rowingAgilePractices2004? Identifying Ways to Promote a more Agile Workplace.

Motivation of a team

Initiator: Dimitri Zimine

Participants: Brendon Melville, Chris (?), Costa Pissaris, Satish Vangipuram, Wendy Ospina, Fernando Cuenca, Chris (?), Gil Broza '' (which 2 of our 3 Chris's are these?)''

Discussion Summary:

Experience show that only highly motivated teams are successful, however the question "how to motivate a team", being a key to success of the project, still doesn't have an answer.
The chart "Effectiveness of approach vs. Team quality" is provided.
Agile can emerge from the management, to make development more effective. Or, it can emerge from the team, as an effort to convert their working environment from a garbage bin to a garden.
Who is capable going agile? What is the personality we should be looking for? Open minded people, with passion to developing good stuff. Person who is eager to go to the office do his job when wakes up in the morning is a right one for agile.
Does XP/Agile? put more pressure on developers? Does it make them feeling as working on assembly line?
Developers, Customers and Management are not necessarily collaborating, they may have controversial motivation. Why should DEVELOPERS satisfy their USERS if they get paid by their MANAGERS?

... and much more, participants, please help to fill the gaps! (DZ)

Strong interpersonal relationships provide motivation within a team. However a toxic environment will eventually defeat the best efforts of a team to generate better products.

Conclusions / Proposals / Actions:

Great team is a key for motivation for members; by "great" we mean a team with trust and feel of fairness.
Reading a book, sharing same values plays great role in building an agile team.
Agile practices are motivation by themselves; the key is integrity.
The feeling of being in a right, appropriate and working process makes team more motivated.
Sense of continuous completion is a very motivation.
Agile is fragile, one can so easily compromise any of the practices and the whole approach, if the integrity is taken off.
When we start promoting agile, we don't sell it, we rather uncover it and grow it.
Build an agile team rather then convert existing team into agile.
Building relationship is important.

TODO:

Gain notes from participants of the discussion;
clean up the above text;
add the chart to WiKi? site;

Post-Meeting Discussion:

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