Marcin Bazydlo

eXtreme volunteering: Applying XP practices in volunteering team

In 2017 I was given an opportunity to lead at region level team of 18 volunteers of the established country level volunteering project in Poland. The goal of the project is to help families in need rebuild their self esteem and motivation to work for better future by giving one time gift supporting their actual needs. The role of a region is to build a team, find families in need, asses their needs and keep in touch with donors. As a software engineer and a team lead I drew heavily from my day-to-day work practices. I found it fascinating how agile practices had to be adapted to a new situation. Some of them didn’t catch up at all. Others were already part of standard training and requirements from the parent organisation. Some appeared to be novelty that our team quickly adopted. Constant comparison of my work day with volunteering work gave me different perspective on how I work day-to-day. And that’s what I would like to share with you. In this talk you will learn how corporate can get a volunteering project and what process it follows. I will compare and contrast it with extreme programming practices. I have some stories to share that I hope will be useful not only to those who treat their team like volunteers.