Test-Driven Development Momentum

Tomorrow I have, what we in Computas call, a competence-block with the new employees. These blocks contain information that we think that most employees in the company should know something about. Mine is about Test-Driven Development (TDD).

It all started last week when I was reading up on various blogs. Then I read "Learning The Holy Ways of Consulting" from Thomas F Nicholaisen and it spurred the idea of doing a TDD course for my two new project members. I started designing a course much like the one Thomas had and when I started talking about it at work people wanted to have such a course themselves as well.

Even though I have tried to implement this in my project before and not having much success (see: this post), I wanted to try again with the momentum of two new people. What I have now is an even better possibility, to show all new employees TDD and it's benefits. I mean it is extremely important that a company which not only produces code, but also maintains code has to use all quality-increasing tools available. Since we often maintain code for several years after the initial release anything else would be shooting yourself in the foot! For a good post as well as an example of old code renewal through TDD see Anders Norås' blog and his Ending a Legacy post.

Ok, let me get back on the actual subject of this post. The course will be held in two sessions. These two days being Monday and Tuesday from 9 to 11:30. During Monday I will go through some of the theory of Scrum, TDD and show them how to make a sprint log of the items I've made in Jira (thanks for the tip Thomas!). From there on, it's all practical. The task at hand will be the famous bowling assignment from uncle Bob as I'm using much of his ideas on TDD in the theory part of the course.

Lets hope that I will win them over to TDD and by doing this start something wonderful in our company. Maybe this is enough to create a critical mass of people to win over the rest? We will also of course make this competence-block available to all employees when I'm done with this prototype.

I'll tell you more later!

Scrum - something for maintenance projects?

Phew.. Been a couple of busy weeks. I have just become the project leader in a 5 person project. I've been in this project with various roles since I started in May last year. This is a great opportunity for me to be part of something and to change it to something better if possible. Not that you always need change, but I tend to think that change is good in so many ways that some changes should be made in order for people to stay with a project over a long period of time. I really wonder why so many people do not want such a job. The possibility to be a change-maker!

The challenge in our project is that it is an "old" project by IT standards and it is in maintenance phase. The project consists of 5 people in a good blend of experienced and not so experienced. Me being part of the latter when it comes to my new role. What I find interesting is the energy I feel about this! I've always felt that I put out the questions to my surroundings. It now seems that I will be put to the test myself and have to do action based on others questions and requirements.

Hopefully I will be able to change some elements in the project so that we can work in new ways and see change bring new energy in to the project. I have a dream about an energic group of people working together to make the best they have ever made. When we deliver we should be proud of what we have done and feel that it was worth it. This is a bit childish and naive, but I think it is possible if one can create the right circumstances. It can happen! I really look forward to work with the people, the environment and the product from within this role.

With this perspective I have looked to Scrum. I see elements in Scrum that can be usefully applied in our project. These elements being the product backlog, sprint backlog, daily scrum and burndown charts. Especially the sprint backlog as this will allow developers to focus on these issues and then the burndown chart to see the progress and make it possible to feel that we are moving toward a goal.

Our project is in maintenance phase which I find exiting for this kind of "method". This means we have bugs being reported as well as new functionality into Jira. This will be our starting point when we begin to work on our product backlog.

So there you have some of my thought on change in our project. Maybe someone have seen Scrum used in maintenance projects earlier and would like to give a comment?

Work Environment

On Friday we got a presentation at Computas by Sintef. The topic of the presentation was work environment and workspace. By this meaning office layout and its implication on efficiency, productivity and identity. They had an interesting perspective on how we where behaving in different workspace solutions. One of the points i picked up was the difference between a workspace geared for communication versus concentration. Cell offices works best for the latter and they had seen increase in communication with open office solutions. This created reactions in the audience which today have cell offices, but often with an "open" space between their offices. The offices are also occupied by people working on the same project. It was mentioned that the walls toward the open space was made of glass. Only that most people sit with their back to the door and the glass wall and the open space between the cell offices.

I think moving around is healthy for your own motivation and inspiration. I also think that open office solutions is one of the better solutions for knowledge workers. Here is what I wrote in my master thesis on the subject:

Work Environment
As an important facilitator of knowledge sharing Davenport and Prusak (1998) mention the work environment. They claim that changes in the work environment may cause loss of knowledge and it can also disrupt the existing sharing process. Knowledge has a tendency to thrive only in the environment it develops. Elements mentioned are, “organisational size, focus, management and intangibles as trust and atmosphere.” In the previous section organisational structure and size was described as an influential element to the way a knowledge worker performs. Knowledge workers often collaborate in different ways and use communication tools as well as face-to-face communication.

Office environment needs to facilitate the collaboration and exchange of tacit as well as explicit knowledge, Davenport (2005) mentions meeting spaces and conference rooms as a minimum. He goes further and suggests, based on findings by Thomas Allen (1984), that knowledge workers who need to communicate should be located physically close to each other. Becker and Sims (2001) claim, “The more open the environment, the more frequent the communication and the shorter the duration.” In addition to this they say that the communication in such an environment is “not viewed as interruptions, but these short, frequent interactions provide very fast feedback and shortresponse times, allowing work to move forward overall.” The data from Becker and Sims’ report also suggest that more visual contact actually contributes to fewer unwanted interactions, by “changing not so much the frequency as the timing of serendipitous communication.” By this they mean that by having visual contact the workers can see if the others are busy and not interrupt. On a more organisational level Allen (1984) claims that knowledge workers work environment should have aspects from the departments that work with Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT) and facilities organisations. These aspects together can create a thriving working environment with elements important for atmosphere, communication and the use of process supporting tools.

References

Davenport, T. H. and Prusak, L. (1998) Working knowledge : how organizations manage
what they know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.

Davenport, T. H. (2005) Thinking for a living : how to get better performance and results
from knowledge workers, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.

Allen, J. T. (1984) Managing the Flow of Technology, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Becker, F. and Sims, W. (2001) Offices That Work - Balancing Communication,
Flexibility and Cost, October, Cornell University.

Being a change-maker

"I always wonder why people do not understand what is good for them". The phrase is a common one.

Many of us have surely read books on culture and knowledge sharing, but find it difficult to implement the theories in practice. It is difficult and rightly so. Culture is about people and handling people is difficult, much because we are individuals with a different viewpoint, background and desire. These three elements may seem obvious, but why is it then so often forgotten?

Viewpoint
People involved in different work have different viewpoints, they see issues related to their context. How can I have any use of this in my work or situation.

Background
Often people that work together have different background and experiences. They might have had different work-experience or even a totally different upbringing.

Desire
Most people have an idea of how they would like to work or how their work should be performed and organised. Many feel that they do not want anything to change because they are comfortable with the way things are now.


In my daily life I find these three elements important to think of when handling with people. When trying to change something in your workplace, these elements will help you getting started on the positive side.
If you know the viewpoint, background and desire of a person which is involved in a change process, they will help you to find a way to influence this person positively. Apply to the desire by highlighting the benefits that can fulfill the desire. Use models, images or stories that can be related to their background so the person can identify with it. And use examples that is directly connected to their viewpoint.

There is of course a lot more to be said on this subject, but could bee a good starting point for creating ownership for the change-process in the individual.

Management Style

My previous post about Team Learning put requirements on the management. How can one manage people that know the job better than you or even work in their own way.

Management style is often influenced by organisational structure and reflects in what way the workers are coordinated. On the note of managing people Drucker (1999) mentions “that one does not ’manage’ people, but the task is to lead people.” And the goal is to make the specific strengths and knowledge productive of each individual. The more skilled and proficient a worker is in his work, the harder it is to manage this activity according to traditional management methods. A direct supervision approach requires that the supervisor have more knowledge or is more skilled than the worker to be able to know what the worker is supposed to be doing to get the wanted result. Due to the mentioned change towards more knowledge work in organisations today, Drucker claim that one does not need supervisors(13), but a leader –or put in terms of today- a coach(14).

Both Drucker (1999) and Wenger (2004) describes that their view of knowledge management begins with managing oneself as a knowledge worker. Take an active role towards your own learning and increase of knowledge. Peter Senge (1992) sees managing oneself as personal mastery, and by this meaning to developing one’s own proficiency. “Personal mastery is likened to be a lifelong journey with no ultimate destination.” He tells us that such a journey consists of processes whereby “a person continually clarifies and deepens personal vision, focuses energy on it, develops patience in seeking it, and in this way apparently increasingly views reality objectively.” This ownership and involvement leads people to do positive things towards achieving personal vision. Further personal vision is described as a calling of intrinsic desires, not a purpose to pursue. Senge claims as result, “People hold a sacred view of work because work now is valued for itself, rather than posing a chore that needs to be done as a means to some other end.“

People with high personal mastery “tend to be committed and exude initiative, have a broader and deeper sense of responsibility” in their work, and as Senge claims of key importance, they learn faster. This gives strength to the belief that answers to organisational inefficiencies lies not only in technology. Technology has often been seen as solution to efficiency and automation of traditional repetitive tasks. Furthermore information technology has enabled new ways of communicating and changed many of the traditional crafts and professions.

*13: Mintzberg (1983) claim that direct supervision requires close personal contact between manager and the worker, with the result that there is some limit to the number workers any one manager can supervise.
*14: Coaching has been used in sports and has become increasingly used as a management style in business the recent years. More on coaching see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching

Motivating Workers

I've always ponder around how to motivate people. To me it seems there are a few guidelines in general, but as with much else you need to tweak it to fit with your context. Kathy Sierra wrote a few interesting lines on passion for work here. And when reading it I found a few other blogs that where interesting. One of them being David Maisters blog and another being Christopher Marstons blog, both giving good ideas on how to "manage" people. They are all well worth a look!

The seven-day weekend

I just started reading a book called The seven-day weekend (excerpt from chapter 1) by Ricardo Semler. Looking forward to see the thoughts behind the success of his company Semco. So far I've read alot about responsible adults and how people use their time differently when employed by Semco. The have really taken the idea of flexitime to another level. Semler mentions that one of the important goal is to have motivated employees. The example that is often referred to is answering emails on Sunday's and watching a movie on Monday afternoon. Freedom to think and to enjoy life, be it while working or fishing. It reminds me of what I read from Peter Senge when doing my masterthesis. Senge proposed an idea of work being meaningful to yourself and be connected to your own personal goals. Work is integrated, your life and your time not divided into spare time and work time. It also seems that Semler have ideas similar to those from Peter Drucker about workers are able to manage themselves without supervision and control.

I will come back with a full review and more thoughts when I have read the whole book. While waiting you should head over to CIOinsights and read an interesting interview with Semler here.