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Jim Holmes

Leadership mentor

These days I'm retired.

Formerly, I spent several decades working with people who were interested in improving their leadership and software delivery skills.

Questions? Ping me!

🎂 MoTaBirthday | August 4, 2018

Sessions (2)

99-Second Introduction: What is Culture?

Culture is a combination of values, principles, and habits, or practices for a group of people.

14 Dec

Changing Testing Culture in a Ginormous Company - Jim Holmes

Watch "Changing Testing Culture in a Ginormous Company" with Jim Holmes from TestBash Brighton 2019

3 Apr

Glossary Terms (1)

Culture What do we mean by culture? I think culture is a combination of values, principles, and habits, or practices for a group of people. It's learned. I think it can be changed or adapted, but only if the culture itself is open to learning and change. And I think for software development teams, culture can relate to how team collaborates, communicates and supports one another in delivering their software. Can you share any examples?So an organization that truly values feedback and diverse viewpoints, which implies a culture of trust and respect that would be one. Another would be an organization that expects, not just empowers, but expects their teams to adapt to their own particular situation to solve problems.A third one would be organizations that practice testing in the same iteration as the work is performed versus kind of the old school throwing work over the fence to test later. What's the value of good culture?Culture gives newcomers a set of guidelines, newcomers to that organization or team to help them adapt to the group more quickly, and I think that culture based on trust and safety can help that group move through some really difficult situations. And finally, I think culture can really help expose newcomers to much more diverse viewpoints. Are there pitfalls to consider?So, culture can definitely become dogmatic and inflexible. You can think of the not invented here mindset, or we've always done it this way. Similarly, I think that cultures can lead to a lack of diversity, thought practices, and inclusion if they're not careful, and sometimes, trying to deal with a very different culture seems impossible. 

Links (1)

The Leadership Journey: Practical tips on starting or changing your leadership journey (leanpub.com)

30 Jun 25

Simon Tomes

leadership

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