to destroy the Death Star and what is the cost for it.
One communication layer
They talk directly to the leaders/officers. There were no intermediates delivering commands one to the other (as it happens with the emperor).
The people who do the work are in the meeting.
All-people-game instead of one-man-show
They started synchronized. Lando knew about the mission beforehand but he didn’t gather his people and leave. He waited for the joint Go.
Help & trust
They help each other. They trust each other.
Working & appropriate infrastructure
They have working ships (hyperspace activator works)
Supportive leaders
Their leader and officers do not run away to the next project but they are standby for support while the mission develops (aggressive scrum).
Focus on the product
They are focused. There is no change in target in the middle of the mission. What would have happened if the officers have changed their mind in the meanwhile and called the teams back “You know, now the most important thing is to go to Tatooine planet. Come back”.
Their mission is appropriate to their skills
They have the experience they need for their operations.

Think of how the projects run in your company. Do you miss any of those ingredients in your glue? Your mission is to determine how you wish to work with others and believe you can do it. If you put some glue to the smaller parts they can be divided but they are not conquered.