Software Development Training
Training your team is investing in your team
There's no substitute for experience. But training can help your organization build the right skills more quickly. By focusing on the way work happens on your team, we can help your teams to work more closely with each other, to break down silos, and to deliver better software faster.
Who is this for?
If you or your team is experiencing any of the following, we could help:
- challenges with stability and reliability
- technical debt
- low customer satisfaction metrics (or no customer sat metrics)
- constant schedule slippage and delays
- challenges with retaining skilled team members
- turnover at any level of your organization
What can Lab Zero teach?
You already have a zillion sources of training covering agility, testing, soft skills. Do you really need another? Only if these factors matter to you:
Software engineers are unlikely to learn from non-engineers. The coach that's able to earn the trust of a team of engineers and lead a journey of learning is a rare exception. The only way to connect with a team of engineers is through an engineer who walks the walk.
By working with our top engineers you have access to deep experience in bringing the best software engineering practices to high-performing teams. Engineer to engineer, or product manager to product manager, or designer to designer.
When we engage to deliver training, we can work directly with your teams while they are delivering work. In some cases our clients have been able to capitalize this effort and basically get the training for free while delivering working software.
There's no one-size-fits-all solution for any of our clients. We will assess your current capabilities, propose an approach, and get to work. Sure, we'll probably quote The Agile Manifesto as we work together, but we're not going to be dogmatic about the material we bring to you. We know what's effective, and we'll share that know-how with your team.
Need something more suitable for the classroom? For formal agility training, we'll call upon our partners at MBA3.0 to bring their expertise to the table. They will bring deep experience with Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and bespoke approaches for bringing your organization to the next level.
Agile training through MBA3.0Why does Lab Zero bother with training?
You may ask yourself, "why does a team that has a solid track record of bringing new products to market for well-known brands even cares about sharing this kind of experience?" It's simple - through all of the engagements we've lead over the years, we have learned a few important lessons.
Our success in any engagement is from working closely with our clients team members, understanding their strengths and what's holding them back. We are brought in to help very talented teams make small changes so that they can be more effective with their own product delivery.
This makes sense if you think about it: if the current behaviors of your team aren't helping your business flourish, you need to make changes to the way your team behaves. We can help you set clear standards to support healthy effective habits across your team that drive the results that matter to your business.
It's not just individual performance though, it's the way the roles on your teams interact. A wise person once said, "Teamwork is the toughest software challenge." We can help your designers, product managers, and engineers work together as a highly-effective unit.
At the end of the day, we want to leave your team with the ability to become self-sufficient in all the practices we've brought to bear on your toughest challenges.
What can my team expect to learn?
Most of our clients who seek help in this area already have a team in place and a way of working. Lab Zero's involvement is focused on the areas of that practice that are holding you back. The formula is simple:
- You share your goals and challenges
- We assess your capabilities
- We formulate an approach to address weakness while working with your team
- You introduce us to your team
- We get to work
We'll course-correct as we go. If it turns out we're not showing results, we'll step up our involvement or pivot. We need to be able to show progress toward more effective ways of working.
You can find material related to the practices we've led on our guides website. Here, we cover practices related to:
- Project Kickoff - Project charter, sprint ceremonies, Team norming
- Vision & Roadmap - Customer Development, Speclet writing
- Product Design - Design principles, Giving and receiving Feedback, writing user stories
- Continuous Delivery - Development Workflow, Testing Strategy, Git Commit and Readme Guides, Sprint Demo Guides
- Technical Guides - Coding practices for Ruby and Javascript, testing tactics