Thursday, June 29, 2017

Improving as an Agile Developer

The question was posed: "I'm on an Agile team, and I'm undoubtedly the least experienced member. What could I do to improve my software development skills?" Here's what I answered:

There are many things you can do to improve, and I’m sure you’ll get some good answers. If your Agile team is worthy of its name, you will certainly improve by working with them, reviewing their code, and having them review yours.

From my point of view, however, there is one thing to do that underlies all the other suggestions, and especially learning from your teammates:

Never pretend you know what you don’t know.

Always be ready to ask for help in learning new things.

You may think you have to look extra smart and experienced to impress your teammates, but it’s quite the opposite. Just show your willingness and eagerness to learn. Besides, your Agile teammates will always figure out if you're faking.


Some people might not value this approach, but they’re not people you want to associate with. They’re probably pretenders themselves. They're certainly not good Agilists.

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