Presentation I gave to the Vancouver Island Software Development Managers' Rountable in May of 2010. This is part two of two.
In these slides I present some suggestions on how to be a better Software Development Manager. Many of the topics were excerpted from my blog at www.leadingsoftware.ca.
This particular presentation focuses on how to hold good meetings and some tips for great retrospectives.
Make sure you view the slide notes or this won't be very useful.
This is not a presentation about development processes or tools. It is not about how to do software development. It is about how to assist and improve the people doing that software development.
Apparently 1962 was a particularly boring year.
1. Ensure everyone agrees with the goals (don’t hold the meeting if everyone doesn’t agree)
2. Specify the deliverables (what should you have at the end of the agenda?)
3. Use a time-based agenda
4. Keep it as short as possible, but not shorter
5. Provide a relief valve in case the meeting isn’t going well. (Call a new meeting, or use time to discuss what new meeting should be)
6. Assign a meeting maestro
1. Ensure everyone agrees with the goals (don’t hold the meeting if everyone doesn’t agree)
• ask “Does everyone understand the goals of this meeting? Does everyone agree that those are the correct goals?”
• If you have don’t consensus on these two questions, don’t hold the meeting.
• People who don’t need to agree with the goals, shouldn’t have been invited
2. Specify the deliverables (what should you have at the end of the agenda?)
• You can easily specify a goal for a meeting without being clear on the desired product.
• Indicate what form the results of each goal will take: a decision, a project plan, assignment of responsibility, etc.
3. Assign a meeting maestro
• The most valuable and important person in a meeting. Usually should not be the meeting organizer.
• their purpose is to see that the meeting happens according to plan.
• identify any off-topic conversations, assign people to take that subject “off-line”, get the meeting back to focus.
• watch agenda and the clock to make sure that no discussion runs overtime.
• must be confident enough to cut off conversation as required.
4. Use a time-based agenda - distributed in advance
• stop to think about how much time each item will take.
• Without times, the Maestro can never hope to keep the meeting on time.
• unless an item is truly trivial, no topic can be discussed in under five-minutes.
• This limits a 30-minute meeting to a maximum of five non-trivial topics, which is probably too many.
5. Provide a relief valve in case the meeting isn’t going well. (Call a new meeting, or use time to discuss what new meeting should be)
• Even the best organized, best orchestrated meeting can sometimes fail. Accept that fact.
• If ten-minutes into your 30-minute meeting nobody can stay on topic, or problems with your goals, call the meeting off. Just stop.
• two choices: call a new meeting with a modified goals, or use time to figure out why meeting hasn’t worked and how next should be different.
• Whatever you do, don’t keep meeting just because the agenda says so.
6. Keep it as short as possible, but not shorter
• Some things simply cannot be done in 22-minutes.
• Every meeting should be exactly as short as it possibly can be, but no shorter.
How do I get my organization to change?
• begin doing each of these six things for meetings you organize
• don’t accept a meeting invite that doesn’t meet these criteria
• offer to help the organizer complete these steps
How do I get my organization to change?
• begin doing each of these six things for meetings you organize
• don’t accept a meeting invite that doesn’t meet these criteria
• offer to help the organizer complete these steps
How do I get my organization to change?
• begin doing each of these six things for meetings you organize
• don’t accept a meeting invite that doesn’t meet these criteria
• offer to help the organizer complete these steps
How do I get my organization to change?
• begin doing each of these six things for meetings you organize
• don’t accept a meeting invite that doesn’t meet these criteria
• offer to help the organizer complete these steps
How do I get my organization to change?
• begin doing each of these six things for meetings you organize
• don’t accept a meeting invite that doesn’t meet these criteria
• offer to help the organizer complete these steps
How do I get my organization to change?
• begin doing each of these six things for meetings you organize
• don’t accept a meeting invite that doesn’t meet these criteria
• offer to help the organizer complete these steps
Retrospectives provide a sure-fire way to help you, your team, and your company improve its performance.
• There are a few important suggestions I’ve learned over the years
1. Use a formal structure
• You can use whatever structure you want, but always keep them the same.
• Yes, you can have retrospectives about your retrospectives
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
• It’s easy to get excited at all the great ideas that might be proposed.
• Force yourself to focus on only ONE thing. You hold these often, so one thing is enough.
• If you really insist, it can be one thing for company, one for group, one for each person.
4. meet often and regularly
• Retrospectives should be part of your rhythm.
• Meet frequently makes it easy to focus on one thing, and to measure change and improvement
5. Record commitments, and then follow-up in the next meeting
• Agreeing to do something is useless if it isn’t written down and communicated.
• Share commitment with a larger group so you have more motivation to do it.
• Follow-up in the next retrospective meeting
6. publish results and commitments
• When a commitment is published, it becomes easier to execute
• When results are published regularly, it becomes possible to manage the improvement
1. Use a formal structure
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
4. Meet often and regularly
5. Record your commitments and follow-up in the next meeting
6. Publish the results and commitments
1. Use a formal structure
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
4. Meet often and regularly
5. Record your commitments and follow-up in the next meeting
6. Publish the results and commitments
1. Use a formal structure
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
4. Meet often and regularly
5. Record your commitments and follow-up in the next meeting
6. Publish the results and commitments
1. Use a formal structure
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
4. Meet often and regularly
5. Record your commitments and follow-up in the next meeting
6. Publish the results and commitments
1. Use a formal structure
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
4. Meet often and regularly
5. Record your commitments and follow-up in the next meeting
6. Publish the results and commitments
1. Use a formal structure
2. Keep them short (30 mins is often plenty)
3. Fix one thing at a time
4. Meet often and regularly
5. Record your commitments and follow-up in the next meeting
6. Publish the results and commitments