What is Culture?

Talk Description

What do we mean by culture?

I think culture is a combination of values, principles, and habits, or practices for a group of people. It's learned. I think it can be changed or adapted, but only if the culture itself is open to learning and change. And I think for software development teams, culture can relate to how team collaborates, communicates and supports one another in delivering their software.

Can you share any examples?

So an organization that truly values feedback and diverse viewpoints, which implies a culture of trust and respect that would be one. Another would be an organization that expects, not just empowers, but expects their teams to adapt to their own particular situation to solve problems.

A third one would be organizations that practice testing in the same iteration as the work is performed versus kind of the old school throwing work over the fence to test later.

What's the value of good culture?

Culture gives newcomers a set of guidelines, newcomers to that organization or team to help them adapt to the group more quickly, and I think that culture based on trust and safety can help that group move through some really difficult situations. And finally, I think culture can really help expose newcomers to much more diverse viewpoints.

Are there pitfalls to consider?

So, culture can definitely become dogmatic and inflexible. You can think of the not invented here mindset, or we've always done it this way. Similarly, I think that cultures can lead to a lack of diversity, thought practices, and inclusion if they're not careful, and sometimes, trying to deal with a very different culture seems impossible.

Great. So now we know about culture!