When you own something you treat it very differently than if you were simply running it. Owning it means you are responsible for it, you have a vested interest in it, you want to see it succeed and become something greater. Running it is making it gets from point A to B as quickly as possible. We make Owning it sound like a bad thing because then we are responsible and accountable for the outcome…
Whether you are restarting with an old team or starting with a new team – the last week of “things opening up” was probably stressful for you and your team. Not only that, how many times have we been through this before? (I don’t want to count, but I know the number is lurking in the back of my head). You have a ton of things to catch up on, you have to motivate your…
Every Software Team needs to have a Theme. Something that defines their existence, their purpose, and who they are. This Theme can morph and change as the team grows and develops. It might not be readily “seen” what the Theme is, you might not know where to start and if that’s the case, start with this year – What is your theme for your team for this year? What do you want them to accomplish?…
The concept of sprints was never anything new. Don’t take on a lot of work, do in small bits so you can show progress and keep your work cycles short. We then bundle it up with a bow by showing to the people who are paying us what it is that we’ve built, get feedback, make changes, and move forward. We’ve been living this life for years – it’s called a ToDo list – and every…
Nothing is more important than your team’s objective, purpose, their direction, even if you want to call it their policy. I sometimes refer to this as their mantra. It’s the one thing, the one line that people can repeat to themselves, again and again, that will find its way into their work that has the potential to seep into everything that they do. And all it takes is sitting down with them and batting around…