Mike Clark

I'm a minimalist. I travel light. I cautiously approach all things new with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Here's an example: When presented with multiple control levers advertised to help me do something faster and better, I'll pull just one. Then I'll push it back and pull another. Ah, now I see how they independently affect my world. I might then decide to pull both levers to realize their combined effect.

Ten Cheap Actions You Can Take Today To Improve Your IT Team's Performance by Michael Hill and Kent Beck presents ten no-nonsense software development control levers, or practices. I've pulled each one of them in some form or another over the years. But lately I've been helping teams tap into the power of combining these practices into a cogent whole. Our experience has been that we can deliver better software faster. Every few weeks we're beaming with pride in delivering working software that our customers really want. Oh, and it's fun!

If your team is stuck in a rut, try jiggling something. Pull one of these levers today. See if it helps. Tailor it to work best for your team. Above all, just do something new and cheap.