In dealing with managers and leaders from various industries and companies, I have found there are a handful of qualities which can have a large impact on leadership, both positive and negative. The list might be surprising because these are not the classic heavyweight skills, these are the skills and qualities which often fly under the radar, eclipsed by such qualities as drive, passion, and vision, or are dismissed as being not necessary.
About 9 years ago, I went to the jungle in Thailand and spent several days in meditation with a handful of monks and a group of like-minded westerners. We were doing Vipassana, which is an ancient Indian meditation technique. It was grueling, but after a few days I began to see some progress. I would be lying if I said I really learned the technique, but I can still confidently say it had a permanent effect on my life.
A lot of focus recently has been on helping candidates prepare for interviews. While that is all very helpful, I believe that recruiters and hiring managers also often need some help. Here are a few patterns I have observed which are destructive and should be avoided.
A common issue among Scrum teams arises when teams consider what to do with stories which are pulled during the sprint but not completed. What do you do with these stories? Should you consider them failed? Should you ignore them and simply continue to work on them in the following sprint? Should you re-estimate them? Should you give partial credit? Maybe they shouldn’t have been started at all? I have tried all of the above and in my experience one particular strategy has shown itself to be more valuable than the others.
First, let’s examine some different approaches.
Through my years at various companies, I have taken part in, and led, many different efforts at organizing a large team or department around a large – usually enormous – backlog. Things like SAFe, LeSS, and other methodologies try to codify this, providing patterns and best practices to tackle this challenge head on. My personal experience is that, while these methodologies help somewhat, they all still feel like something is missing.
In the past, I have often wondered if it can be done much more simply. The recent focus on #noestimates has reawakened my musings, and inspired me to write a bit about them. What if, instead of trying to play a min-max game with your team members, you simply tackle your backlog one item at a time, regardless of the size of your development team?