agile management
creating a culture to help your team succeed
As a software dev manager I believe that to get long term results, I
need to create the right culture.
This talk is about the culture I am trying to create, and how I’m going
about it.
Trust
Theory X managers can’t manage agile teams
Do:
Let the team approve leave
Let individuals and teams do their own reviews
Believe in the best in people
Don’t:
Monitor working hours
Block the internet
Listen to gossip, or act on something you have not observed yourself
Excellence
Do:
Believe you teams can achieve greatness
Give your teams the space to deliver quality work
Hold them accountable to high standards
Give recognition often
Don’t:
Give in to pressure to deliver over quality
Balance
Do:
Tell people their families are important
Let people have time off to deal with family problems
Let people know it’s okay to take mental health days
Don’t:
Ask a team to work weekends or overtime
Fun
Do:
Buy the best hardware you can
Buy a Wii and a great coffee machine
Laugh often
Don’t:
Tell people to work harder when they are having fun
Failure
Do:
Acknowledge failure yourself, often
Help people learn from failure by retrospecting
Celebrate failing quickly
Don’t:
Blame
Slack
Do:
Allow time for continuous learning
Plan downtime like lab days, learning sessions, Fedex days
Encourage people to take breaks for lunch
Don’t:
Cancel planned slack due to project pressure
Results
Predictability:
Planned 450 pts, delivered 452 for the last 3 month release
Quality:
Number of issues per client halved in the last 6 months
Value:
ROI over 1000% on recent features
Staff:
no resignations, attracted new staff (doubled), staff satisfaction net promoters
up by 60% in last 9 months.
Further Reading
Drive - Daniel Pink
Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
Leader’s Guide to Radical Management - Stephen Denning
Leadership and Self Deception - Arbinger Institute
Maverick - Ricardo Semler