InfoQ Homepage Collaboration Content on InfoQ
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Remote Ensemble Testing - How an Experiment Shaped the Way We Work
This article shares how an experiment evolved into a common practice at the workplace, using an experimental approach with remote ensemble testing to get teammates on our cross-functional team more involved in the testing activities of the jointly created product. This all started in the times of a global pandemic where the entire team was working from home.
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Growing an Experiment-Driven Quality Culture in Software Development
Have you ever faced a challenge at work that you weren’t sure how to tackle? Experiments to the rescue! In a complex environment like software development, no one can tell what might work, so we have to try things out. Read this article to learn about key challenges, insights and lessons, and get inspired for your own path to experimentation.
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Thriving in the Complexity of Software Development Using Open Sociotechnical Systems Design
The amazing progress made in technology has led to blindly following the technical imperative at the cost of the social and human dimension. Social sciences can help us create a work environment where people feel more at home and proud of what they produce. An organisation designed using open sociotechnical systems theory will be a more humane one where people are more engaged.
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How to Reduce Burnout in IT Security Teams
Burnout isn't a selfcare problem. The information security industry needs to take a deeper examination and create changes to allow for workers to have more flexibility and the ability to have balanced personal and work life. This article serves as a starting point by breaking down why burnout exists in InfoSec, why past solutions don’t work anymore, and how to actually reduce burnout in teams.
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People, Not Screens: Why Soul-Based Leadership Will Change the Nature of Remote and Hybrid Work
Virtual, remote, or hybrid work is the main leadership challenge of our time. Leaders should focus on bringing out humaneness and people's desire to be seen and heard in respectful and appreciative ways. Soul-based leadership is built on neuroscience and other ways of knowing inspired by eastern philosophies in which aliveness is at the heart of awareness, stillness and calm.
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How to Decide in Self-Managed Projects - a Lean Approach to Governance
Whether self-managed or self-governed as a project, the power still needs to be distributed internally. If the project is open to decide how things are done, how do we decide? A solid but flexible set of tools and practices like sociocracy is a great starting point for projects to have clear but lean processes that can grow as we grow.
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Hybrid Work is Here to Stay, and Software Teams Need to Adapt
In a post-pandemic workplace, face-to-face conversation is no longer the de facto collaboration method. As hybrid and distributed software development teams emerge, we look at ways that tools and processes can foster collaboration no matter where the team is located. Asynchronous work, a single source of truth, clear documentation and owners, and automation will empower hybrid development teams.
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Resetting a Struggling Scrum Team Using Sprint 0
Sprint 0 can be a great mechanism in Agile transformations to reset existing teams which are not delivering value, exhibiting a lack of accountability, or struggling with direct collaboration with customers. This article shares the experiences from doing a Sprint 0 with an existing team which was struggling to deliver, helping them to align to a new product vision and become a stronger team.
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Essential Soft Skills for IT leaders in a Remote World
Leading teams is always challenging, especially when your team is remote; it requires more effort and more skills to be developed. This article describes the skills needed if you would like to become not just a good team leader, but a great one. To start, here are three essential soft skills: be vulnerable and authentic, build a collaborative and safe environment, and provide candid feedback.
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How to Enable Team Learning and Boost Performance
Team performance is dependent on safety, teamwork and ongoing learning. Clarity in roles, psychological safety, breaking bad habits and constantly learning are critical to enabling high performance.
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Improving Testability: Removing Anti-Patterns through Joint Conversations
Code is always testable, but the cost may be high, and the effort exhausting. We can change code to be highly testable by identifying anti-patterns and fixing them. And developers can make the code fit the test requirements, by having discussions with the testers who actually test it.
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How to Recognise and Reduce HumanDebt
We know TechDebt is bad; chances are HumanDebt is worse, and once you’ve seen it, you can’t “unsee” or ignore it. What is now needed is a focus on the humans who do the work. Psychological safety in teams is key. The “people work” -both at an individual, but especially at a team level- is the key to sustainability and growth of high-performing tech teams.