Agile tips from Thoughtworks [ENG]

From the session 10 Things You Can do to Better Lead Your Agile Team by Jonathan Rasmusson:

1. Ask the tough questions early ("inception deck")
   
   1. Why are we here?
   2. Elevator pitch (small card with some relevant points)
   3. Design a product box
   4. Create a NOT list
   5. Meet your neighbours
   6. Show the solution
   7. What keeps us up at night
   8. Size it up
   9. What's going to give
   10. What's going to take
2. Go Spartan: few key super important stories, build end-to-end in the first iteration, super bare-bones
3. Make truth self-evident: put on a wall a done/to-do graph
4. The burn down graph: show when requirement churn delays the deadline
5. Goodwill and trust by delivering fiercely ("Yesterday you said tomorrow"): when you build trust you can spend it when you make mistakes
6. Set the bar high in the beginning (practices) and keep it there
7. Have teams demo their software: keep the team accountable
8. Give purpose: explain the "why" of everything, get the people excited, develop a sense of gratitude ("you're lucky to have a job" or "you didn't have to dodge sniper fire to get to the office"), public recognition, pride in the work
9. Give up control: good people crave three things: autonomy, mastery, purpose
   
   Good leaders:
   
   1. Share informations
   2. Give away their best secrets
   3. Teach others everything they know
   4. Make those around them better
   5. Aren't afraid of becoming obsolete because they never are!
   6. Are not afraid, do not operate from a position of fear
10. Deal with drama and dysfunction; three simple truth:
    
    1. It is impossible to gather all the requirements at the beginning of a project
    2. Whatever requiremente you do gather are guaranteed to change
    3. There will always be more to do than time and money allow
11. Follow your gut, serve your team and be prepared to get out of the way

Highlights:

1. imagining a product box and the advertising on the box (very cool!)
2. the project community is always bigger than you expect (i.e. many outsiders' influences are to be factored in)
3. show the solution early even if you are not yet sure
4. set the scope, budget, time and quality with the customer (who will almost every time agree that budget is king)
5. put every thing on the table with the team about technology, organization, who's who...
6. "I'm writing these test just because you ask": before the project starts say "I want to do things this way and here's why"
7. You just don't worship, there is no "one way", you gotta be you, you know where you're strong and where you're not so strong