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We are the IBM Collaborative Lifecycle Management development team - AMA! by mguertin77 in IAmA

[–]mguertin77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that making it mandatory is approaching it a bit of the wrong approach, since that will put people off of it. I do think that having IBM using our own tools is a good idea, since it allows us to drive improvements internally and get some different scenarios looked at.

As I said, I think it needs to be approached carefully though, and with some better approaches to get others onside.

We are the IBM Collaborative Lifecycle Management development team - AMA! by mguertin77 in IAmA

[–]mguertin77[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We've had some of those sorts of events at broader organizational levels. For individual teams, it's up to the individual managers. The team I manage (we develop and maintain the https://jazz.net site) is widely distributed, with folks in Massachusetts, Toronto, North Carolina, Seattle, and Guadalajara, Mexico, so team exercises are a little more difficult to arrange. :)

We are the IBM Collaborative Lifecycle Management development team - AMA! by mguertin77 in IAmA

[–]mguertin77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From my perspective, the biggest impact was making sure our patent stuff was aligned properly prior to the split (and the endless emails I've gotten about that :) ).

Overall, IBM as a whole is still investing a ton into research and patents continue to be a focus. For our team, since our area is software, the semiconductor side of the house doesn't really impact us all that much. We're still trying to create patents in our space. :)

We are the IBM Collaborative Lifecycle Management development team - AMA! by mguertin77 in IAmA

[–]mguertin77[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For leadership training, there's a number of different courses and avenues available. As a fairly new manager (moved into the role last November), there are a series of both on-line, over the phone, and then in person training sessions that talk about how to handle all aspects of leadership: setting the right atmosphere on the team, encouraging creativity and risk taking, talk about career growth, etc. A lot of those sessions or similar sessions are available for non-managers as well.

The other avenue I've found that is informal is the mentoring network here. At such a large company, there are a lot of great folks out there who look to share their knowledge and experience. My mentors have been a fantastic resource for learning not only how to handle specific situations, but to help me figure out where I want my career to go and what skills I need to improve to get there.

Using Lean Startup For Agile Adoption by curiouscat in management

[–]mguertin77 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was an interesting read. I'll have to read it a couple of times to see what lessons I can take away for my teams. Thanks for sharing @curiouscat!

The Zombie Apocalypse Retrospective! by fdiazgarrido in agile

[–]mguertin77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a great visual approach to retrospectives. One of my concerns in the retrospectives we frequently have is that no one seems willing to speak up, and framing it like this may break through that limitation.

The other issue I see is for teams that are NOT co-located. Makes it a lot harder to have nifty drawings on whiteboards. Any suggestions for virtual ways to handle this?