Tradeoffs in Coordination Among Teams

The other day in Budapest, Jez Humble and I wondered, what is the CAP theorem for teams? In distributed database systems, the CAP theorem says: choose two of Consistency, Availability, and Partitioning — and you must choose Partitioning. Consider a system for building software together. Unless the software is built by exactly one person, we …

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Fitting in v. Belonging

In your team, do you feel like you fit in? Do you have a feeling of belonging? These are very different questions.[2] When I fit in, it’s because everyone is sufficiently alike. We have inside jokes, TV shows or sports we talk about, opinions we share and common targets of ridicule. New people can fit …

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Data v Awareness

In the computer industry, data and conscious thinking are praised, as opposed to an integrated awareness.[1] How is the work going? the task-tracking tools, the commits, and the build results provide data, but only conversations with the team can provide awareness. Awareness of mood and relationships and trends, of uncertainties and risks. Perhaps this is …

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