Here are the slides from my presentation in Manyata Tech Park for http://www.bspin.org/ on Aug 23rd, 2011.
Manual of an agile warrior
Note : Its actually only 15 slides. Slideshare counts each text bullet also as a slide.
Category Archives: agile
Dont block facebook!
A couple of days back a friend of mine working in the ad industry called me.
“Venkat, how do I block facebook chats, gmail chats? Should I block the domains?”.
Answer is No. If you block Facebook, Gtalk – your team will find workarounds. All it takes is a google search nowadays. It will annoy the team and you will get bracketed with the “manager” managers.
So – here are some tips on how to engage your team effectively and reduce the hours spent on SN sites.
1. Daily Stand Ups
This is the most simplest and effective tool. It is a core practice in agile projects – however it will work for any project / environment. There are tons of resources on effective standups. I will give a brief primer :
- Every one stands up – no slouching, no sitting. Keeps everyone alert and they talk less
- Stand in a circle like rugby teams.
- Give brief updates on what you did yesterday, what is your plan today, and any impediments in doing your work
- Any long discussions do it after the standup.
- The standup is sacred ( start on the same time daily, cut off trolling etc.. ). You have to protect its sanctity 🙂
Advantage is – the team’s productivity will increase. They number of hours spent on idling will start coming down because the next day you have to give an update.
2. Give more responsibility
Ideally visiting social networking sites should be used to take a break from work – not the other way round. So make sure the plate is full. And coupled with standups they will try to finish off the work promptly.
3. Knowledge sharing sessions
You can introduce regular knowledge sharing sessions – can be on any topic – team could watch a TED talk, someone can critique on a movie, present on the new social media or any area you think will help the team become better. This will involve preparation ( except for TED talks of course ) and will also create a good competitive spirit.
So follow the above steps and your team will adore you and they will invite you for the informal team outings 🙂
Fuses blowing off is a good thing
Can anyone spot what is wrong with this picture? Look closely – there are no fuse carriers and the lines have been shorted by a thick piece of wire.
Wondering what it means? – When an electric surge happens – there is no fuse that will blow and break the circuit. The surge will go right into the homes and kill all the devices which are On at that time – TVs, bulbs, mobile chargers…
I am not trying to educate BESCOM electricians – they are lazy & crazy and they don’t read my blog – but this post is about unit tests.
Last week I answered a questionnaire for a friend of mine who is doing a course work about Agile – one of the questions was – Is it not absurd to write unit tests?
The above picture is the answer to the question. Unit tests are like fuses – they blow up in your build and prevent a blow up in production in future. Commenting out an unit test is like shorting the circuit with a thick piece of wire – like in the above picture.
For eg., when a developer forgets to do a null check – and the failing unit test is not fixed, but instead is commented out – your users will be greeted with a Null Pointer exception on the last screen of a payment page. Imagine how mad your client will be?
Anyway I rest my case – next time when you comment out a failing test – think of that picture – and imagine a surge happening and hitting a 52″ Plasma TV showing the last ball of a 20-20 match…pattt…bshhhhhh – and a bunch of hideously laughing BESCOM electricians.
