teams

Group of software engineers laughing at their computers Joking Around and Taking Work Seriously

You may be totally serious about your job yet give the impression that you’re not. Laughter and fun help some people tackle the high-priority, stress-inducing problems they face every day, but it can also be misinterpreted by others that they aren't taking their work seriously. How are people perceiving your behavior?

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Person pointing at a globe Collaborating with a Highly Distributed Team

Being distributed can cause challenges for team collaboration, such as insufficient communication and a lack of visibility. However, advancements in tools, technology, and best practices have helped to lessen some of those challenges. Here are four ways to make collaborating with distributed teams more seamless.

Owen Gotimer's picture
Owen Gotimer
Agile team member expressing intention Don’t Ask for Permission or Forgiveness—Use an Agile Alternative

Some teams get around bottlenecks by taking a “better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach. This may be expedient, but it doesn’t provide a path to changing the organizational dynamic, and it can lead to wrong decisions when wider input is advisable. A more agile way is to take an “I intend to” approach.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Scrum team high-fiving after their daily standup 4 Tips to Refocus Stale Standups

The daily standup is supposed to get everyone on the same page and make teams more productive and efficient. But it’s easy for this short meeting to become stale and stop providing any real benefit. Here are four ways to get out of the slump of merely delivering status updates and re-energize your daily standups.

Cristy Bird's picture
Cristy Bird
Team member pointing a finger to blame someone Is Your Culture about Responsibility or Blame?

When things go wrong, it can be helpful to understand what happened and who was involved. However, all too often organizations (and the managers within) confuse responsibility with assigning blame. The former is essential for improvement. The latter works against an effective, collaborative, productive culture.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Team member coaching her senior manager in agile practices Coaching Senior Management to Be Agile

Embracing an agile mindset isn’t always easy, and it can be especially difficult for senior managers who spent most of their careers working in more traditional development methodologies. By trying to speak the same language and demonstrating successful self-organization, teams can help senior management become agile.

Owen Gotimer's picture
Owen Gotimer
Ascending staircase with a web of connections on the ceiling Testers Must Use Team Connections to Enable Quality

The quality team has the greatest reach in its visibility and ability to connect with all other engineering and non-engineering teams. For a tester to realize their fullest potential, they need to acknowledge and leverage this reach by communicating and collaborating with all other teams to create the best product.

Mukesh Sharma's picture
Mukesh Sharma
ScrumMaster facilitating communication between an agile team and stakeholders Understanding the ScrumMaster's Role in Team Communication

Some agile teams believe the ScrumMaster is the sole point of communication between them and the product owner, so the team can abdicate any responsibility to communicate with stakeholders. That couldn't be more wrong. It's actually the ScrumMaster's job to enable communication and coach or guide the team to solutions.

Alan Crouch's picture
Alan Crouch