Erran Carmel and Alberto Espinosa have written a gem of a book for anyone trying to work in a geographically distributed team: I’m Working While They’re Sleeping: Time Zone Separation Challenges and Solutions. They first start with an introduction to time zones, and explain why I am so confused when I travel. Everyone moves to
Micromanagement is Not Transparency! Do you want to know what your geographically distributed team is doing? Maybe your team has a sticky-card wall. Or a kanban board. And, maybe they post pictures of it on their wiki. Or, maybe they use a tool and talk about their status in their standup meetings. And, maybe because
One of the problems in a geographically distributed team is the dreaded email chain. Someone has a problem and sends an email. Probably late in the day, when he or she is frustrated after pounding on the problem all day, getting nowhere–except more frustrated. Sally sends the email to the project team. I take offense
One of the biggest management myths is, “I must treat everyone the same way.” In our organizations, we have career ladders that try to fit us into “ticky-tacky” boxes for promotion, assume that everyone brainstorms the same way, and that everyone likes the same kind of projects. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone
Back at OOP 2012, I gave a talk called “Six Behaviors to Consider When Hiring for an Agile Team.” These are all team-based, interpersonal skills that any team needs, but are critical on an agile team: collaboration; how to stop when something is good enough–especially when the customer says so; how to ask for help,
I’m doing a webinar with Rally on March 7. It’s about selecting the Number One project in your project portfolio. Please join me and Isaac Montgomery, who will attempt to rein me in (ha!) for What’s the Number One Project in Your Project Portfolio? on March 7. Here’s an excerpt from the description: You have
Using Checkins to Create Transparency Do You Want to Work More Effectively in Geographically Distributed Teams? In preparation for our geographically distributed teams webinar last week, Shane and I asked people what their greatest challenge was for their teams. Many of the comments were about communication and trust. One question was this: “How can I help
I have another management myth column posted over at Techwell: Management Myth #2: Only ‘The Expert’ Can Perform This Work. What do you think? Please comment over there.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Should you Commit, Kill, or Transform? Dear JR: “I’m on three different must-do projects. I can’t tell if they are all really “must do.” If they were, wouldn’t my managers decide which one I should be on?” – A Harried Developer Dear Harried Developer: If you’re in this position, as a developer,
One of the most difficult parts of project portfolio management is deciding how to rank the projects — that is, determining which projects should be done now, later, and, most importantly, never. There are several ways to rank a project portfolio. Each is useful in specific situations and not so useful in others. But all