I've recently moved with my family to Ottawa, Canada. There were a slew of reasons for doing so but the principal ones were the amount of travel I was doing for work - which took me away from my home and family too often - and the fact as an independent consultant I saw lots of "beginnings" - helping teams to start down the road to Agility -...

I've recently moved with my family to Ottawa, Canada. There were a slew of reasons for doing so but the principal ones were the amount of travel I was doing for work - which took me away from my home and family too often - and the fact as an independent consultant I saw lots of "beginnings" - helping teams to start down the road to Agility -...

I've had a couple of experiences with introducing Agile on "our most important project", and they've been both a fascinating mix of a genuine desire to run the project differently (to avoid past problems) and the fear of introducing risks by changing the status quo. As Tom De Marco says in a lovely line in Peopleware: People don't like change...

I've had a couple of experiences with introducing Agile on "our most important project", and they've been both a fascinating mix of a genuine desire to run the project differently (to avoid past problems) and the fear of introducing risks by changing the status quo. As Tom De Marco says in a lovely line in Peopleware: People don't like change...

I believe that software development is for the most part a social activity. This implies that in many circumstances the most valuable work that a coach can do is to improve the quality of interactions between people in a team (especially when the individuals that the team will be made up of is not a variable that can be influenced.) So I often...

I believe that software development is for the most part a social activity. This implies that in many circumstances the most valuable work that a coach can do is to improve the quality of interactions between people in a team (especially when the individuals that the team will be made up of is not a variable that can be influenced.) So I often...

As a long-time advocate of retrospectives, one of the most rewarding parts of the teacher training course was seeing the idea of "learning from experience" in a different context. A large part of the art of teaching is actually about encouraging learning: moving beyond the transmission of knowledge and practical skills so that pupils develop...

As a long-time advocate of retrospectives, one of the most rewarding parts of the teacher training course was seeing the idea of "learning from experience" in a different context. A large part of the art of teaching is actually about encouraging learning: moving beyond the transmission of knowledge and practical skills so that pupils develop...

As T.S. Eliot wrote:the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.I'm back at the code-face again: working as an Agile Coach with software teams. It's an interesting experience: I feel that my time away has helped me see the challenges and pressures of project delivery more clearly (such as...

As T.S. Eliot wrote:the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.I'm back at the code-face again: working as an Agile Coach with software teams. It's an interesting experience: I feel that my time away has helped me see the challenges and pressures of project delivery more clearly (such as...

After 14 years working as a software developer and with software development teams I've decided to try something completely different: I'm now training as a secondary school ICT teacher in the UK (ages 11-18) and I won't be posting here any more...

After 14 years working as a software developer and with software development teams I've decided to try something completely different: I'm now training as a secondary school ICT teacher in the UK (ages 11-18) and I won't be posting here any more...

Story-telling is a long-established human activity with a rich and diverse history. Today the power of story-telling is applied in software development teams through retrospectives, appreciative inquiry, narrative therapy, and cynefin techniques, as well as around the water cooler. Stories help us to understand, question, and inform the way we...

Story-telling is a long-established human activity with a rich and diverse history. Today the power of story-telling is applied in software development teams through retrospectives, appreciative inquiry, narrative therapy, and cynefin techniques, as well as around the water cooler. Stories help us to understand, question, and inform the way we...

Having to work harder and act like 'robots', with little scope for personal initiative, are the chief reasons for declining job satisfaction in Britain, according to a new study.Feelings of insecurity, too high expectations and people being 'over-educated' and unable to find work to match their qualifications, are largely dismissed, in the...