Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture

by Douglas Squirrel

Step 4. We’ll achieve the goal of the Fear Conversation if we can identify mitigations that help us reduce each of the target fears. Mitigations may include things like: •Fear of buggy releases angering customers: ∘Discuss quality versus speed trade-offs with customers or their internal proxies, and agree to expectations. ∘Increase manual and automated testing coverage. ∘Agree with executives that they will handle any angry customers while the team improves quality. •Fear of missing deadlines: ∘Understand deadline drivers and negotiate reduced scope or changed dates through conversation with Marketing or Sales. ∘Reduce scope with customer approval. •Fear of failing to master new methods or technologies: ∘Define mastery and milestones on the way to successful mastery to show progress. ∘Increase training and learning opportunities. List each fear, its mitigation, and (this is critical!) someone accountable for ensuring that you carry out the mitigation.