
7 Sins of Doomed Teams - gauberger
http://thehumanfactor.co/7-sins-of-doomed-teams/
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eruditely
Repackaging the discussion into a platonified seven sins format is not the
right way to approach this.

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freerobby
Agreed. I share the concerns that the author expressed, but I thought the
seven sins angle was distracting because they are poor descriptions of what
was being articulated.

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GhotiFish
...

I'm sorry, this list lost me when it said the first sign of a doomed team were
that its members had a natural interest in technology, and a desire to explore
that interest in their work.

Sorry, I'll make sure to not enjoy my job from now on.

edit: To be clear, I recognize what this author is saying is that these
aspects arn't bad, they should be applied correctly. You should moderate your
exploration, but convicted when you change technologies. Reasonable in
defence, and humble in error.

None of this says _how_ to do those things. Nor could it.

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alexchamberlain
There is always a balance between trying and exploiting new technologies,
whilst not being distracted by them to the detriment of the product.

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mistermann
Although they're not 7 deadly sins, arrogance and delusions of grandeur should
be in here somewhere.

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lightblade
I've encountered a team issue that's sort of opposite of "greed".

It's not about "my code", it's about "your code". I often found team members
that's reluctant in taking responsibility to fix the problem. When they found
an issue in the code base they didn't write, they find the person who
originally wrote it to fix the issue rather than tackle it themselves.

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crazytony
I can see it now: Enraptured (#6) with a newly (#1) described 'right way' (#7)
of doing things violators of rule (#5) are posting this to their coworkers and
friends.

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netpenthe
this seemed shoehorned, with teeth

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sklivvz1971
I disagree with the premise that these are signs of doomed teams. All teams
show these "sins" to some degree. Successful teams make them a virtue.

It seems to me that the post is not well thought out in its premise or
conclusion.

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elwell
Typo in first sentence is not very welcoming.

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gauberger
Thanks for catching this. Corrected.

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ianmcgowan
Not a typo, but the usual metaphor here is "fiefdom":

"Excessive specialization and compartmentalization creates thiefdoms."

~~~
gauberger
Indeed. Thanks.

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thenerdfiles
The gist I gather is Don't Mix Talent, where if talents are mixed these Sins
will become more probable, with varying degrees of manifestation. Why do I say
this? – There is collaborative sinning; and sometimes we nurture the sins of
our peers.

Hiring is a gamble, and we all play the cards we're dealt.

The rub is that with highly heterogeneous teams, players' sins will be traded
quid pro quo under what the management knows (they're non-technical, right?)
and under the radar generally.

A doomed team is one that lacks the wisdom to recognize that sinning is
essential, one that lacks the flexibility to allow it, and one that lacks the
awareness to judiciously calculate it. A team that leaves its sins untrained
misses the opportunity to nurture it.

