Rugby World Cup

Thursday 15th September 2011

Well, it’s coming round again … and as a keen spectator, I’m sure it will be the usual rollercoaster for fans of whichever country you happen to support. There’s something about team sports; the passion of the players and fans and the difference between teams with great individual stars and teams which work well together and understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

The team – you have to have a well-balanced, highly skilled, singularly focussed and entirely committed team.

The manager – the manager needs to set the goals for the team, remove the obstacles in their way, manage external communications and give the occasional piece of guidance when required.

The strategy – to be successful, you have to have a clear plan and strategy, which everyone has bought into and, just as importantly, you need to be able to adapt this strategy to external events when things didn’t work out quite as you planned.

Training – when you begin, you should be so well trained that the basics come naturally to you. You don’t have time to learn on the job; you need to be familiar with your environment, the tools you are going to use and what is expected of you.

Passion – you won’t get far in an international rugby test without it and it applies to software too; you need to understand what you are trying to achieve and do whatever you can to deliver on that.

And, yes, if you follow the agile method, they both have scrums too !