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Agile People Are…
All experienced software professionals know that it is people, not technology, not process that builds great solutions. This is something that is core to our culture at Architech. We live it, we breathe it, and write about it… Great Team, Great Software. Agile as a methodology, a mind-set, a philosophy is based on this fundamental truth.
So what are the qualities of Agile people? Not all people are Agile. That is for certain. Not all people want to be Agile, and that is fine. That is their choice. However, successful Agile teams are made up of people that have the following characteristics…
- Passion for their craft. I’m talking about passion here. Something that is impossible to quantify but easy to recognize. You either have it or you don’t.
- Understanding of “team”, of “commitment”. You win as a team, you lose as a team. There is no “I”, “me” in team. You back up other members of your team and trust other members to back you up. There is no, “I finished my task, good luck with yours…” An agile team supports each other, through good and bad.
- Pragmatic. Software is hard. There are constraints. Agile people recognize and understand these constraints. They know how to pick and choose their battles.
- Disciplined. Agile people are Lean. They hate to spin wheels. They hate waste. They work smart, and that comes through disciplined engineering practices such as automated testing, continuous integration, TDD, refactoring.
- Adaptable. Things will change. That is fact. Agile people embrace it, adapt to it, they turn on a dime if need be.
- Value simplicity. Unnecessary complexity is abhorred by Agile people. Why? Because it leads to waste and waste is the cancer to delivering value.
- Multi-disciplinary. They are specialists in some areas but they are knowledgeable in many.
- They are “Doers”. Many talk the talk. Agile people walk the walk.
- They are thinkers. They question. They are curious. They want to know why.
- They are moral. They do the right thing. They care deeply about people, their team, and their customer.
Good post! Are these attributes of the dev teams at Architech?
Your point about simplicity reminded me of a favourite quote:
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
How would you describe Architech’s company culture?
Thanks Robert! That is a great quote…
Indeed, these are the core attributes of each member of the Architech team. We take pride in our work, we are passionate about building great solutions, and we believe in our people. To give you a sense of our culture, here are the core values that we live by every day…
1) Do the Right Thing
2) Embrace Change
3) Be Open and Collaborative
4) Think Big
5) Never Fail a Client