Deep Dynamics of Agile Teams

“One thing you’ve got to remember is that your best geek isn’t your best geek anymore” – Mike Hill XP 2005 Sheffield – Transitioning to XP tutorial.

Agile software development demands more out of software developers than technical prowess – the extreme collaboration between team members and customers does not always work out. Tensions arise; conflict occurs. The team performs below par.

Although we value “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”; our Agile books and courses concentrate more on techniques for dealing with technical and planning issues than with people and teams.

A lot of the advice on team dynamics seems to have a cultural bias foreign to the irony and distance found in a Scottish / British team, where group hugs and earnestness are likely to be met with defensive ridicule. On the other hand, traditional management courses may be at odds with our philosophy of self-organising teams.

I recently attended the the first Deep Dynamics course run by Scrum Trainer Joseph Pelrine and psychologist Ben Fuchs. This has given me a framework for understanding and dealing with conflict in the kind of teams with which I am familiar. It was a brilliant course and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who would like to become a more effective Agile team member or leader.

The Course

Joseph and Ben are running The Deep Dynamics of Agile Teams at various locations around Europe. Agile Scotland have persuaded them to offer an additional course in Edinburgh from the 24th to the 25th of May. We have negotiated a special price of £475 – a £125 discount over the price of the same course held in London.

More information on the course can be found at http://www.metaprog.com/deepdynamics.html.

Target Audience

Who should attend this course?

• You are trying to introduce Agile to an organisation. You will meet resistance and conflict. You need to effectively deal with that.
• You are the best geek. You need to learn new skills to remain the best.
• You run an Agile team, or are an Agile team member. Would you like to help the team perform at its full potential?

Who should not attend this course?

• You work alone, in a dark cave, and never interact with anybody.
• You just don’t care.
• You are already such a fantastic team player and inspirational leader that there is no room for improvement.

The Trainers

Ben Fuchs is a psychologist with over 18 years experience working in personal and professional development. Since 1994 he has been creating innovative programs for transforming conflicts and building cooperation in diverse settings in Europe, Australia, Latin America, Africa, and the USA. His work brings together perspectives from group dynamics, organizational development, social complexity and participatory leadership. His current focus is facilitating post-conventional approaches to leadership and decision making.

Joseph Pelrine is C*O of MetaProg, a company devoted to increasing the quality of software and its development process, and is one of Europe’s leading experts on eXtreme Programming as well as Europe’s first certified ScrumMaster Practitioner and Trainer. He has had a successful career as software developer, project manager and consultant, and has spoken about it at such diverse places as IBM, OOPSLA and the Chaos Computer Club. His work focus is on field of organizational complexity and its application to Agile processes.

Update:

Interested?

We are now taking bookings: to book please email deep.dynamics@merecomplexities.com. The course is being held at The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Edinburgh a few minutes walk from Waverly Station.

Friday, March 24, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

From Eli Goldratt Unplugged, via Clarke Ching:

I work a lot in China. You know the biggest problem in China is right now? Getting people – for the 2nd shift. Can you imagine not enough people in China? Salaries are now skyrocketing. Statistics say that in 2004 salaries rose by 24%. When they are finalized in 2005, it will be much higher. Have you been in Shanghai, for example? You may have had images like I had of rickshaws and bicycles – No! This is a western town. With the best cars everywhere, and fewer bicycles than in Holland. I sent an assistant to go and look in some shops for bargains. She said, “Sorry Eli, the prices are the same as in Amsterdam.”

That's right! Eli Goldratt has an assistant that he sends out shopping. Wish I had one of those.

(Actually, great interview. Worth a read.)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Scrum Development Yahoo Group has ben particularly active recently, largely due to some brilliant and controversial posts by Mary Poppendieck. I particularly enjoyed this:

But it strikes me that Jeff Sutherland - the father of Scrum - violates Scrum orthodoxy all the time and writes about it on this list. He calls it "advanced scrum". I think it's about the neatest thing out there.

Friday, March 17, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

What? And you still don't know how to tie your shoelaces?

Via err someone. Forgot. I thought it was Gaping Void, but can't find the post

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

When I was a marine biologist(*) sometimes I'd organise sampling expeditions. Once when I was going through my equipment checklist, my partner for the trip questioned my inclusion of white(**) insulation tape and cable ties.

"What are you planning to use those for?"

"Nothing. They're just really handy if something goes wrong or there's a change of plan.

"What change of plan? We have labels and spares.."

He couldn't understand why I'd take the tape and ties. I still can't understand why you'd go sampling without them.

* more Tubificidae than dolphins. Glamorous, not!

** you can write on white tape with an indelible pen.

Monday, March 13, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

Introducing Agile, even to waterfall shops, seems to be more about adding process than removing unnecessary procedures. In a waterfall environment, once the initial project plan is done, there is an indecent amount of room for cowboy techniques.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ever experienced conflict on a team? Is the argument just about the technical issues? Is there something else going on beneath the surface. What do people have at stake? What do you have at stake? What else do you lose if you lose the argument?

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

When embarking on a software project it makes sense to work out all the requirements upfront, so that you can thoroughly design the system before starting to code. Obviously you can only do the tests when you've finished coding.

It all makes sense. It's wrong, but it makes sense.

The Scrum tagline is It's About Common Sense, but we only see that because most of our bitter and frustrating experiences with waterfall and cowboy coding.

(Update: redrafted into something approximating English).

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

I was discussing the Deep Dynamics course with a friend of mine, who expressed doubt over whether people can change. He argued that people are either good leaders / team players or not. I do not hold to that belief. Although some people are more naturally talented than others, social skills are just like other skills - they can be improved with training, practice, and perseverance. See Kathy Sierra's post on how to be an expert at anything.

XP is as much about the social as the technical. Team skills are just as important as TDD prowess.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

I'm back from the Deep Dynamics course, and what a course! I understand that Joseph and Ben are running more courses around Europe; we are hoping to organise one in Edinburgh later in the year.

If you want to know what is going on under the surface in teams and yourself, and how you might become a more effective team member or leader, I thoroughly recommend this course.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

As I was hurtling down hill this afternoon I was thinking "what I should be doing is keeping these skis completely parallel and leaning forward. Most of the weight on this leg, but just enough here on the other to keep the skis in line". Of course I didn't actually achieve much of that. I've never been that good at skiing and I haven't had any skis on my feet for about four years.

I do know what I ought to be doing, though. It reminded me of the feeling I get sometimes when I'm trying to handle other issues, perhaps around Agile planning or team dynamics, or just getting people to love tests: I feel that I know what I ought to be doing, but it just doesn't always seem to come together properly.

More practice needed, I think. Especially ski practice.

Thursday, March 02, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments

In retrospect, applying psychology to team dynamics and conflict resolution seems blindingly obvious. This morning we looked at the "root causes" of individual behaviour, and where it is appropriate or safe to go.

The good old iceberg metaphor - there's a reason why it's a classic - also got a look in: there's a hell of a lot more going on underneath than on the surface. We also worked with the role of various dimensions of "rank" in conflict resolution.

All this in the morning. In the afternoon we went skiing. No, really :-) Did I mention that the course is in Switzerland?

Thursday, March 02, 2006 | Permalink | 0 Comments