Everymember Skills

Source: Tim Ottinger

People are typically worried about starting XP on the basis of personality types. There is typically a very small number of people who just don't "get it", and developers become concerned that they will fall through the cracks, or that their best coworkers will.

There is more that each Agile team member needs beyond technical wizardry. These are really as much attitudes as skills. When the team begins to break down, it tends to be along certain lines. To help adopters, it is good to have a clear statement of some values that members need in order to reduce friction and keep the project moving.

Mottos and slogans are not the answer to real problems among people. If a set of developers have unresolved past conflicts, they will find it difficult to take to this way of thinking. I am not sure how possible it is to coach people out of bad history with each other. I suspect it will be necessary for some of them to find a different team where they can have feelings of equality, humanity, cooperation, etc.

What these attitudes & skills can do is set an expectation. When a team is starting out, they should understand that the normative behavior is to ask questions, look for ways to measure the quality of their input and output (information), to contribute equally with their peers (energy, equality, cooperation), and to have patience when others are struggling (humanity). With such a start, there is some chance of the team being successful together. With a balk at the very ideas espoused, there is a good chance that the team needs a little refactoring.