9
votes
Accepted
Management wants to start doing "1 on 1"s as "2 on 1"s. Good or bad idea?
Group Discussions Don't Replace One-on-One Communications
While there's a place for more leadership involvement, I certainly wouldn't replace one-on-ones with larger meetings. Especially in IT, this ...
- 50.1k
7
votes
Management wants to start doing "1 on 1"s as "2 on 1"s. Good or bad idea?
I have no academic backing on what I am going to write as my answer here but am drawing on my experience plus my own predicted reaction if I were a subordinate meeting with my boss and his/her boss.
I ...
- 37.1k
6
votes
How to hire great people for a new startup company?
Notwithstanding my comment about the proper exchange, you are dealing with a normal problem of 1) prediction of future performance, and 2) how to attract good employees.
The first problem is a huge ...
- 37.1k
5
votes
Ample free time
How to keep the team motivated
Ask the team.
Chances are, the team knows both:
What they want to do
What improvements to their process would help most
...far better than you (or, most certainly, ...
- 14.8k
5
votes
Story Points given by task owner leads to disagreement
There are a lot of problems with what is going on here.
The first thing that stands out is what you describe as a team doesn't seem to be a team. A team is "a group of individuals (human or non-...
- 19k
4
votes
Accepted
What to do with an Agile non-believer
TL;DR: Maybe a bit harsh, but get rid of him/her.
Most companies have a defined culture or core values. Suggested is to use your core values in the hiring process. I think the same goes for the ...
- 5,543
4
votes
How to handle scrum team member that is never at his desk
He is usually visiting friends in the company or outside smoking.
I don't think it's your personal responsibility to talk to that guy about it, as long as he attends the mandatory meetings and ...
- 8,471
3
votes
Accepted
Activities to introduce new team members
There are three areas I'd consider when introducing new team members.
1) The Work: A week is not much time to get used to working together. Pairing or group/mob programming could be a great way to ...
- 16.9k
3
votes
Activities to introduce new team members
Any activity could be ok. I don't think it is necessary something extraordinary, simple events can be a good solution.
Probably the best would be, even before they start to work with the team, to ...
- 379
3
votes
How to deal with difficult developer
TLDR: Rather than treating him as a problem, one perspective is to view his actions as an opportunity to improve your process.
Code Reviews
he refactored some part of the application without ...
- 14.8k
3
votes
How to deal with difficult developer
Manage him out, sooner rather than later. The short term pain of his loss will lead the rest of the team to learn what the indispensable man knew and inspire fewer indispensable men in the future. ...
3
votes
What to do with an Agile non-believer
The team must address the issue. If discussions do not affect the individual, that is okay; not all are willing or able to work as a collaborative team member. Then that person needs to be removed ...
- 1,624
3
votes
Source code email notifications benefits to your team?
No matter what sort of benefits source-control-emails may or may not bring to your team, they are going to be strongly counterpointed by the negative feelings your team will undoubtedly have from you ...
- 14.8k
3
votes
How can I deal with a developer who isn't on board with a new PM and programming framework?
TL;DR
Since I've only heard your side of things, I'm unwilling to assume the problem is the individual you're talking about. While I agree that there is a problem, the problem is one that involves ...
- 50.1k
3
votes
How to handle scrum team member that is never at his desk
You have an employee that appears not to be doing work. You describe only the optics of his performance but make no mention of measurable output. Appearance of busy can be deceiving. And making it ...
- 37.1k
3
votes
team building activities for remote team
From the university courses and companies I was at remotely / with some distance, it was common to use a Facebook Group from where we all would connect and discuss relevant content (updates from the ...
- 2,084
3
votes
Accepted
team building activities for remote team
I'm a fan of using a web conference with video to highlight the team member's individual work environments. Kind of like an MTV Cribs-type virtual tour get together that allows each team member to ...
- 940
3
votes
Reward for recognizing mistakes but disincentivize low standards
Don't use money to reward quality.
Studies show that money is an excellent motivator for routine tasks that involve no thinking, and a terrible motivator for tasks that require creativity.
Experts ...
- 14.8k
3
votes
Unfilled project team roles for grant proposal
In my experience, proposals that require named project employees will submit the resumes for every role no matter the level of commitment. This means that, if the proposal is selected, the 'actual' ...
- 37.1k
3
votes
Unfilled project team roles for grant proposal
RFPs: What's Legal, Ethical, and Practical are Neither the Same nor Orthogonal
On the consulting side of things, many RFPs treat those names and resumes the same way movies treat directors or actors &...
- 50.1k
3
votes
What role the scrum master should have when it's time to organise team buildings (team lunch for example)
Nothing in the Scrum framework makes the Scrum Master responsible or accountable for team building activities.
The Scrum Master "is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum ...
- 19k
2
votes
How to form scrum teams
Very late answer. It won't help you, but maybe someone else.
Product A team (Consisting of 12 developers) And Product B team
(Consisting of 3 developers)
Team A is too large for effective ...
- 116
2
votes
What to do with an Agile non-believer
There really isn't much context to work with. But given what's available, let's break down the problem into two parts:
[1] Does not want to work in a team
[2] Does not believe in Agile's benefits
...
- 162
2
votes
How can a project manager improve his/her team's creativity? Is this job, his/her job?
To the extent practical, let the team members decide what they will work on rather than assigning tasks yourself. Allow them to experiment with tools and methods that are new to them. This might be ...
- 699
2
votes
How to make an Agile team comprised of 4 platforms work?
It sounds like the team has far too much pull and the PO not enough.
The team having 4 identical backlog items is a big red flag. If you are starting with one and then splitting it for them, it's ...
- 16.9k
2
votes
Building common culture in a contracting organization?
There is no silver bullet for this (either). And much of the answers that people are going to give are contextual to their organizations. I'm going to offer one viewpoint since we're in kind of a ...
- 567
2
votes
What to do with an Agile non-believer
I’ll throw a log on this fire, but it won’t be about them per se, it will be more about you.
What is Agile to you? What is Agile to him/her? What is Agile to the team?
One cannot be a non-believer ...
- 861
2
votes
How to deal with difficult developer
In your OP, you have some biases at play here that I think you need to take a look at. I have no idea how these biases are playing into your observations but I do know they are, simply because our ...
- 37.1k
2
votes
Activities to introduce new team members
Making the best use of the presence of offshore team members
As @axel said an informal get together with the team is, of course, the best way to start. In addition, the following will help:
Setting ...
- 11.1k
2
votes
How to handle scrum team member that is never at his desk
As a Scrum Master the first thing I would try to understand is the motivation for this behaviour. Why do they not want to spend time at their desk?
Secondly I would focus on the problems caused by ...
- 19.5k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible