In a conventional organization, multiple departments are dedicated to specific functions — marketing, finance, human resources, operations, and so on. A lot of the time, they work separately, only sharing information when it concerns more than one department.
However, the modern demands of building and delivering software require an ability to solve numerous problems at a high speed. With that comes a need to have an entire team that reflects the variety of expertise that goes into providing solutions. This is where cross-functional teams come in.