Articles

Finding the Sweet Spot Between Order and Chaos Finding the Sweet Spot Between Order and Chaos

Agile gives us complete freedom and ownership over the development process, but without a healthy measure of self-organization and management, all of that autonomy will not amount to much. Let’s take a look at the chaos and order aspect of agile and how you can embrace both.

John Hurley's picture John Hurley
Four people on a crew team rowing together Rowing in the Same Direction: Use Value Streams to Align Work

Ambiguity abounds about value streams, so it’s good to clarify what they are, why they matter, and how to exploit them. It's important to help employees understand the organization's definition of value, to provide visibility on how business value is created, and to focus on the fast flow of value through the value streams. If everyone understands which direction to row the boat, they can steer toward it together.

Dominica DeGrandis's picture Dominica DeGrandis
Roadblock You’re Ready for DevOps—but Is Your Workplace?

In order to adopt DevOps, organizations need to be able to embrace the openness it requires, encourage experimentation and innovation, and work across departmental silos. You may be ready to encourage collaboration and communication to reap the benefits, but what if your company culture isn't? Here's how you can influence your organizational dynamics to lay the groundwork for DevOps.

Matt Hilbert's picture Matt Hilbert
Encouraging growth Agile Managers: Trust Your Team and Encourage Innovation

In order to fully embrace agile and create an environment where individuals want to work together as a team, managers have to move from a role of dictation to one of direction and mentorship. Instead of making all the decisions, managers need to trust their team members and empower them to solve problems on their own, innovate, and fail—or succeed.

Lisa Rich's picture Lisa Rich Mic Riley

Better Software Magazine Articles

All Customers Are Not Created Equal All Customers Are Not Created Equal

Software developers may not think they have much to do with customers, but it is wise to consider the customer in all you do, from collecting requirements to design and implementation.

Regina Evans's picture Regina Evans
The Secrets of High- Performance Software Teams The Secrets of High-Performance Software Teams

Of all issues that impact getting quality products out on time, the team should never focus on simply managing costs. To minimize the risk of perpetual product delivery delays, define what “done” really means.

Steve Mezak's picture Steve Mezak
tolerate You Get What You Tolerate

We’ve all worked with a talented developer who can be a frustrating challenge to manage. First-time managers may unknowingly encourage bad behavior. There are several innovative ways to resolve the situation.

Andy Kaufman's picture Andy Kaufman
handstand The Power of Thinking Upside Down

Software developers can become bogged down trying to keep up with agile process and procedures. Get better results by rethinking your approach to balancing focus, agility, management, and testing.

Paul McMahon's picture Paul McMahon

Interviews

Gene Gotimer Adapting to Working from Home: A Conversation with Gene Gotimer
Video

Gene Gotimer, principal consultant at Coveros, chats with TechWell community manager Owen Gotimer about the challenges individuals and organizations face while we work from home during this global pandemic and how getting thrown into remote work could shape our future.

Owen Gotimer's picture Owen Gotimer
Jaimee Newberry The Power of Communication: A Conversation with Jaimee Newberry
Video

Jaimee Newberry, co-founder and CEO at Picture This Clothing, chats with TechWell community manager Owen Gotimer about the power of communication, the HIPPO in the room, and how to create psychological safety in brainstorming sessions.

Owen Gotimer's picture Owen Gotimer
Jan Jaap Cannegieter Coaching Senior Managers: A Conversation with Jan Jaap Cannegieter
Video

Jan Jaap Cannegieter, principal consultant at Squerist, chats with TechWell community manager Owen Gotimer about senior management’s new role in agile development, strategies for providing feedback to managers, and why more teams should shift testing right. Continue the conversation with Jan Jaap and Owen (@owen) on the TechWell Hub (http://hub.techwell.com/)!

Owen Gotimer's picture Owen Gotimer
8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones: An Interview with Jason Wick
Video

In this interview, Jason Wick, senior manager at MakeMusic, discusses his STAREAST presentation about eight ways you could be making your one-on-one meetings completely useless. He discusses in depth what he feels is the number one way to ruin these meetings: holding back on feedback. He also offers advice on how you can educate your team leader to avoid the pitfalls that lead to ineffective one-on-ones.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine

Conference Presentations

Agile + DevOps East Become the Person Everyone Wants to Work With
Slideshow

Drawing from her own experiences across twenty years in a range of industry roles, Jaimee Newberry shares true stories of at least a dozen tiny but important things she still sees every day that could make all the difference in how people work with you. 

Jaimee Newberry
Agile DevOps West Brainwriting: The Team Hack to Generating Better Ideas
Slideshow

Brainstorming has long been held as the best way to get ideas from teams. The purpose is to solicit large amounts of ideas in a short timeframe.

Chris Murman
Agile DevOps West Distributed Scrum Teams Whack-a-Mole:
 Creative Solutions to 
Common Obstacles
Slideshow

Taking a newly formed distributed Scrum team from mediocre to high-performing has its share of challenges, including differences in language, culture, and time zones; a misunderstanding of Scrum; and the "us versus them" mentality.

Kimberly Andrikaitis
STAREAST 8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones
Slideshow

As managers, it's easy to fall into the trap of focusing on what we need out of our employees' one-on-one meetings, all the while forgetting that one-on-ones are for them! 

Jason Wick

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