Opinion: What 2017 Has in Store for Culture & Methods
We polled the InfoQ Culture & Methods editors for their takes on what 2017 has in store for the technology industry, what are the trends which we see coming to the fore and what the implications will be for organizations around the globe.
ThoughtWorks Recognized as Most Women-Friendly Tech Company
At the recent Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, ThoughtWorks was recognised as being the top company for Women in Technology. InfoQ spoke to Rebecca Parsons, CTO, about the company's culture and the award.
Google and the Perfect Team
Google researchers studied teams and what traits help with their efficiency. Named Project Aristotle, the study provides insight into what helps teams succeed, such as psychological safety, structure, and a sense of purpose.
Researcher Recognized for Advances in Team Performance Techniques
Eduardo Salas is recognized by the APA for his 30 years of research on team work. His implementation of team training includes defining team structure, identifying specific communication needs, clarifying roles and leadership skills, and practicing with scenarios. This technique has been used across many fields of work, and is part of the program as NASA prepares to send a team to Mars.
Agile 2016: Persona Based Teams - The Ultimate Focus
At the Agile 2016 conference Andy Hircock, Mike Lowery, and Rob Vandenburg, discussed how they transitioned to persona-based teams, instead of feature or component based, and how they used this to help teams keep focused on their customers despite significant growth.
Diversity Takes Centre Stage on First Day of the SpringOne Platform Conference
During the opening keynote at Pivotol’s SpringOne Platform Conference in Las Vegas this week, Senior Director of Technology Cornelia Davis spoke about diversity.
Why Diversity and Inclusion Matters, and How to Drive It
Leveraging and harnessing different ideas, perspectives and experiences from a talented and capable workforce regardless of their organizational position and background drives effectiveness in organizations. Diversity and inclusion matters to reach business objectives and be seen as a social responsible organization.
Helping Great Teams Form Using the Core Protocols
The Core Protocols are a set of ideas identified by Jim and Michelle McCarthy. Richard Kasperowski will open the second day of the Agile Games Conference with an explanation of how to use these protocols to help a team transform to greatness. He spoke to InfoQ about how this happens and how they relate to other team formation models.
Is it Difficult for an Introvert to be a Mob Programmer?
This post covers the challenges of an introverted mob programmer and some possible solutions.
Business Case for Diversity in Organizations
There is a positive correlation between diversity and financial performance and in an inclusive workplace, employees are more engaged which is crucial for retention and performance says Regina Chien. Having a diversity of thought and life experiences is going to help engineers create the best products.
Neuro-diversity in the Work Place
Dr. Sallyann Freudenberg talked about neuro-diversity in the work place at QCon London. Programming is a complex creative task, and Freudenberg explored a number of the techniques that programmers in general use to help them achieve it.
Pivot-Thinking – The Neuroscience of Design
The Center of Professional Development at the Stanford University offers a free live seminar on 8th March (9.00 am / PST) addressing the thinking behind design thinking. Pivot thinking is a new research area that addresses how to bridge the gap between "convergers" and "divergers" in teams which is particularly interesting for software engineering projects.
Diversity in Agile – Women in Agile interviews available
The Agile Alliance sponsored Diversity in Agile program launched the first set of interviews from the Women In Agile series at Agile 2010 today. Shane Hastie spoke to Lisa Crispin about the work that has been done and the interviews that are available for viewing.
Cost of Cross Functional Teams
Cross functional teams are the teams in which all members work on delivery of the same business value. It could potentially be the same feature or the same product. Though, Agile recommends cross functional teams due to a lot of inherent advantages, there are some caveats that organizations need to be aware of.
The Value of Diversity
This is the second in a series of discussions looking at factors that enable Agile teams to be successful. Diversity of gender, culture, opinion, perspective, skills and background is considered to be an important factor in forming and persisting high-performance teams. This news item examines the perspectives from variety of commentators.
