58 members of agile-RTP and I explored communication in agile teams March 2, 2010. I appreciate the turnout. The rain and temperature were falling. We kept warm and had a great time. Here’s the slide deck I had time for. Thank you again to Jeff Barschaw, the other agile-RTP organizers, and agile-RTP members!

Words convey meaning. They’re how we take the stuff deep in our brains and share it with others. They also self reinforce. David Levy says “not only do our attitudes and perceptions affect our use of language, but our use of language in turn influences our attitudes and perceptions.”1 I came across some new words reading Joe Little’s blog entry Two Cheer’s for the Nokia Test. In the post Joe says: “Why do I like it? I think it is a simple way to set

Words interest me. They don’t exist in the real world. They’re the names, and descriptions we give to the items and events we notice in our environment. A classic on how well this works is Blindmen. It’s a short read, I’ll wait here. Bad Matters Worse The bigger and more complex object we try to describe, the more problems we have accurately doing so. So what happens when we try to describe something that doesn’t exist using words that don’t really exist? Sort of a

“Why doesn’t my manager listen when I explain the details?”
“Why doesn’t the developer just give me what I ask for?”

If you’ve ever heard these complaints—or made them–you’re not alone. Questions like these are a symptom of a communication disconnect.

What’s Wrong with this Picture? Have you ever read something that bothered you, but couldn’t put your finger on exactly why? I found myself in that position after I read George Dinwiddie’s recent blog entry about Blocking. Scott Ambler’s “blocking” doesn’t bother me. I don’t see that giving management the information they need, in the format they need it, a problem. If doing this allows the team to continue working on their tasks providing value (via working software) to the clients, I’m all for it.

I’ve been reading some interesting emails concerning names in an Scrum environment. Backlog in particular seems to generate energy.

“Why doesn’t my manager listen when I explain the details?”
“Why doesn’t the developer just give me what I ask for?”
These questions popped out during the Tutorial at this year’s AYE Conference. Realizing the energy, Steve and I held an impromptu discussion on the topic.

First, when you’re not doing email (or phone) there are more “channels” than simply “language”. Indeed, in your example you two were operating with a particularly thin communication mechanism. One of the countermeasures, I think, is having a pile of communication channels going on at once, then you can compare between.

Albert has an interesting job. He takes the manufacturing software the plant operators use, and creates simulation software to train operators. I started working with him when his company selected some new software, and he needed suggestions on how to do things like make time stop.

People working with systems know the interactions between the system and its environment create a tremendous opportunity for success or failure. In computer systems the interfaces between components, utilities, other systems, and the user often contain the most initial defects.