Improvement Mindset

Gil Broza specializes in increasing organizational agility and team performance with minimal risk and thrashing. Dozens of companies seeking transformations, makeovers or improvements have relied on his pragmatic, modern and respectful support for customizing agile in their contexts. His book "The Agile Mind-Set" helps practitioners go beyond process and adopt a true agile approach to work. His book "The Human Side of Agile" is a practical book on leading agile teams to greatness. These days, several of the world's largest organizations are having him train hundreds of their managers in technology and business (up to VP level) on practical agile leadership. Get Gil's popular 20-session mini-program "Something Happened on the Way to Agile" free at OnTheWayToAgile.com.

  Agile   Change Management   ProjectsAtWork  

Good project teams form their processes from established best practices, but great teams are constantly on the lookout for changes to make them more effective or efficient. In part three of our Human Side of Agile series, we look at how you can help your team embrace the continuous improvement mindset.

This is the third article in a five-part series excerpted from the new book The Human Side of Agile. Part One looked at the Agile team leader’s responsibilities, and Part Two described the team leader’s relationships with various role players, including delivery team members, the product owner and stakeholders.

Mindset is one of the distinctions between good Agile teams and great ones. Good teams form their process from established best practices; great teams are constantly on the lookout for changes to make them more effective or efficient. Great teams also realize the difference between being effective (discovering and doing the right thing) and efficient (figuring out a minimal-waste way to carry out their work productively), and choose their improvements and changes according to circumstance.

One way to inculcate the continuous improvement mindset is to never take the status quo for granted. If your build takes ten minutes, would reducing it to five be useful? If your acceptance test suite takes 30 minutes, would halving that make a …

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