Chapter 5“That's Not Agile”: Defining Your Organization's Agile Way of Working
Matthew talks a mile a minute. I'm sitting in a room interviewing for an IT leadership role, and he's just going on about NoSQL technologies, user experiences built on top of social networks, and getting the perfect office environment to practice agile. What's more, our interview includes a couple of agile coaches, and I can't tell if he's been working with them for a while or if they're also interviewing for roles. The coaches keep steering the conversation toward scrum best practices, democratizing the development process, empowering engineers, and achieving a zen of collaboration.
What's clear is that they're sizing me up based on my reactions. So be it. I can play this game, and they're putting me through all the common agile team problem scenarios.
“How do you handle a team with a developer that's not finishing their stories?”
“What's the best way to handle product owners who ask the team to overcommit?”
“What should the team do to improve their velocity?”
To nail this interview, I have to strike a balance between listening and sharing my approaches without overwhelming them with expertise that may come across as arrogance. Plus, these guys sound like they have their shit together, although, almost to a fault. It's as if they plan to develop an agile religion inside the company.
I've run agile teams without coaches and without all this jargon around culture, mindset, or striving for happy teams. ...
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