Checklist for Core Habits

The Core Habits provide the foundation for possible positive change.

You cannot work on all the habits at the same time. You need to prioritize your path through these habits. While we feel CreatePsychologicalSafety is paramount, it may work better to start with AgreeToTry or a different core habit to start the change process and create success.

We cannot tell you where to start. We can tell you:

  • You cannot work on all the habits at the same time. Start with one
  • Habits form a path, not a destination
  • There is no perfection. Think better today than yesterday

Here is your checklist for the core practices:

  • Individuals feel free to offer opinions and ask questions without fear of embarrassment or reprisal
  • It’s okay to say “I don’t know” in the organization.
  • Organization leadership and teams honestly agrees to try these ideas
  • Individuals are engaged, participating, actively commenting and providing input, without drama
  • Developers have full, unfettered access to product users as well as to managers and executives when needed
  • Organization measures actual business value, not proxied, development-specific metrics
  • Organization delivers software, not estimates
  • Product releases are very frequent with a small number of new features, optimizations, and fixes in each
  • Team membership, process and workflow changes are small and well-understood
  • Experiments are performed regularly. All experiments provide data for the next experiment
  • Organization adopts new habits by experiments
  • Organization set technical answers from experiments
  • Development team’s schedules include all three elements: Deliver, Discover, and Refine, regardless of real or imagined schedule pressures

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