Thoughts from a Thirsty Bear

  “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development  team is face-to-face conversation.” The Agile Manifesto’s 6th Principle.   Obvious, isn’t it? The fastest, easiest, best way to exchange information is to actually talk to people . From this simple premise comes the recommendation of “collocated teams” - so that people can communicate with minimal friction. I shall put my hand up and admit that I have fully supported this idea for years, and have regularly encouraged teams to adopt it, usually with fantastic results. There can be no doubt that the approach works extremely well. Not working together in the same physical space forces compromise since it  reduces collaboration unless people actively work to come together. Information flow happens more slowly, and becomes more ‘clunky’. Also people lose the subtle cues from body language, half-heard discussions, and instant team timeouts to discuss import...

Exciting news! Folks may have noticed that I have been quiet of late. Well, I have been expanding the range of skills that Thirsty Bear Software can offer. I am pleased to announce that we can now offer Personal and Business Coaching services . I am now a trained Barefoot Coach . It is worth pointing out that this coaching service is completely different  from what folks call " Agile Coaching " - this kind of coaching is aimed fairly and squarely at helping individuals, teams and businesses unlock their potential and maximise their own performance. Not a Scrum, unit test or continuous integration in sight (although I can  still help with that tech stuff if needed - that is a service we still provide). No doubt I will be publishing an article soon on the difference between the two, but for now I hope that definition is enough. If you would like to know more, then please do get in touch. However, this is just the first step on a longer journey, leading to both a Postg...