Agile Notes (No. 42)

Welcome new subscribers! Thanks for joining us!

This week, we will start looking at Collaboration Explained by Jean Tabaka. This book was the most referenced book by Lyssa Adkins in Coaching Agile Teams. I have read roughly half of this book so far. I don’t know if we are going to be able to look at this chapter by chapter like we have in the past. The problem (for me) is that this book was published in 2006 and it focuses on in-person facilitation. For me and I suspect for most of us, the world has changed. I haven’t been in a physical room with a team in a long time. I don’t anticipate this changing for me. A quick look at the table of contents shows a very short chapter on how to collaborate and facilitate virtually with distributed teams. So - we will pull out the relative bits. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book (or website or whatever) on collaborating/facilitating virtually? Please share in the comments.

In Chapter 1, Tabaka reminds us of the Agile Manifesto which “explicitly declared communication and collaboration as fundamental practices for successful software development.”

I like the expanded definition of the first pillar. [Spoiler alert]. There is good stuff coming about what “consensus” means. [/Spoiler Alert]. Command and control/bullying is sometimes sneaky. I’ve worked with teams that look to their leaders to make final decisions. Either that person is a manager “just sitting in” or the “lead” developer who welcomes feedback and questions but always has a reason for doing the work the way they want to do it. That bit on “non-attacking mode” - hooo boy. I’ve seen teams that have been slogging it out for a long time where every question is either an attack or considered one.

All in all, this is a good foundational start.

Thanks for reading. Please like and be sure to subscribe to receive new posts directly to you inbox. And please share!