7 Habits of Bad Bosses

1. Poor communication skills
2. Bad judgment
3. Inability to lead teams
4. Problems in relationships
5. Poor conflict resolutions skills
6. Inability to manage themselves
7. Inability to learn from their mistakes

6 Baseline questions regarding scrum

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1. What’s your elevator pitch for Scrum and agile software development techniques?
1. Help people build software in 30 days or less.
2. When you were initially coming up with these concepts, did you ever envision that the methods would become as pervasive as they have?
1. We, (Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber) came up with it for our own survival, and then we experimented with it in a number of companies that we were in. I would have never guessed. But I view Waterfall as the worst thing that ever happened to our profession, ever. So I’m delighted that it happened.
3. Why was Waterfall the worst thing that ever happened to the profession?
1. It starts with the expectation that you can take complex technology, people, and changing requirements, and you can predict exactly what they’ll be a far point in advance, and you put someone in charge of it that tries to maintain and stick to that plan. 
4. Are Agile and Scrum techniques equally applicable to other areas of business, and life?
1. David Starr runs his family using daily Scrums and weekly planning meetings (PDF). A sales operation is run by Scrum. They lay out the yearly goal, and then every month they lay out what they’re going to try to do, they look and see what they were able to accomplish, they adjust the business accordingly, then they move forward. The only thing that wasn’t done with an emperical, iterative or incremental approach was software! Which is the most complex of them all. It’s so weird.
5. What’s the biggest mistake that a company makes, or a software development team makes, in trying to implement these principles?
1. We’re trained in our organizations to believe that there’s someone in charge, who has people working for him, and he can tell people to do things and it will happen.
2. Companies think that people’s creativity can be mandated.
3. The hardest thing is to get the manager to see that his or her job is to see, what is the best the team can do, and help them do it, rather than get them to do what the manager thinks they should do. Anyone who’s been a parent knows exactly this problem with their kids.
6. How do you balance the need to collaborate with the need to concentrate?
1. People think opening up space and letting the noise vibrate is collaboration. Having people so you can see them, and go over and start writing on a board, or you can get the people you need right there, that is collaboration. There’s often a mistake that this ominous noise is collaboration. Visual cues and access are the keys.

Agile Consulting

I thought this was a great advertisement for consulting services.  

Franklin Theater

Franklin Theater

Ingredients for a successful Retrospective

Over the years I have had the opportunity to conduct many Retrospectives and lessons learned sessions.  Admittedly, some have went extremely well.... and others were lacking the original zest or spirit of the ceremony.  At times the meetings were perceived as punishment rather than opportunities to improve.  None-the-less we as a group pushed forward, looking for topics to highlight and possibly squeeze out some beacon of light to reassure us we were doing the right thing.

I have made a point to express my gratitude for the concept of Retrospectives.  The ceremony itself should not be taken for granted.  I have worked at several other companies where the primary focus rested soled on the term productivity.  Although I am not diminishing the the importance of velocity within the workplace, I am excited to see a company invest in itself and its employees by setting aside time for everyone to look at ways to improve.  It is for this reason, I have taken this event so personally.  If someone was going to invest time in me and my work, then I want going to take advantage of it.

Throughout this journey I have since discovered monotony and retro fatigue is a universal problem.  Many coaches struggle with finding creative ways to keep their teams engaged and the retrospective successful.  I have found a few universal themes that should be considered to combat a disastrous event.

• Time box the event.  Preferably 60 minutes max.  However if you do not need the entire time call an end to the meeting.
• Have an agenda advertised.  Issues do not magically appear the day of a Retrospective.  Make the retro agenda a dynamic list everyone can engage at any time. Sometimes there are surprises, though often the subject has at least some notion of where things are not going great.  This will help stimulate collaboration and remove selective amnesia on the day of the retro.
• Turn the computers off.  Removing distractions from the meeting will assist in keeping everyone focused on the discussion.  I am a strong advocate of collaboration.  There are several proven techniques to encourage collaboration and ensure even the most introverted disposition has a voice.
• Solicit feedback regarding the coaches performance.  Recently I had the opportunity to participate in my own Personal Retrospective to evaluate current performance as an Agile Project Manager and Coach.  It was humbling to hear coworkers who I respect greatly speak both positively and critically of my role.  In the end though, I was appreciative of the feedback as it worked to quiet the distracting internal voice of insecurity and help me focus on the team members perspective. Additionally, it helped me understand where I have been dropping the ball, along with recommendations on how to get on the right track.

The benefits of dividing a project into phases

I ran across a SlideShare presentation highlighting the art of storytelling within UI/UX development. Although the presentation was structured on storytelling, it reminded of the importance of dividing our projects into phases in order to better facilitate a workflow. By setting up smaller defined iteration cycles (aka phases), you promote transparency, the opportunity for constructive critiques and an overall environment for everyone to excel.

No matter whether you are building a small webpage for an upcoming event or a complex architectural software redesign, all designs goes through the critical phases of conceptual design, design development, implementation and refinement. Whenever entering a project be mindful your enthusiasm doesn't cause you to skip one of these critical milestones. The distinct differences between each phase allow for constructive critiques and feature sign off.

The precise idiosyncrasy of engineers have a tendency to make exact calculations every time they are faced with a problem. Designers will encourage iterations allowing multiple opportunities for mistakes or flaws in the design to present themselves. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the engineers from the software designers when you work at a software company. By identifying realistic goals and shorter iteration cycles we can provide the framework for everyone to flourish within an Agile environment. We should be looking for ways to create an environment for both dispositions to shine.

Credit to Anna Dahlstrom for the slides:  http://www.slideshare.net/annadahlstrom/designing-around-storytelling-digital-pond-london-06-feb-2014

Performance Reviews

Performance reviews tend to be a very tricky endeavor for most organizations. Recently our development group has started embracing the attitude "performance reviews are not helpful, feedback is".

Several examples have been highlighted as out conversation has evolved to reflect the disposition of our development group. They are:

http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2014/01/performance-reviews-are-not-useful-feedback-is.html

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140206114808-15893932-how-adobe-got-rid-of-traditional-performance-reviews?trk=object-title&_mSplash=1

As we look to understand effective ways to conduct "reviews" the theme that has evolve can be summarized best as, "Don't get rid of performance reviews; do them all the time and let teammates own their job role."