Agile, in many ways, is talking about:
a. Collaboration and communication (anytime and anywhere) in terms of technology, delivery and support, and maintaining for something.
Let's go in-depth into more detail:
a. For the first topic, it's about collaboration and communication in Agile, and it's anytime and anywhere, not just in one area.
Let's look briefly at the fundamentals of agile, namely the agile manifesto, especially the agile manifesto on software development.
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work, we have come to value:
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
While there is value in the items on the right, we value the things on the left more.
Everyone who is working in Agile understands the importance of communication and collaboration.
An agile team is a cross-functional and self-organizing team. On the initial day of Agile, there was a perception that the team needed to be collocated so that Agile Scrum would happen effectively. If teams are at different locations, then Agile won't be successful. There is still some Agile methodology like Xtreme programming where it is possible to have a team together from standpoint pair programming. However, other Agile methods such as Scrum, LeSS, Scrum@scale figured out an approach to execute Agile from multiple geographies. As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention." No doubt, every enterprise is looking to adopt an Agile execution approach with the economically viable model. As most IT business is done from multiple geographies, Agile needs to be customized in the desired way to reap the same benefits.
Fortunately, due to technological advancement, it became seamless to interact and collaborate across multiple geographies. Following are some of the best practices for Agile teams working from different landscapes.
- Leveraging video conferencing and chat software
- Leveraging Agile project management toolchain
- Attendance from all teams for agile Scrum events and ceremonies
- Focus on cultural understanding
- Continuous improvement that focuses on people, process, and product
b. The second one is Generalizing - Specialists to Improving Your Effectiveness
Why Generalizing Specialists?
As an individual, it's a perfect strategy to become a generalizing specialist. The greater your skillset broadens in many roles, the more likely you'll be in demand and the easier it will be for your to gain employment. Furthermore, you'll likely get better jobs than you would have because of your greater productivity and versatility. Just like you wouldn't have a stock portfolio with a single stock in it (that's a hazardous investment strategy), you shouldn't have a skills portfolio with only one specialty.
There are several reasons why you should prefer to build teams from generalizing specialists:
- Improved communication and collaboration
- Less documentation.
- Improved flexibility
- Less risk
- Fewer bottlenecks
Time and again, I've found that people confuse the concept of a generalizing specialist with that of a generalist, but a generalizing specialist is more than just a generalist. As you see in Figure, a generalist is a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. On the other hand, a generalizing specialist is a jack-of-all-trades and master of a few, as you see—big difference. A team of generalists can easily flounder because none of them have the skills to get things done.
Similarly, a generalizing specialist is more than just a specialist. It's a "coordinator" multi-skillset people. A specialist is narrowly focused on a single skill, making them very effective at that skill but not at others. Specialists will often be blind to the issues which other specialists focus on, and as a result, will struggle to work with those other specialists effectively.
In many ways, a generalizing specialist is simply a craftsperson. I don't use the term craftsperson because it is a loaded one that is likely to turn off a large number of existing professionals. I believe that generalizing specialist is more palatable, giving the nod to the existing terms of generalist and specialist.
In short, my experience is that generalizing specialists are much more effective than either specialists or generalists. The most influential people are generalizing specialists, or at least actively are trying to become so. There is still room for specialists, they can often act as internal consultants to your teams, but as organizations become agile, I suspect that we will see fewer specialists over time.
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