People & Teams

When teams "go agile," members of the whole team take on greater responsibility for thinking and deciding as a unit. Though individual team members may know how to make great individual decisions, few people bring the skills or perspective needed to make high quality decisions as a group. Teams need to plan for all elements of high quality team decisions, balancing technical quality, commitment to implementation, efficiency, and opportunities for team development. Rather than relying solely on a consensus model, an effective team will have a repertoire of decision-making methods and select the best approach for their decisions before they face each choice point. Diana Larsen introduces a decision tree model for teams and covers the what, who, when, where, why, and how of team decision-making.

Even as a large number of teams are adopting agile methods, some teams are finding this transition to be a big leap. Because each team is unique, they are not able to follow all of the practices "by the book." Each team must customize certain practices to best suit its needs and abilities. Naresh Jain shares his experiences guiding agile teams through this transition. He introduces a technique of coaching teams that employs Goldratt's Theory of Constraints to identify the bottlenecks and issues faced by the team during the agile adoption process. Naresh shows how more experienced agile teams can use the Theory of Constraints technique as a just-in-time practice to eliminate bottlenecks and deliver new knowledge and experience to the team.

Your approach to learning a new technology or acquiring a new skill is key to your personal success. So, how do you learn how to learn? What tricks can you use to learn faster and retain more of what you learn? Andy Hunt presents a brief recap of The Dreyfus Model for learning and explains how you can learn more deliberately by managing your “knowledge portfolio.” Andy explores practical learning techniques including mind maps, reading techniques, and situational feedback. During this class, he shows how these techniques fit in to the cognitive model discussed in “Refactoring Your Wetware (Part 1).” Andy describes methods ranging from the tried-and-true to the truly exotic that he uses to cope with the veritable torrent of new information that assaults each of us. Andy’s promise? "You'll learn one proven technique that can improve your daily productivity by 20%-30%."

You've probably heard of Theory X, Theory Y, and Theory Z management styles. Even though we've run out of letters at the end of the alphabet, it's time for a new management theory for self-organizing agile teams. Esther Derby examines what parts of a manager's job stay the same and what parts diminish as the team manages its own work. She discusses the new roles for managers in agile organizations: team coach-creating an environment for success and helping the team improve their teamwork; team champion-helping the team interface with the rest of the organization; boundary manager-keeping distractions at bay and making sure the team has what it needs; risk manager-anticipating and mitigating risks; and organizational influencer-looking across the organization and removing impediments. Although your role as manager changes as you embrace agile practice, there's plenty to do. Plus, it's even more fun!