I’m at the SHRM conference in Chicago this week, courtesy of Dice.com. I blog for them, and am working on an agile recruiting series. Watch for it, in the coming weeks. I read this piece, The War for STEM Talent is a Lie. I agree. Until we do all of these things: Hire the people […]
“Sally, I need you to stop testing on this project and move over to Dan’s project.” “Are you serious, Ben? I just got here a month ago. I just started to learn what’s going on. I finally have the trust of the team. I haven’t worked with these guys before. I found a nice, juicy
When I taught that one-day workshop in Sweden, one of the questions we discussed was the number of essential skills to list in a job analysis, and by extension, the job description. Too few essential skills, and you don’t differentiate your position from anyone else’s. Too many, and you over-constrain the role. Surely, there must
I gave a talk last week at Better Software/Agile Development, called Exploding Management Myths. This is my first talk based on some of my management myths. Yes, the ones I’ve been writing for the last 18 months. Yes, I have more in me 🙂 I have posted the slides and the audio from my talk
I delivered a keynote at Let’s Test in Sweden last week, “Becoming a Kick-Ass Test Manager.” A lovely gentleman, Aleksis Tulonen, recorded the audio. Thank you, Aleksis! I attempted to marry the audio to the slides. I was not successful. However, the audio is up on slideshare. You can download the slides, page through them
Three Tips for Artisanal Change Have you ever tasted a superb strawberry just off a family farm? Or a micro brew beer from a small brewery or a chocolate from superior chocolatier? If you have, you can remember the mouth feel, the explosion of taste in your mouth, the way it felt sliding down your
I gave a talk at Devs in the ‘Ditch last week when I was in London. I posted the slides on slideshare: Overcoming Three Pitfalls of Transitioning to Agile. The very nice people at 7digital made a video and posted it, too. If you can take the time, watch the entire video. Rob Bowyer gave
Josiah, the VP of engineering, called his directors meeting to order. “First on our agenda is my plan for the reorganization of our department,” he said. The directors looked at each other, puzzled. “I’ve noticed that several of the project teams are having trouble working together, so I’ve decided that we need a reorganization back
I will be at Let’s Test the week of May 20. I am offering a version of my new hiring workshop, Hiring For Your Team: Culture Trumps (Technical) Skills. If you will be at Let’s Test and you have not yet decided which tutorial to take, I invite you to take mine. I just finished
My friend and colleague, Gil Broza, is interviewing me for his Individuals and Interactions virtual training event. My topic? “Focus Keeps You Going.” If you read my personal kanban series a couple of weeks ago, you saw how my focus kept me going. Even with a big interruption last week, due to a death in