Articles

I Can Still Do Significant Technical Work Management Myth #8: I Can Still Do Significant Technical Work

The temptation can be incredibly strong for managers—especially new ones—to step in when a technical problem arises. But, that isn’t a very good show of faith in one’s team members. Johanna Rothman writes that as a manager, you have to delegate a problem and leave it delegated.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Management Myth #7: I Am too Valuable to Take a Vacation Management Myth #7: I Am too Valuable to Take a Vacation

There's a common myth among managers—that they are the only drivers and decision makers for their teams and, therefore, can't take time off. In reality, regardless of the team or workgroup you manage, your team makes decisions without you all the time.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Overcome Marketing Analysis Paralysis Overcome Marketing Analysis Paralysis: Three Steps to Agile Marketing

If you’re not actively marketing all the time, you’re letting the parade pass you by. To take advantage of ever-present, ever-changing opportunities, your team can use agile techniques to help with marketing.

Jascha Kaykas-Wolff
Controlled Flight into Terrain

Entering a holding pattern on a project can give you the opportunity to gather additional information about a problem. But, sometimes, holding consumes valuable resources with disastrous consequences.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Hours, Velocity, Siloed Teams, and Gantts

Johanna Rothman shares some tips for project and program managers turned ScrumMasters who are adopting agile. If your management won’t allow you to take training, start reading.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Give Positive Feedback Before Negative? Maybe Not

Many people are familiar with the build-break-build method of starting with positive feedback, then the negative, and then more positive. But is that the most effective way to convey your compliments and criticism? Recent research has been done to determine the most effective, and polite method.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Management Myth #6: I Can Save Everyone Management Myth #6: I Can Save Everyone

Not every employee is salvageable, and it’s almost always a case of cultural fit. If you’ve provided honest and open feedback and the employee can’t or won’t change, it’s up to the manager, or the self-managing team, to help the employee move on.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
What’s Governance Got to Do with Effective Software Development?

Governance doesn't have to end in bureaucracy. Learn to maintain and refine your governance structures and you'll reap the rewards of improved decision-making processes.

Graham Oakes's picture Graham Oakes
Reaching a Shared Understanding

Great things can come from teams that collaborate on projects, but reaching a shared understanding isn't always an easy task. With a variety of backgrounds and opinions, team members often face difficulty in coming to agreement. We looked into the causes for these roadblocks, and how to avoid them.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
STAREAST 2012: Concurrent Testing Games: Developers and Testers Working Together

The best software development teams find ways for programmers and testers to work closely together. These teams recognize that programmers and testers each bring their own unique strengths and perspectives to the project. However, working in agile teams requires us to unlearn many of the patterns that traditional development taught us. In this interactive session with Nate Oster, learn how to use the agile practice of concurrent testing to overcome common testing dysfunctions by having programmers and testers work together-rather than against each other-to deliver quality results throughout an iteration. Join Nate and practice concurrent testing with games that demonstrate just how powerfully the wrong approaches can act against your best efforts and how agile techniques can help you escape the cycle of poor quality and late delivery.

Nate Oster, CodeSquads LLC

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