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Last weekend, I had the pleasure of “talking geek”
again for two whole days. I was taking 37 programmers
on a journey through the proper way to practice
test-driven development (TDD) and refactoring.
Beyond mere technique, a central theme of the
seminar was the elimination of fear. Having myself
been a developer in a Waterfall environment for many
years, I know the trepidation of:
- having to fix a bug in code I don't know/remember
- adding a feature under time pressure
- making a code change and not knowing what I broke
- writing for several days before I had anything
meaningful to show
Many of these fears evaporated once I began writing
proper unit tests as a matter of routine, and learned
to work gradually and in very small steps.
Many of my students voiced the same feeling, one of
them saying that he felt "brave" writing code in the
test-driven development lab.
And... if you've ever been around testers, you'd
know they have their fears too:
- Having killer bugs escape on their watch
- Not having enough time to test the important stuff
- Not being 100% certain how the system should behave
Product managers and other "business customers" have
their share of unspoken fears too:
- Drawing product roadmaps that might not hold up
- Specifying a feature in detail, and still seeing
something different developed
- Requesting a "simple" feature, and receiving
push-back and a crazy estimate
And don't even get me started on managers, who
genuinely worry what would happen if they didn't
retain full control of a situation.
Almost everybody I've ever worked with has had some
nagging fears. Primarily for themselves (their job,
career, or reputation), and also for their team,
product and company.
The Agile framework allows EVERYONE
to work FEARLESSLY. In a proper Agile environment...
- There's no need to worry about others' reaction,
because you're in the same boat together. Just talk to
them.
- Even if you drop the ball, others have your back.
- Whatever happens, it's not about you personally,
it's about the team.
- Whatever your role, you'll deliver when you can, at
your capacity, based on agreements.
- You alone are NOT singularly responsible for
delivery (even if you're the manager).
- If you're not sure about something, just ask.
Someone must know. And if they don't, that's the
problem to solve.
- If you ever do less than your best, reflect on
that, and do better next time.
- You are not a “resource”. You're you, with
your greatness and your fallibilities. And that's a
good thing.
You already know that Agile's great for shipping
what the customer wants quickly and cleanly. That's
good for business... and it's also good for you,
personally.
When you don't carry those fears around, you're much
healthier, more productive, and you relish your work.
How would you like to be a fearless professional?
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