leadership

Articles

 A Team’s First Steps into Shared Ownership Snapshot: A Team’s First Steps into Shared Ownership

Karen Favazza Spencer writes of the time her team members had to modernize and expand the capabilities of their legacy system. In this situation, Karen took on the role of ScrumMaster, implemented several helpful agile techniques, and empowered the team to share leadership of the project with management.

Pollyanna Pixton Culturally Sound Leadership: An Interview with Pollyanna Pixton
Podcast

Pollyanna Pixton shares why crafting a healthy and productive agile culture is so difficult, and how it relies heavily on the shoulders of team leaders. She stresses the importance of leaders not providing their teams with answers—but giving them the ownership to solve problems on their own.

Noel Wurst's picture Noel Wurst
 Geographically Distributed Agile Team Primary Getting the Most Out of Your Geographically Distributed Agile Team

Shane Hastie and Johanna Rothman explain the challenges that come with distance, be it cultural, social, linguistic, temporal, or geographic. If you work to reinforce your collaboration habits every day, your geographically distributed agile team will thank you.

Management Myth 13: I Must Never Admit My Mistakes

Managers are people, too. They have bad-manager days. And, even on good-manager days, they can show doubt, weakness, and uncertainty. They can be vulnerable. Managers are not omnipotent. That’s why it’s critical for a manager to admit a mistake immediately.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Management Myth #12: I Must Promote the Best Technical Person to Be a Manager

Managing requires a different skill set from technical work, yet many companies promote their best technical workers to management positions. Here are some things to consider when it's time to promote your technical workers.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
CMMI® to Agile: Options and Consequences
Slideshow

If you long for greater agility in your process-oriented or CMMI world, this session is for you. Paul McMahon shares how organizations can integrate agile approaches with CMMI and its key process area requirements. He discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches taken by two organizations-one a CMMI Level 3 and the other a Level 5-to embrace agile principles and practices. To ensure your organization doesn't jeopardize its CMMI compliance with agile methods, Paul shares an approach that uses techniques such as asking key questions to focus objectives, pruning your processes, using the CMMI less formally, and keeping your "must dos" packaged separately from guidelines. He describes and discusses examples of each technique. Learn why the two organizations took different approaches, why one achieved its goals, and why the other fell short.

Paul McMahon, PEM Systems
Leveraging Core Values for Healthier, More Productive Teams
Slideshow

Although all teams require a healthy level of interaction, high-performing teams' interactions are all based on trust, respect, and shared goals. Such teams find ways to overcome the fear of conflict, and quickly identify and resolve issues that are getting in the way. Scott Ross shares how, when the Omnyx software R&D department determined their culture was hindering performance, they crafted a core values statement that has served them well for the past three years. Scott describes the ways they proactively and intentionally use their value statement to drive the culture they seek and discusses the results they have achieved. Take back the list of resources that Scott uses daily to help himself and others see how their actions add to and take away from their core values.

Scott Ross, Omnyx
Beyond Processes and Tools: What about Ethics?
Slideshow

Too often we focus only on the latest headline-grabbing processes and products. While recognizing that we must respond to ever-changing business needs, deep down we know we must live by a few absolutes as we approach our daily work. At the core is a standard of ethical conduct that we always uphold. With an ethical underpinning, we will earn the trust and respect of our peers and those we serve. Jackie Pulley presents a framework for professional ethics within the IT development profession, including key practices from her experiences gained during more than twenty years in IT software development. Drawing on the PMI ethics standards, her personal lessons learned, and conversations with other leaders, Jackie offers a thought-provoking session for C-Level executives, freshly degreed software developers, and everyone in between.

Jackie Pulley, Pulley Consulting Partners, LLC
The Journey from Manager to Leader: Empowering Your Team
Slideshow

As I reflect on my struggles empowering teams to become self-managing, I am amazed that I didn't understand earlier. Things that seem so obvious after the fact are often difficult to acknowledge in the moment. I failed to recognize that my extensive experience with risk mitigation was preventing the team from taking risks. Tricia Broderick shares the lessons she learned in her journey from manager to leader. Join in and expect challenging self-reflection as you work with Tricia to recognize how your past successes can create limitations for your team. Learn about assumptions and expectations surrounding self-managing teams, common misunderstandings of what you need to do to empower a team, and the reasons why so many managers, despite their good intentions, fail. Leave with a goal to let go of certain skills that helped achieve your professional success.

Tricia Broderick, TechSmith Corporation
Red Beads: A New Tool for Managing Software Projects
Slideshow

Warning! Warning! Managing software projects may be accompanied by continued bouts of nausea-brought on by unmet expectations, process churn, late deliveries, and worse. In their attempt to conquer these problems, many managers stiffen their resolve, create stricter schedules, and install rigid processes to guide development from inception to production. Howard Deiner demonstrates that better results come from fundamental changes in the way managers and the organization approach problems. Drawing on W. Edward Deming’s "14 Obligations of Management," Howard reprises (with volunteers from the audience) Deming's famous Red Bead Experiment on its 30th anniversary and draws conclusions about how our approach to problem-solving affects our day-to-day work. Expect to get up on your feet and have a lot of fun "working" in a simulation of a modern workday environment, leading and managing the development efforts.

Howard Deiner, Deinersoft, Inc.

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