I have been definitively influenced by the book The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer when I decided to write this article. In addition, recent debates about XP have greatly contributed to these following humble thoughts.
It comes from this question Where does XP goes ?
In France, it seems that XP and in a broadly term, agility have really engaged the attention of software businesses. However, implementing XP is not so simple. And many of those businesses have knocked bad experience(s). For sure, it's a commonplace to say that making a XP project working requires a good approach and people who have a strong development experience. But it is really necessary ? Why firms do no succeed after reading Kent Beck's books ?
The Toyota Way approach to business is very similar to the one that should be done by firms who want to implement XP. There are several values, principles and pratices around XP. Anyway, implementing them from scratch is not the good way from my point of view. I honestly think that you should first understand deeply XP and its philosophy. That's the XP Way.
The XP Way allows to build auto-organised teams which can create hight quality sofware around unitary test, pair programming and communication value. To that aim, the success key is not to have great experienced designers, but to create rather a XP philosophy that matches the values of your firm.
This personalized XP philosophy is easier to develop when you have XP developers in your team, but I am pretty confident that it might be put in place when everybody follows the same strategy : the XP Way.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Make growing a common vision
Since two monthes, I'm coaching a team of 6 developers on a 5 years old project, which has became a standard in the firm.
I joined this project more than 3 years ago and the today-developers are mainly new in the project - the older one has started in July last year. Indeed, there were 2 others senior developpers in the team last year: Pascal who has left the firm in december and Jean-Christophe who is currently working on another project since the beginning of the year.
To sum-up, there is from now 6 new developpers and me, coach and owner of the knowledge of the project. What a terrifying responsability! Good enough, Jean-Christophe is not too far and I can have long talks with him. I must admit the situation is not simple, the sofware is wholesome but very complex. My wonderful challenge is to help the team to acquire the vision and values which were the fundament of the application.
As I was used to encourage communication within the team, we had each Monday very long meetings trying to define the way to work and the content of our 2-weeks-long iteration. It was in January. Now, in March, we finally start to have something you may call an agile team.
We were often forced to change our methods, old habits were broken and pridefulness was left aside.
What I am particulary proud of, is the behavior of the team. We succeed to talk without any aggressiveness or conflict. Quickly, each of us, included me of course, was ready to hear criticism and take into account remarks to improve our work. I really think it is only possible when the respect is present. This is the most important value if you want to share something with a group. Clamp your method and I'm almost sure you will fail.
People is fascinating.
Our current process is very closed to the one used by the team of the project 2 years ago. But this process belongs to the new team: they build it! And now, a common vision starts to grow.
Help other to capture the project, they will be motivated and have the feeling to create a huge and powerful team. That's a reality, I'm living it!
I joined this project more than 3 years ago and the today-developers are mainly new in the project - the older one has started in July last year. Indeed, there were 2 others senior developpers in the team last year: Pascal who has left the firm in december and Jean-Christophe who is currently working on another project since the beginning of the year.
To sum-up, there is from now 6 new developpers and me, coach and owner of the knowledge of the project. What a terrifying responsability! Good enough, Jean-Christophe is not too far and I can have long talks with him. I must admit the situation is not simple, the sofware is wholesome but very complex. My wonderful challenge is to help the team to acquire the vision and values which were the fundament of the application.
As I was used to encourage communication within the team, we had each Monday very long meetings trying to define the way to work and the content of our 2-weeks-long iteration. It was in January. Now, in March, we finally start to have something you may call an agile team.
We were often forced to change our methods, old habits were broken and pridefulness was left aside.
What I am particulary proud of, is the behavior of the team. We succeed to talk without any aggressiveness or conflict. Quickly, each of us, included me of course, was ready to hear criticism and take into account remarks to improve our work. I really think it is only possible when the respect is present. This is the most important value if you want to share something with a group. Clamp your method and I'm almost sure you will fail.
People is fascinating.
Our current process is very closed to the one used by the team of the project 2 years ago. But this process belongs to the new team: they build it! And now, a common vision starts to grow.
Help other to capture the project, they will be motivated and have the feeling to create a huge and powerful team. That's a reality, I'm living it!
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