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!