Acme, a software company, has a technical excellence problem. Its customers report more problems than the product teams do. Two managers, Cindy and David, want to bring specialized training in for product teams. (They want to help their teams learn to use Test-Driven Development, TDD, and Acceptance Test-Driven Development, ATDD. Cindy and David suspect that […]
Did you ever work on a project that dragged on and on, slipping a week every week? Back in the day, we called those projects “death marches.” I never saw anyone literally die, but I saw too many divorces, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and very dissatisfied and unhappy employees and customers. Waterfall projects can
I said in the Modern Management books that managers lead and serve the team (at all levels). However, I’ve seen organizations try to separate the leading work from the serving work. That’s when the organization creates “people” managers. The people managers serve the team by creating a trusting relationship with each person on the team.
Tim, the Engineering VP, was worried he would lose people after their reviews and salary changes. He didn’t have enough money to pay the salaries he thought everyone deserved. He’d fought with his fellow VPs for more money, but that didn’t work. He had a too-small pot of money to distribute. He had these problems:
Modern Management: Start with Congruence to Change Your Culture Do you want a more effective organizational culture that delivers more agility? Maybe you’ve tried agile framework for teams or products. While you’ve seen some improvement, you’re not where you thought you’d be. Instead of focusing on practices or team principles, consider changing your culture to
Dan, a CIO, needs the teams to work faster. The customers are moving away from the company’s products. If they can recapture the customers, the company will succeed. If not? Layoffs loom. Dan demands the teams start more work. And he demands they finish the work faster than the teams think they can. Even when
There was a Twitter discussion about XP not having crossed the chasm. Someone Lula Rodrigues posted this wonderful Kent Beck talk about that here: https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/videos/xp-as-an-incentive-system-kent-beck-xp-2018/. Lots of great insights. Watch all of it, including the Q&A at the end. Early in the video, Kent discusses the all-too-frequent sexism and racism I also see in tech.
All decisions are a form of power. We exercise our personal power (power within) in many ways: when we decide where to live, what to wear, and what to eat. Not only that, we also choose our jobs, who we vote for, and where to go on vacation. We have a ton of personal power.
Modern Management: Use Your Integrity Even if You Fear for Your Job Susan, the Platform Director, was worried about ProductA—still in development. The company received about 75% of its revenue from that one product. Worse, VeryImportantCustomer, VIC, accounted for half of that revenue. And from the demos, Susan could see the teams were not going to
You need a senior person at a meeting. The meeting is supposed to start at 2 pm. The leader strolls in at 2:15. When leaders act this way, they show their power. When I’ve asked why the person is late, they often say, “I had another meeting that ran long.” While that’s what occurred, people