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…
If you are accountable for your actions, whether right or wrong, succeed or fail, but mostly when you are wrong and you fail – you will change the culture of your team overnight. No longer will they think they need to hide and toil away mercilessly in the background trying to get something fixed before someone notices. In meetings, they will speak up about something being broken and not let it go down the line.…
I came across this article last week on StackOverflow – The Great Resignation as it applies to Software Developers. It’s a pretty good read – unfortunately, it’s nothing new – all of these elements of being a software developer existed before – all the Pandemic has done has made them visible (more so before). Burnout is not new, the term might have even been invented by Software Developers. The section on “Challenges for Managers and…