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  • Building Stronger Human Teams by Managing the Inner Lizards

    Each of us has an inner lizard that frets constantly about our safety. People come with brains that are pre-configured to scan everything you say for threats to their safety. Learning to recognize when you're operating under reptilian influence is a great start. This article introduces some techniques to help you manage the lizard within you along with those around you.

  • Software Engineering at Google: Practices, Tools, Values, and Culture

    The book Software Engineering at Google provides insights into the practices and tools used at Google to develop and maintain software with respect to time, scale, and the tradeoffs that all engineers make in development. It also explores the engineering values and the culture that’s based on them, emphasizing the main differences between programming and software engineering.

  • Evolutionary Architecture from an Organizational Perspective

    Creating an architecture that can evolve over time is not simply a technical challenge, and requires collaboration with non-technical people in an organization to ensure the software adapts as needed.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Dealing with Psychopaths and Narcissists during Agile Change

    Psychopathic or narcissistic toxic employees can slow down the adoption of change in a company. Many of the techniques or practices you use with healthy people do not work well with psychopaths or narcissists. This article explores four key areas that can help a change consultant succeed when dealing with toxic people.

  • Q&A on the Book Dynamic Reteaming (2-ed)

    In the 2nd edition of her book Dyanamic Reteaming, Heidi Helfand shows that having stable teams is generally unrealistic and that there are ways to effectively reform teams to achieve great outcomes. She explores different approaches to team formation and reformation and provides practical advice on how to create environments where team formation can adapt and evolve effectively.

  • Working Remotely: Good Practices and Useful Resources

    As the impact of COVID-19 continues around the world, many people will be experiencing a sustained period of remote working for the first time. To help you, we’ve collated good remote working practices and resources and will continue to do so as more emerge. While remote working may appear straightforward, there are common issues that come up as you shift to this way of working.

  • Q&A on the Book Agile Conversations

    The book Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick explores how productive conversations can change the way organizations develop software. It provides techniques and exercises that can help you gain insight into communication and collaboration issues and improve your day-to-day conversations, achieving valuable business results from your agile team.

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