Question

introduction on break walls and build bridges​

Answer 1

Answer:

We were riding together in Rich’s Saturn VUE, about 120 miles into a 250 mile trip to Chicago. We had been talking about an article I had been asked to write about building out agile workspaces. This article, in fact.

I had been rolling over ideas in my head for a while. The more I thought about constructing workspaces for agile teams, the less important the physical characteristics seemed to me. I thought that if all you do is rearrange your furniture, you’re likely not going to be successful. Yet at the same time, I had to admit that Rich was probably right too. If you change a bunch of things about how your team operates, but keep them sequestered in cubes and private offices, you’re likely not going to be successful either.

This is obviously an issue with some complexity.

Virtually all my "agile experience" comes from working at Menlo Innovations in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our current space is approximately 4,500 sq/ft. and we’ve been here for almost 5 years. The initial build-out for the site was actually a tear-down. We removed all the non-structural walls to convert many different small storage spaces and private offices in to a single, contiguous space.

That’s right. No private offices. No cubicles. The whole team working in one place. This is part of the very important practice of collocation. Here’s a picture of our team space: