Ensure humans are not resources

- I once worked for an organization that was setting up their shared workspace. This was a very traditional organization so each floor was filled with cubicles. The cubicles were clustered by team and the directors had offices that overlooked them while they worked. The scrum master asked to take down the cubicles in one corner of the floor. This brought many of the directors out of their offices. They gathered around trying to figure out where to set up the agile shared workspace. One of the developers was working at a cubicle and the director pointed down to him and yelled, "Where should we put this resource?" The developer had worked at the organization for a while so he just put on his headphones while the directors debated his fate. This same scene can happen across many different organizations. A lot of managers view people the same way they might view a printer. To them an employee's just another resource. But this type of thinking is the opposite of how you should view your agile team. A well-run agile team will rely on strong, working relationships. In fact, switching people in and out of the team is one of the worst things you can do for productivity. Yet there's a lot of organizations that still think about their employees as a resource. They assume that the best way to make a team productive is to add more people. But in most cases that isn't true. There's an old saying in software development that if you want your product to be late, then just add more people. Of course, in other areas, adding resources increases productivity. If you wanted to increase your floor's printing capacity, then you could add more printers. If you wanted to give your floor better Wi-Fi access, then you could add more wireless access points. But people don't work that way. Increasing capacity doesn't lead to increased productivity. In fact, adding more people usually just leads to less collaboration. That's why scrum puts so much emphasis on small self-managed teams. If you work for an organization that views people as just another resource, then there are a few things you can do to help. The first thing is try to change the language inside the team. Never refer to any person as a resource. This includes contractors or even people outside the team. You don't want anyone in your agile team saying something like, "We hired an extra resource to help out with software testing." The second thing you should try is to unlearn the assumption behind humans as resources. Always try to keep your team small and nimble. Only bring in temporary team members as a last resort. Understand that adding more people adds complexity. And increased complexity is the enemy of productivity. Many people forget that the agile mindset is based on ideas that came out of lean manufacturing. The biggest breakthrough in lean thinking was respect for people. If you maintain that respect, then you'll have an easier time being a collaborative and productive team.