epistemologic

Amit Rathore’s blog about software project management

Archive for January, 2006

Yet another Getting Real review

Posted by Amit Rathore on January 27, 2006

I recently finished reading Getting Real by the 37Signals gang. After which, of course, I decided to chime in with yet another review.

I enjoyed reading the book – and I agreed with most of what they said. I have, after all, been immersed in Agile for over 4 years now – and I’m also a firm believer in Interaction Design.

An example of a part I disagreed with was about it being okay if team-mates are not co-located. I don’t care how they claim to have worked it out (DHH no longer lives in Copenhagen FWIW), I think team-mates should be in the same room – if possible.

Anyway – it is a pleasant enough read, even if it simply re-iterates what many other books already say – the agile series, interaction design series, lean software, theory of constraints etc. If you want actual theory and a deeper understanding, read the full list. If you want instant gratification without the longer term benefits of understanding the concepts behind this stuff, read Getting Real.

Heck, read it anyway – its kind of a fun book.

Posted in books, process | Leave a Comment »

Improving team communication – Or on teams and snacks

Posted by Amit Rathore on January 15, 2006

I was having a discussion with a friend who asked what in my experience had been an effective way to improve team communication and enthusiasm in an agile project room. We discussed various ideas, but later that evening, I remembered this -

Here’s a quick and easy way to improve team communication on a local team. On one side of the room, place a table. Place a supply of snacks – candy, cakes, drinks and coffee, fruits etc. Replenish this every time levels diminish. That’s it.

People will gather around it to grab snacks and they will talk. People will talk as they eat, they’ll throw candy wrappers at each other and they’ll gel. The level of trust will go up and as people make the transition from colleagues to even friends, aided by the banter and the food, the level of noise in the room will increase somewhat (usually a good sign) and the team will become more effective.

It worked for me…!

Posted in agile, organizational, process, project management | 1 Comment »

 
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