Agile Otter Blog

This is not a manifesto. It looks a lot like a rather famous manifesto (the middle of it anyway) but it is not a manifesto. This is just a set of principles that I've successfully applied in numerous personal and professional settings, always with good effect. Pull  is a better flow than Push Continuous is more competent than Batch Agreements are more negotiable than Orders Brains per Task  is more efficient than Tasks per Person Improvement is a better goal than Compliance Fail Now is cheaper than Fail Later Simplicity works better than Discipline Safety is best May they serve you as well as they have served me so far. Peace.

As Anzeneers, we are constantly on the look for keystone hazards. A keystone hazard is one that, once triggered, causes a cascade of risks and/or failures.  If we look at 5 Dysfunctions of Teams , you will see that the whole work is based on the keystone hazard "lack of trust" which cascades into fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and ultimately inattention to results. I can't do this topic justice in a blog, but I can recommend that you pick up the book . The lack of trust has its own laundry-list of causes. We may have felt betrayed in the past, or we may have found inconsistency in other people that has upset us. It may be from our own personal set of insecurities from past experiences. It may be from prejudice or social causes. It can come from friction over introvert/extrovert approaches to communication. It can grow from physical distances. It can be multi-causal and complicated in its own right. I have come to recognize...

Within my company, we're talking about agreements and expectations a lot. Safety in decision-making and action-taking is all caught up in expectations and working agreements, and many of ours have been unspoken, unwritten, and un-negotiated. As a result, it is easy to drop things, expecting others to pick them up when they don't know to do it. It's also to do things that seem to step on your colleague's toes or which work at cross-purposes.  I was doing some work for a very dear client of ours, and I needed to revisit the Debian New Package Maintainer's guide . What appears on page one? A set of working agreements. We all are volunteers. You cannot impose on others what to do. You should be motivated to do things by yourself. Friendly cooperation is the driving force. Your contribution should not overstrain others. Your contribution is valuable only when others appreciate it. Debian is not your school where you get automatic attention of...