Roy Osherove ( http://5whys.com ) discusses ten big mistakes software team leaders make when leading a team, and includes a description of the three maturity phases of a software team. learn more at http://5whys.com

1. Ten Mistakes
Team Leads Make
Roy Osherove
5Whys.com
Twitter: @RoyOsherove
http://5whys.com

2. Interesting Questions
• Why can’t I convince my team to do TDD?
• Why can’t we get over “putting fires” all the time?
• What am I supposed to do as a lead exactly?
• Why can’t I seem to hire all those people I read about in
agile books?
• What am I supposed to do with that bad apple in the
team?
• Am I going to lose my friends?
• Why doesn’t anyone teach this stuff?

3. Things I learned the
hard way
• find out more at 5whys.com

4. Book:
Notes To a Software
Team Leader
http://5whys.com

5. #1
Don’t Recognize Team
Maturity
http://5whys.com

6. Maturity Levels
•Chaos
• Learning
• Self-Leading

7. Maturity Levels
•Chaos - 80%
• Learning - 15%
• Self-Leading - 5%

8. New Looking Glasses
• Every question has a context
• How can I get that dev sharing what’s
going on? (if my team is in the [chaos/
learning/mature] stage?)
• Why Can’t I get my team to do TDD (in
the chaos stage)

9. Learning+ stage
#2
Fear of Delegation
http://5whys.com

10. What are you going to
do about it?
http://5whys.com

11. All stages
#3
Fear Of Engagement
http://5whys.com

12. #4
Placating
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13. #5
Being Irrelevant
http://5whys.com

14. #6
Being
Super-Reasonable
http://5whys.com

15. Blaming
#7
http://5whys.com

16. • Malice: “He’s doing this to me on purpose”
• Stupid:
• “I wonder if you really understand how
much this is important”
• “He’s lazy”
• “He can’t seem to learn this stuff”

17. #8
Ignoring Behavior
Forces
All Stages
http://5whys.com

18. • Personal
Motivation
Ability
• Social
Motivation
Ability
• Environmental
Motivation
Ability

19. Chaos Stage
#9
Fear of Assertiveness
http://5whys.com

20. #10
Help Spread
Non-Commitment
Chaos/Learning stage
http://5whys.com

21. We need..
I could..
Why doesn’t someone..
http://5whys.com

22. I will.. by..
http://5whys.com

23. Mistakes
• Recognize team maturity • Fear of engagement
• Delegation • placating
• Behavior forces • blaming
• Assertiveness • irrelevant
• Non Commitment • super-reasonable

24. November Course:
Elastic Leadership
• Register at LondonLeader.eventbrite.com
• Software team leader skills to succeed in an
agile world
• (Also in non agile world)
• find out more at 5whys.com

25. Thank You + Q + A!
• Contact:
• Email: Roy@osherove.com
• Twitter: @RoyOsherove
• http://5whys.com
• Books:
• Gerald M. Weinberg - Managing Teams Congruently
• Johanna Rothman - Behind Closed Doors
• Influencer - The power to change anything