Review By: Lisa Crispin
02/18/2008We all know that it's not the methodology, tool, or process that makes a project successful. It's the people. Collaboration helps people do their best work and increases the chance of success. That's why the information in this book is so valuable. Once the first section has convinced you of why you need collaboration, the book goes on to explain how to make it happen constructively. The practices and tools in this book will help make any organization’s culture one that encourages working together.

Every meeting is an opportunity to reap the value of collaboration. This book presents a proven toolbox to help any kind of meeting, for any kind of group, in any context—distributed, fast-growing, or one-on-one. Readers will also glean tips on promoting collaboration after the meeting is over.

Although the book is aimed at process owners, project managers, team leads, and people who facilitate meetings, it is worth reading even if you're never in an encounter of more than two people. For example, asking the right questions is valuable even if you're not leading the meeting. Managing conflict is a skill we all need.

The best part of the book is the numerous anecdotes relating to the author's personal experiences—how she applied a particular tool in a situation, and what resulted. If you learn best by example, this is a great book for you.

Distributed teams present a common roadblock, and Collaboration Explained devotes a chapter to practices for distributed teams such as conference call collaboration practices, real-time interactive technologies for collaboration, and ways to collaborate without face-to-face interaction.

The last section of the book contains collaborative facilitation guides for all types of meetings, particularly the different meetings that are part of agile development. The author covers agenda items for each type of meeting, with prompt questions to get started, a process to use such as brainstorming or round robin, and tips such as when to use a timer.

I'm a tester on a team using Scrum and XP to produce a Web-based financial application. Although I have managed test teams in the past, I wasn't sure how well this book would apply to my day-to-day work. I'm a closet introvert, so the idea of facilitating anything scares me. Since collaboration is key to our team’s success, I thought it would be worth reading anyway.

Reading this book gave me extra motivation and additional tools to collaborate with our business experts, which helped our development team understand and deliver the value the business is looking for. Most of us aren't wild for meetings, but sitting in an unproductive meeting is the worst. Asking a simple question such as "Do we have an agenda for this meeting?" or "Is this discussion related to the purpose of this meeting?" can put the meeting on a useful track. Jumping up and diagramming the discussion or writing pros and cons on the whiteboard can go a long way to focusing a discussion.

I love the practical, concrete ideas in this book and the clear way they're presented. Multi-voting is a simple idea that helps the team figure out its priorities; our team uses this to great effect in deciding which areas we want to focus on improving. The "Pass the Cards" exercise, where each participant has thirty seconds to evaluate a brainstorming idea on a card and pass it on, is a great way to take advantage of a group’s synergy.

The reference section in the back was my favorite part of the book. I tried out ideas from the sprint review section right away, with positive results. If you have trouble communicating with coworkers or with people in other groups, or if meetings are driving you nuts, or if you're just looking for ways to make a difference, this book is a gold mine.

Whether we're in a management position or not, we can use collaborative leadership s