Summary: Many of us have horrible experiences with distributed teams where we can find no possibility of collaboration, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Even if a team is distributed, those team members need collaborative opportunities and space. What’s important is the team’s time for collaboration, not time zones. Here are some ways […]
Summary: Consider how your team currently organizes: for resource efficiency, optimizing for the individual; or for flow efficiency, optimizing for the team? Successful agile teams—distributed or not—should collaborate to optimize the flow of work through the team. This approach lets you understand your capacity, learn together, and deliver more effectively. Too many “teams” feel like
If you are like most people I know, it doesn’t matter what approach you take to your projects—your manager has too much work for you to do. Instead of a potential career-limiting conversation, frame the conversation so you can show your manager you’re considering his or her perspective. Here are some options for how to
Dave, the tech lead, was trying to use an agile approach with his team. Four of the people worked together in a team room in Waltham, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. Two people worked from their homes in New Hampshire, and one person, the product owner, worked from her home in Indiana. Their agile approach wasn’t
Summary: Too often, customers have a “fake certainty” about the problems they want to solve. They might not have defined the real problem, but they have frequently defined the solution anyway. The risk is that we might build the wrong thing. When the product owner works with the customers to define the problem, then works
Summary: Many managers and distributed team members think that if they just had the right tools, they could make some agile approach work. Maybe, but tools only enhance the work of a collaborative agile team. Before you select tools, make sure you have people who can work together and have enough skills and capabilities for
In our previous article, we discussed the importance of sufficient hours of overlap in managing a team’s workspace. As a reminder, here are the four components we see that need to be managed in a distributed team workspace. Sufficient hours of overlap in everyone’s workday. Sufficient communications technology that supports everyone equally in synchronous and
Cliff, an IT Director was concerned. One of the projects was a mess. It didn’t seem to matter how much or how little the team had for requirements. The team never seemed to release enough on time. Cliff had only been with the organization for four weeks. Yet, that team seemed to have more trouble
Many organizations want to see an estimate for your program (a collection of projects with one business deliverable) before they fund it. So, the teams might spend significant time estimating everything the product owners and managers hope will be in the product from today’s perspective. Or, you might try a “sprint zero” to understand the
What should managers expect from their agile teams? Should they expect perfect code, or on-time delivery, or cheaper projects? Too many people sell agile as a way to get better, faster, cheaper. The problem is that you can get better code, faster projects, and cheaper results as an outcome of agile across the organization. We