174. Agile Monday Nürnberg - Psychology of Standards

Dear Agile Monday Fans,

We are looking forward to having Dr. Tobias Rüdiger Maier as the guest presenter.

Topic will be: “Psychology of Standards – The Psychological Impact of Process Standards in Product Organizations”

Abstract:
In regulated environments, products must comply with numerous standards. While managers often take this for granted, developers—especially in agile teams—struggle to see the value.
Agile settings tend to avoid regulatory constraints until they become unavoidable. Responsibility for standards is often shifted to quality or regulatory departments, which must ensure compliance is reflected in design, implementation, and documentation.
Why should organizations care about the psychological effects of standards?
Standards define expectations for organizations and employees to ensure quality, safety, or market access. These expectations are embedded in policies and processes.
Some standards are strict (e.g., ISO 26262), others more flexible (e.g., SPICE). Either way, they influence people—directly or indirectly. Some employees engage consciously with standards; for others, the impact is more subtle.
This engagement triggers psychological effects that can affect work effectiveness—positively or negatively. The presentation will use psychological models to show how standards influence behavior, motivation, emotions, and cognitive biases—and how organizations can mitigate negative effects and leverage positive ones.

About the speaker:
After completing his doctorate in the field of image processing, Dr. Tobias R. Maier started as a software engineer in the medical domain. After a few years, he switched to consulting for the automotive and medical technology sectors. In his first years as a consultant. His fields were software architecture, quality management, regulations, process and project management. Since 2016, he has been working on agile transformations, particularly in connection with SAFe, and he turned into an SPC. Standards have always been an issue. So, Tobias completed a master’s degree in business psychology for change management at the same time. Tobias was for 3 years with Forvia Hella on a long-term SAFe transformation, before he embarked at Siemens Healthineers in June 2024 as Team Coach. Tobias is also a guest lecturer at the FAU in Nuremberg.

Regards,
Martin & Fabian

Picture: Alvaro Reyes auf Unsplash