Podcast Interview with Mitch Lacey, author of The Scrum Field Guide
Categories:
Projects At Work,
lacey,
mitch lacey,
field guide,
scrum field guide,
agile transformation,
podcast,
Scrum,
Agile
Categories: Projects At Work, lacey, mitch lacey, field guide, scrum field guide, agile transformation, podcast, Scrum, Agile
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My Projects at Work podcast interview with Mitch Lacey, author of The Scrum Field Guide.
Also, check out my review of the book here. |
Book Review: The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice For Your First Year
| Check out my review of Mitch Lacey's new book The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice For Your First Year
on Projects At Work. |
Distributed Agile Teams White Paper Review
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ProjectsatWork has published a study called Distributed Agile Teams: Achieving the Benefits. The report was put together by Elizabeth Harrin (@PM4Girls), who is the author of the website A Girls Guide to Project Management. The results of the research cover a lot of ground with respect to what makes distributed Agile projects work and what can contribute to their failure. The report is very insightful and definitely worth the time it takes to read. While some of the findings may seem like common sense, knowledge workers in the IT space (myself definitely included) seem to possess a remarkable capacity for periodic loss of grip to that tether.
My favorite part comes at the very end during the summary of recommendations. Number One on the list is:
This is one of the most simple things that so many of us forget when we are working at a distance. I believe this applies whether you are working down the hall from someone, or across the globe… there is a price that has to be paid when you are not sitting in the same room. With the transparency that Agile offers, this tax becomes far more obvious. There is no doubt that distributed teams provide a number of benefits, but those benefits come at a cost. The reason (IMHO) so many people struggle so much with distributed is that they keep thinking that the ride is free ... which it theoretically could be… unless you actually want it to work. |
Clearing the Backlog...
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Recent(ish) updates
Coaches Corner Interview with Xavier Quesada
Interview with Roman Pilcher (Podcast) Part 2 - http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/podCasts/270712.cfm
How Much Do We Actually, Really, Totally Need To Do? (Blog Post)
Coaches Corner Interview with Ray Lewallen |
Questioning the "Cost of Sound"
Categories:
productivity
Categories: productivity
| I was listening to an interview on the radio today with one of the authors of a book called Healing at the Speed of Sound. The interview was intriguing enough that I’ve already started reading it, but what stuck with me the most from the interview was a question that was asked about the “cost of sound”. The idea being that any kind of noise around you, ambient noise from an air conditioner, the hum of electricity, water running though a pipe in the wall, children in another room or co-workers in a nearby cube, all have a cost associated with them. Since we can’t actually shut our ears, the way we can our eyes, we are always in listening mode. Even if you wear earplugs or noise cancelling headphones, you are merely swapping one noise for another. Noise is something we can’t entirely block out; our brain will always be processing the sounds around us. The reason that the “cost of sound” question stuck with me so much is because I started thinking about different work environments, how different types of people need different soundscapes to maintain productivity and yet, beyond making sure no one is disruptively loud, we pay little to no attention to sound when we put people together in a workspace. So, what I’m wondering is, does anyone measure the impact of sound on productivity in an office setting. And, if anyone does, is there a way to translate the negative or positive actual cost (currency) impact of one sound scape over another on a given project? Can changes in sound scape be translated into cost or risk? And, is sound like other environmental conditions? If the Hawthorne Works studies indicate that simply changing a variable in a work situation will result in increased productivity simply because of change, does this apply to sound? If I start playing Never Mind the Bollocks in the office, will folks be motivated to work more efficiently or quicker? Once their productivity has stabilized, if I replace the Sex Pistols with Kenny G, are they still going to see an improvement? |
