Summary: Interview with Ken Pugh Ken Pugh is an expert consultant with a ready smile, great instincts, and, like so many of the experts and trainers I have had the pleasure to work with, he takes particular joy in watching the light bulbs turn on as he works with students. At Agile 2006, Ken talked with me about one of his key observations: most agile teams have challenges with people, yet most of the training developers receive still focuses on technical skills. In some sense, that can set them up for failure. People issues show up in several forms: A person who does not want to collaborate or cannot collaborate Time problems (too many meetings, etc) A developer who simply plows ahead for rear of asking questions and looking incompetent Conflict resolution Difficulties in communication This is perhaps especially a challenge in individualistic, highly competitive, or isolated environments. So, what do you do? Do you exclude people who cannot fit in? Or do you work with them to help them transition or to find alternatives? The key is not to force the solution on the individual, not to impose a fix. Instead, you have to work with the individual to help them discover the solution. This is sensitive and tough work. In Scrum, this would be a primary responsibility for the ScrumMaster (who is responsible for focusing on the health of the team). In Scrum, it means that ScrumMasters must learn "soft skills", how to work with people discover their own solutions. There is no way around this. To help with this, Ken recommends books by Jerry Weinberg. This relates quite well to last week’s podcast on interviewing techniques for staffing agile teams, above. Ken has been in business since 1982, offering OO, Java, C++, C, customer programming, design, process issues, and expert testimony, with its headquarters in Durham NC. If you get a chance to hear Ken speak, I highly recommend it. His speaking schedule is on the Pugh-Killeen Associates website. Recommendations - Reading By Jerry Weinberg The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Getting and Giving Advice Successfully More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Toolkit Recommendations - Online Weinberg's Blog, Secrets of Consulting: http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/ Ken Pugh's website: http://www.pughkilleen.com/ Music used in this podcast: “Pizzaman” and “Chocolate” ©2006 William Cushman: ghostnotes.blogspot.com “On the Cool Side” ©2006 Kevin McLeod: http://www.incompetech.com/ For more information, contact info@netobjectives.com or visit us at www.netobjectives.com Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments
