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Keeping Technology Change Human
When we are at the forefront of so much change, it's easy to forget that other people around us find change more challenging. This article is a reminder to look beyond the code and processes, to consider how tech team actions can affect our users in emotional ways. It seeks to establish a few ways of thinking to help bring others along with us when working through technology change.
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Challenges of Working Remotely in Africa
Remote work can present new complexities such as communication gaps, time zone challenges, and even lack of transparency. Nonetheless, a well-managed remote team can readily overcome all these issues while discovering many benefits at the same time. This article focuses on the current situation in Africa citing specific challenges and solutions drawn from real companies in Nigeria.
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Moving from Collocated Management to Remote Leadership
Management in a remote organization is vastly different from that in a collocated one. Copying in-person interactions to digital tools does not cultivate a great culture nor does it contribute to better collaboration. This article aims to give you an idea of what the move to remote leadership entails and why it is essential for the success of any business in the remote work era.
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Put the Feedback back into “Demo & Feedback”
As agilists, we know the importance of showing our work and getting feedback as early as we possibly can. That feedback guides what we do next. To get what you need to meet the desires of your stakeholders, this article looks at the demo and the feedback part of that session and provides suggestions for creating amazing demo & feedback sessions.
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Becoming More Efficient and Productive in a Distracted World
This article highlights how increased distractions in agile teams can affect our mental health and cause burnout. It outlines how various productivity hacks can help to reduce this problem and make you highly efficient using real-life experiences. Finally, it discusses various steps the software industry can take to help preserve our mental health and reduce distractions.
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Culture & Methods Trends Report March 2021
The most significant impact on culture and methods in 2021 is the disruption caused by COVID-19. We look at what's needed for good remote and the impact of bad remote, how management practices are evolving, and the importance of people skills for technologists. Paying attention to ethical issues, diversity and inclusion, tech for good, employee experience and psychological safety are important.
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Sociotechnical Implications of Using Machines as Teammates
AI has become more than just a tool; it is now meriting consideration as an additional teammate. While this increases a project’s efficiency and technical rigor, AI teammates bring a fresh set of challenges around social integration, team dynamics, trust, and control. This article provides an overview of sociotechnical frameworks and strategies to address concerns with using machines as teammates.
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Who is on the Team?
Ahmad Fahmy and Cesario Ramos take the changes to the new Scrum Guide as an opportunity to explore what it means to be "on a team." They draw on research to create an ACID test to differentiate who is on the team and who isn't. They discuss different mental models around the idea of a team with the hopes that you take this opportunity to discuss and elevate the roles within your organization.
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Adaptive Frontline Incident Response: Human-Centered Incident Management
The third article in a series on how software companies adapted and continue to adapt to enhance their resilience zeros in on the sources that comprise most of your company’s adaptive resources: your frontline responders. In this article, we draw on our experiences as incident commanders with Twilio to share our reflections on what it means to cultivate resilient people.
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Breaking the Taboo – What I Learned from Talking about Mental Health in the Workplace
Mental illness is a topic that does not get discussed openly very often. Many people concerned hide their own history for fear of being stigmatized, especially in the workplace. This is a story about how speaking openly about mental illness, even with your boss and co-workers, can help yourself and others. The author shares with you what she has learned from breaking the taboo.
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Learning from Incidents
Jessica DeVita (Netflix) and Nick Stenning (Microsoft) have been working on improving how software teams learn from incidents in production. In this article, they share some of what they’ve learned from the research community in this area, and offer some advice on the practical application of this work.
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Dealing with Remote Team Challenges
Remote working provides challenges such as providing equitable access, ensuring adequate resources and tooling, addressing social isolation and issues of trust. Remote-first and truly asynchronous teams tend to consistently perform better. In the future, organisations will continue to have remote on their agenda. Fully realising the benefits of remote teams requires trust building and intent.