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Self Help
Jen Girdish (June 17, 2009)

Beyond technical skills, success on Agile projects depends on productive self-organizing teams, according to Esther Derby, a respected consultant on teamwork, Scrum implementation and retrospective facilitation. Here, she shares some best practices for developing and supporting self-organizing teams.

Esther Derby is a respected consultant in the world of project management who blends the technical issues and managerial issues with the people issues. Her areas of focus include management coaching, Scrum implementation, retrospectives and project assessments, and she is well-known for her work in helping teams to grow to new levels of productivity.

Derby is co-author of Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (Pragmatic Programmers, 2006) and Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers, 2005). She also leads a twice-yearly workshop on the manager’s role in self-organizing teams called “Secrets of Agile Teamwork: Beyond Technical Skills.”

Derby recently spoke with PM Boulevard about self-organizing teams, how you create one, and why they don’t offer their managers a chance to go into semi-retirement.

How does managing a self-organizing team differ from managing a traditional team?

In a typical manager-led team, the manager organizes the work, assigns tasks, and monitors progress.

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