You Don’t Need Permission

Re:You Don’t Need Permission by geoduck14 on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @02:23PM (#27451292)

Middle manager here! There are many different categories of "my team is working on something unapproved", and my response is varies greatly. Here are some categories:

1) I found a problem. I spent 5 minutes opening a ticket. - Great. Thanks

2) I found a problem. I spent 2 hours figuring out whose fault it is. - Hmmm, does the problem really matter? Can we just fix it on our side?

3) I found a problem. I spent 2 hours fixing it. - Is this really our problem to fix? Can we open a ticket and move on? (Note the similarity with #2)

4) I accomplished the task in a new way. - Is new also better? Does the solution also align with some ambiguous objectives that I haven't fully disclosed to you? Do I need to include you in more meetings so you understand more weird objectives (and then waste more time!)

5) I did a cool thing that you didn't even thing about! - How can I present this so Sr leaders get excited and approve working on this more?

#5 is by far the best, and I genuinely enjoy a teammember who is excited about something that also makes a positive impact - and I LOVE telling leaders why we need to change direction because of something new and cool that MY TEAM FOUND.

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Re:You Don’t Need Permission by sobani on Thursday June 10, 2021 @06:39AM (#27459132)

> some ambiguous objectives that I haven't fully disclosed to you

Isn't the one of the major pillars of Agile to let the devs know about all the objectives, so they can make better solutions? You know, the sole reason the Business Owner is one of major the scrum roles?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:You Don’t Need Permission by nzmsv on Thursday June 10, 2021 @03:52PM (#27464929)

In your opinion, are the 5s possible without spending time on 2s, 3s and 4s? If one always stops working on a ticket after 5 minutes (scenario 1) and files a ticket "to be closed later" rather than investigating - and getting in trouble depending on how the investigation goes (2, 3) - how does the developer get enough expertise to get the big wins? How does a developer get experience implementing 5s without hitting an occasional 4?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:You Don’t Need Permission by geoduck14 on Friday June 11, 2021 @12:19AM (#27469248)

Thanks for your question!

My original comment is all about how you present your self in the daily standup.

You get 10 mins in the stand up. What do you say?

"I spent 30 minutes trying to fix a trivial thing that will get resolved as soon. As I get off the call" - bad idea

"Work is going slower than expected, but I'm making progress. Make sure leaders know this is REALLY hard" - better idea

"I spent all day making mistakes, but I eventually got something better than planned" - This is good

Here are some tips: ASK FOR HELP. If it is a real problem, don't wait until stand up to ask for help.

Don't focus on the problems. If you talk about how you can't access email, it sounds like you spent 8 hours waiting for the email to come back (which, if true, I need to know about it much sooner)

Help me brag about you. I REALLY need to tell leaders that the team is rocking. Let me know when you: solve a hard problem, get good results, teach someone else something good, learned something from someone else. You AND I benefit if you do well.

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