- example of a time you worked closely with one or more members of the project team. What did you do, and what happened?"
- "Did your team ever encounter a time when it needed to reorganize and change how it worked?" If the answer is yes, then ask, "What happened?"
A couple of questions may be enough for a phone screen. But before you use these questions, return to your job analysis and review the agile principles. Are there other principles you'd rather ask about in a phone screen? Maybe you want to ask about maintaining the technical excellence of the code. Maybe you need to know more about how people reflect themselves in their work. You can make behavior-description questions relevant to any of the agile principles.
Beware the leading-question trap
Make sure when you're asking your phone screen questions that you don't ask leading questions, which lead the candidate to answer yes or no. Here's one: "Your project team values working software as the primary measure of project progress, right?" Instead, ask how the candidate or the team measured progress as I suggested earlier. Or ask questions such as "How often did you release something to the rest of the project team?"
Recognizing candidates who are capable of performing well on agile teams doesn't require keywords. It requires thinking about the principles and asking questions that allow the candidate to show you she understands and applies the principles in her daily work--even if the resume doesn't describe particular keywords.
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About the author
Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” helps organizational leaders see problems and risks in their product development. She helps them recognize potential “gotchas,” seize opportunities, and remove impediments. Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the technical editor for Agile Connection and the author of these books:
- Manage Your Job Search
- Hiring Geeks That Fit
- Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
- The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
- Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
- Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
Johanna is working on a book about agile program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com and projectmanagementcom and blogs on her website, jrothman.com, as well on createadaptablelife.com.
