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  • Product Development in Distributed Teams

    This article focuses on how to do product development in distributed teams. It shares some virtues and practices which help to minimize challenges and develop the right product. It covers tools to help overcome challenges due to distribution and foster good behaviours. It explains how to perform various product oriented activities like user research, story mapping, planning and refinements.

  • The Divisive Effect of Separate Issue Tracking Tools

    Separate issue tracking systems for Development and IT Operations are a source of conflict and ineffectiveness for many organizations. For effective Database Lifecycle Management (DLM), we typically need shared issue tracking systems where DBA teams can see upcoming work from Development and Development teams can see details of live service issues logged from Production.

  • Teams and the Way They Work

    The terms “self-organised” and “cross functional” are often used to describe a team. What does this mean, and how will you recognise if your team has these features? Great teams work with the uniqueness of each person’s skills, experiences and outlook – forging the motivation to achieve a shared goal, within the constraints in which they operate.

  • Developing Quality Software: Differentiating Factors

    The level of software quality attainable is a reflection of an organizational business decision. There are many factors that influence this decision, including development, build and testing environments effectiveness, resources and their associated skillset, integrity, motivations and experience levels, commercial agreements, and adopted processes and productivity tools.

  • Q&A on the Book Scaling Teams

    The book Scaling Teams by Alexander Grosse and David Loftesness provides strategies and practices for managing teams in fast growing organizations. It explores five areas which often pose challenges when organizations need to scale -- hiring, people management, organization, culture and communication -- and gives solutions for recognizing and dealing with those challenges.

  • Managing Cultural Differences in Your Distributed Team

    This article focuses on how cultural differences influence collaboration in distributed teams; it shares some virtues and practices which are helpful in bridging the cultural differences between team members. It defines culture and multicultural environment in distributed teams. It looks at questions teams can ask themselves to find out the impact of cultural differences in their day-to-day work.

  • Inclusive Collaboration and the Silence Experiment

    With highly collaborative approaches becoming the norm in the software industry, it is time to re-consider collaboration and provide workplaces and practices that embrace all kinds of thinkers. This article introduces Inclusive Collaboration and describes the Silence Experiment to help teams consider different aspects of collaboration and work more effectively with all types of minds.

  • Internal Tech Conferences - How and Why

    Software engineering today is every bit as much about the people as it is about technology - empowered teams don’t appear overnight. We need to oil the wheels of collaboration so they roll smoothly. Here, Matthew Skelton and Victoria Morgan-Smith discuss how to use internal conferences to boost your organisation’s social capital, the currency by which relationships flourish and businesses thrive.

  • The Top 5 Problems with Distributed Teams and How to Solve Them

    In this article, Hugo Messer shares the top 5 challenges distributed teams face along with practical solutions. They are based on his 6 books, many workshops and a decade of hands on experience. The top 5 challenges: 1. We're thinking 'us versus them'; 2. Keeping the team in the dark; 3. Culture is a mystery; 4. We stop communicating; 5. The black box.

  • Christine Doig on Data Science as a Team Discipline

    Christine Doig spoke at this year's OSCON Conference about data science as a team discipline and how to navigate the data science Python ecosystem. InfoQ spoke with Christine about challenges data science teams need to address to be more effective.

  • Q&A with Jurgen Appelo on Managing for Happiness

    The book Managing for Happiness by Jurgen Appelo provides practices, games and tools to manage organizations and make work fun. It contains tips and suggestions for applying the practices to achieve organizational greatness and maximize learning in organizations.

  • Exercises for Building Better Teams

    Have you ever seen a team perform so great that you wanted to join it? If you examine the values of such a team, you may discover a perfect balance of orientation on people and results. If you are trying to discover how far away your own team is from this state, read this article and try the exercises to find your own state of perfection.

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