3 Common Scrum Anti-Patterns and How to Fix ThemFor a Scrum team to operate successfully, the entire team must honor the Scrum values of commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect. But it's easy to fall into practices that can erode trust and collaboration. Here are three common anti-patterns that emerge in Scrum, as well as the solutions to overcome them.
3 Reasons Managers Struggle to Build Compatible Tech TeamsManagers should try to find candidates who not only have the right technical skills, but also will ideally complement each other and be able to collaborate. But that’s not easy. Here are three main aspects managers struggle with when building compatible tech teams, so you can try to mitigate them and achieve harmony.
2 Simple Ways to Improve Developer-Tester RelationshipsSupposedly there is a constant tension between developers and testers, like the roles of artist and art critic. They can’t exist without each other, and yet they can’t get along. It doesn't have to be that way! Here are two ways testers can reduce that feeling so that developers and testers can work better together.
Top 10 TechWell Insights Stories of 2019Career development was on many software practitioners' minds in 2019, as some of our top stories were about having a technical lead on a Scrum team and making the switch from quality assurance to quality engineering. Stories about new ideas such as DevOps and continuous testing also ranked high. Check out the roundup.
Joking Around and Taking Work SeriouslyYou may be totally serious about your job yet give the impression that you’re not. Laughter and fun help some people tackle the high-priority, stress-inducing problems they face every day, but it can also be misinterpreted by others that they aren't taking their work seriously. How are people perceiving your behavior?
Collaborating with a Highly Distributed TeamBeing distributed can cause challenges for team collaboration, such as insufficient communication and a lack of visibility. However, advancements in tools, technology, and best practices have helped to lessen some of those challenges. Here are four ways to make collaborating with distributed teams more seamless.
Don’t Ask for Permission or Forgiveness—Use an Agile AlternativeSome teams get around bottlenecks by taking a “better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach. This may be expedient, but it doesn’t provide a path to changing the organizational dynamic, and it can lead to wrong decisions when wider input is advisable. A more agile way is to take an “I intend to” approach.
4 Tips to Refocus Stale StandupsThe daily standup is supposed to get everyone on the same page and make teams more productive and efficient. But it’s easy for this short meeting to become stale and stop providing any real benefit. Here are four ways to get out of the slump of merely delivering status updates and re-energize your daily standups.
