This document summarizes key points about decision making in software teams. It discusses individual biases that can impact decisions, such as overconfidence and confirmation bias. It also covers team dynamics, such as groupthink, managing conflict, and ensuring psychological safety. Finally, it addresses organizational factors like normalized deviance, practical drift, and avoiding process over content. The overall message is the importance of data-driven, collaborative decision making while guarding against common cognitive biases at individual and group levels.

1. Decision Making in
Software Teams
Tim Berglund
@tlberglund
Sunday, September 12, 2010 1

2. About Me
Sunday, September 12, 2010 2

3. Acknowledgements
-ma king
ly/de cision
http: //bit.
Professor Michael Roberto
http://michael-roberto.blogspot.com/
@michaelaroberto
Sunday, September 12, 2010 3

4. Acknowledgements
Professor Michael Roberto
http://michael-roberto.blogspot.com/
@michaelaroberto
Sunday, September 12, 2010 4

5. Decision Making
Sunday, September 12, 2010 5

6. Invent.
It’s Finite,
Software
Communicate.
Development and
cooperative, is a
Alistair Cockburn
Decide.
goal-directed.
Game.
Sunday, September 12, 2010 6

7. Invent
Sunday, September 12, 2010 7

8. Sunday, September 12, 2010 8

9. Decide?
Sunday, September 12, 2010 9

10. “Developers make critical
decisions about every 15
Decide! minutes.”
—Mary Poppendieck
Sunday, September 12, 2010 10

11. Individual
Team
Organizational
Sunday, September 12, 2010 11

12. Individual Biases
Cognitive Decision
Making
Framing
Intuition
Sunday, September 12, 2010 12

13. Cognitive
Biases
Overconfidence
Sunk Cost
Confirmation Bias
Sunday, September 12, 2010 13

14. Overconfidence
Sunday, September 12, 2010 14

15. Sunk Cost
Sunday, September 12, 2010 15

16. Confirmation
Bias
Sunday, September 12, 2010 16

17. Blaise
Pascal
“They are the miseries of a great lord...
...of a deposed king.”
—Pensée 398
Sunday, September 12, 2010 17

18. Framing
Sunday, September 12, 2010 18

19. Hacking Risk Tolerance
Sunday, September 12, 2010 19

20. Intuition
Sunday, September 12, 2010 20

21. Deeply Data-Driven
Sunday, September 12, 2010 21

22. Pitfalls
Sunday, September 12, 2010 22

23. Process Losses
Team Decision Making
Groupthink
Managing Conflict
Inability to Commit
Sunday, September 12, 2010 23

24. Process Losses
Sunday, September 12, 2010 24

25. http://despair.com/meetings.html
Sunday, September 12, 2010 25

26. Conformity
Sunday, September 12, 2010 26

27. Fault Lines
Sunday, September 12, 2010 27

28. Air Time
Sunday, September 12, 2010 28

29. Team
Parasites
Sunday, September 12, 2010 29

30. Information
Flow
Sunday, September 12, 2010 30

31. Groupthink
Sunday, September 12, 2010 31

32. Encourage
Conflict
Sunday, September 12, 2010 32

33. Psychological
Safety
Sunday, September 12, 2010 33

34. Conformity
Sunday, September 12, 2010 34

35. Nonconformists
Sunday, September 12, 2010 35

36. The Red Pencil
Sunday, September 12, 2010 36

37. Red Team
vs.
Blue Team
Sunday, September 12, 2010 37

38. Devil’s Advocacy
Sunday, September 12, 2010 38

39. Conflict Skills
Sunday, September 12, 2010 39

40. Cognitive vs. Affective
Sunday, September 12, 2010 40

41. Sunday, September 12, 2010 41

42. Repairing
Damage
Sunday, September 12, 2010 42

43. Inability to
Commit
Sunday, September 12, 2010 43

44. Sunday, September 12, 2010 44

45. Sunday, September 12, 2010 45

46. Sunday, September 12, 2010 46

47. Organizational
Normalized Deviance
Decision Making
Practical Drift
Scaling Out
Sunday, September 12, 2010 47

48. Normalized
Deviance
Sunday, September 12, 2010 48

49. Broken Windows
Sunday, September 12, 2010 49

50. Exceptional
whoa! a Stop
stack trace. we development! We
should see need to fix this
what’s up. now.
Sunday, September 12, 2010 50

51. Expected
whoa! a Stop
Hey look,
,
stack trace. we development! We
another six Whatever.
should see need to fix this
exceptions.
what’s up. now.
Sunday, September 12, 2010 51

52. Accepted
We whoa!went
only a Stop
Hey look,
,
down three
stack trace. we development! We
another six Hey not bad!
Whatever.
,
times this
should see need to fix this
exceptions.
morning..
what’s up now.
Sunday, September 12, 2010 52

53. Operations
Sunday, September 12, 2010 53

54. Quality Issues
Sunday, September 12, 2010 54

55. Deviant Smells
Sunday, September 12, 2010 55

56. Core Platform
Practical Drift
Services
Tim
e Sta
mp
s
Consumer
dotcom
Sunday, September 12, 2010 56

57. Avoid Practical Drift
Refactor Silos
Manage Rivalry
Cross-Functional Teams
Value Stream Mapping
Sunday, September 12, 2010 57

58. Value Stream Mapping
Sunday, September 12, 2010 58

59. Team Pathologies Writ Large
Sunday, September 12, 2010 59

60. Groupthink
Sunday, September 12, 2010 60

61. Yes, No, and Maybe
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62. Tyranny
Sunday, September 12, 2010 62

63. Fault Lines
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64. Imperatives
Sunday, September 12, 2010 64

65. Process Over Content
Sunday, September 12, 2010 65

66. “This is the very
perfection of man: to
know his own
imperfections.”
—Aurelius Augustine
Know Your Limits
Sunday, September 12, 2010 66

67. No More Heroes
Sunday, September 12, 2010 67

68. Look For Problems
Sunday, September 12, 2010 68

69. Thank you.
Tim Berglund
tim.berglund@augusttechgroup.com
www.augusttechgroup.com
@tlberglund
Sunday, September 12, 2010 69

70. Photo Credits
Fin de Siècle Painting of Woman Dusting
http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/household-ads-1910s/4#adnhsa0sad4txsrk
Attractive Photo of Alistaire Cockburn
http://alistair.cockburn.us/get/1830
Thomas Edison
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/images/thomas_edison/thomas_edison.html
Communication Motivational Poster
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/4177475479/
Blaise Pascal
http://www.abolitionist.com/blaise-pascal.html
Young Neuroscientist
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadstar/3206879752/
BASE Jumper
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ontilnow/2584842109
Sunk Ship
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jocelynaubert/3100384270
Stopwatch
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ytwhitelight/504212595
Beautiful Woman in Frame
http://www.flickr.com/photos/desireedelgado/3950323069
Roulette Wheel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnwardell/80127267
Sunday, September 12, 2010 70

71. Photo Credits
Light Bulb Head
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/981372736
Greenbar
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/3368836377
SUV in Sinkhole
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andis/122530269
San Andreas Fault
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liao/2509907429
Tapeworms in a Jar
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrmyst/2174896490
Dam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandj98/3075073297
Borg Cube
http://media.photobucket.com/image/borg%20cube/TeckDragon/Borg_Cube.jpg?o=4
Boxers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ennuiislife/3581104847
Teddy Bear Hug of Psychological Safety
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gemsling/2697403392
Kirk/Spock
http://www.filmedge.net/StarTrek/photos2.htm
Sunday, September 12, 2010 71

72. Photo Credits
Paramilitary Crossing Guard
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wackystuff/3420439597
Band Aid
http://www.pachd.com/free-images/household-images-2.html
Deviant With Lots of Eyes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/1209794692
Broken Windows
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathansnostalgia/2098210283
Three Mile Island
http://www.flickr.com/photos/locomotion/2647418165
The Wrong Week to Quit Sniffing Glue
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogefer/168107916
Death of Beowulf
http://dragonsinn.net/4_nordic.htm
Man With Magnifying Glass
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andercismo/2349098787
Julius Caesar
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0092_-_Wien_-_Kunsthistorisches_Museum_-_Gaius_Julius_Caesar.jpg
Sunday, September 12, 2010 72

73. Photo Credits
Sailboat
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinl8888/64076186
Sunday, September 12, 2010 73