Conf in a Conf Session

Building an Awesome Character Sheet for Agile Teams

25-minute Talk

Beginner session

Timetable

12:45 a.m.-1:15 a.m.

Wednesday 15th

Room

Track 4

Audience

Agile Team members and Agile Leaders

Key-Learning

- An honest breakdown of our skills helps us to open new career paths

- Understanding our level within a chosen role helps us to understand where we've been and where we're going

- Team success is based on the interplay that arises from our skills and experience

- Team narratives are essential for making progress

Skills, strengths, talents and trappings you need to be a happy and effective party member

Building a role in an Agile team is a lot like starting out a new roleplaying campaign. Strengths, weaknesses, skills, talents, equipment are all in play. So, how do we create that character sheet?

You've got your culture and your background, but now you want to build out your character to attack the monsters of ignorance and the bandits of effectiveness. Let's just assume you're aligned with your team, what then? Class and Level - or Role and Experience - are a good starting point. But what would be a good set of skills on which to spend your XP, and how would you level up within your Agile Team?

In this talk I want to play with the idea of framing our role and team contributions with the concept of the character sheet. It can help us to focus on areas where we have strengths, where we have weaknesses, what will take time to "level up" and what may be acquired in shorter time. I'll also look at how someone who leads a team is somewhat akin to the Game Master or GM, and that effective teams are built on the narratives that arise between characters, not just the character sheets themselves.