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Drawing Motivation for Software Development Teams from Unlikely Places What do football or a submarine command have to do with agile success? At first, you might say, "Nothing." But football coaches, submarine captains, and their teams all have to establish a clear vision, analyze and prepare, and manage risks and adapt. Metaphors from other fields can motivate agile teams. |
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How to Deal with an Underperforming Employee (without Making It Awkward) Sometimes, an employee's ability just falls short of what your team needs. Talking to an employee about his performance can be uncomfortable, but it doesn't need to be. You need to make sure they know what’s expected of them, what kind of improvements you’re seeking, and how you’ll gauge their improvements. |
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Who’s Responsible for What? Use a RACI Matrix to Keep It Straight As projects get larger and more complex, roles and responsibilities can become confusing. To clarify, teams can create a RACI matrix: a chart that shows who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for any work product. Each role has a different level of authority, so everyone knows their duty. |
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Avoid Embarrassing Glitches: Proofread Your Documents To avoid embarrassing errors in your emails, documents, and proposals, it's a good idea to proofread. But simply glancing over what you wrote isn't enough. Naomi Karten gives some tips for thorough proofreading, such as coming back to your document later, printing it out, and reading it out loud. |
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Dealing with Know-It-Alls A know-it-all is a person who is always ready with an unsolicited opinion—and a lengthy one, at that. Being on the receiving end of a lecture on something you don't care about or an uninvited correction is tedious at best. Naomi Karten provides ways to deal with a coworker or superior who's a know-it-all. |
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Accelerating Your DevOps Processes with Agile Everyone wants to accelerate the application development process. Agile has done a lot to help, but going faster without understanding whether we are going in the right direction has a significant risk of us getting lost. To really achieve development velocity, you need to understand agile in a pragmatic way. |
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The Consequences of Project Delay An often overlooked and underappreciated aspect of project schedules is the consequences of delay on others. Due dates and commitments sometimes matter more than they appear. Knowing the larger context of your project can help you prioritize how you undertake it, consider options, and improve problem-solving. |
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Overcoming Writer’s Block Those who claim that writer's block is a myth maintain that feeling stumped in writing usually has a simple cause. That’s no doubt true, but it’s irrelevant if you don’t know the cause. Naomi Karten has experienced writer's block, and if you have, too, she provides a number of ideas to help get you unstuck. |