Software Process And Measurement Cast

SPaMCAST 562 features our essay on the power of saying no.  I firmly believe that unless you have control over the amount of work you take, you are asking for a trainwreck.  The problem is that saying no is often harder than being late or over budget.   We will also have a visit from the Software Sensei.  Kim Pries is back to kick off September with an essay titled, Real Planning. While the actual plan might not be exactly what happens in real life, the act of planning is crucial.  Re-Read Saturday News Well, I missed posting an entry of Re-read Saturday and if you had not noticed SPaMCAST 562 is not exactly what I had planned.  Five weeks ago my standard poodle Jax (named after the New Orleans Beer of yesteryear) died. My wife and I missed having a canine presence around the house.  Yesterday, we drove to Brantford, Ontario and picked up a new standard poodle, Nyssa (named after Nyssa of Traken -- Dr. Who aficionados will recognize the name). It was a round trip 14 hours, including a stop at the Resurgence B

In SPaMCAST 561 we discuss making the Daily Scrum work for the mission it was intended.  When a Daily Scrum or daily stand-up is not used for micro-planning and collaborating to achieve the team’s goal, they are occurring for a reason.  Those meetings are scratching some other itch than planning, an itch that however unagile is often defended. When the goal of a daily meeting is something other than group planning there are more efficient and less expensive approaches even for highly agile teams to address status and have a social event. Also in this podcast, Susan Parente brings us her Not A Scrumdamentalist column.  Susan discusses the product owner's role and why it is important.   Susan’s LinkedIn Profile  linkedin.com/in/susanparente Websites techriskmanager.com  (Technical Risk Management) s3-tec.com  (Company Website) Email Address Parente@s3-tec.com Twitter TechRiskManager Re-Read Saturday News I took a day off from our re-read of Thinking, Fast and Slow to spend the day at a pickle festival. 

In SPaMCAST 560 we complete our wide-ranging interview with Al Shalloway.  We continue our conversations about the troubles dogging classic agile, the Agile Industrial Complex, using a scientific approach to change, and FLEX.  I recommend that you listen to SPaMCAST 559 before listening to this week’s podcast  Mr. Shalloway’s bio: Al Shalloway is the creator of FLEX (FLow for Enterprise Transformation), a framework that is a platform for any practices consistent with Flow, Lean, and Agile, including technical practices. Al has made explicit his thought leadership in Scrum, XP, SAFe, Lean, Flow, design patterns and test-first methods into creating FLEX. FLEX takes a scientific approach regarding what methods work best. While it integrates with its own baseline of practices to offer a complete solution to organizations, its architecture enables it to be both tailored as needed to an organization as well as having other consultants integrate their own practices in it. The intention is to create a community of co

SPaMCAST 559 part one of our interview with Al Shalloway. I am breaking two guidelines this week.  First, rarely do I bring guests back so quickly. And secondly, I have not broken an interview into two parts for 7 years (ish). The conversation with Al was full of huge ideas, s, concepts, and calls to action cutting any of the content did not make sense. Al and I talked about about the troubles dogging classic agile, the Agile Industrial Complex, using a scientific approach to change, and FLEX.  Edited, the interview was 49 minutes (with about 20 minutes of chit chat ended up on the cutting room floor - figuratively). I have broken the interview into two parts of approximately 27 and 22 minutes.  Today we have part one and next week we will complete the interview.   Mr. Shalloway’s bio: Al Shalloway is the creator of FLEX (FLow for Enterprise Transformation), a framework that is a platform for any practices consistent with Flow, Lean, and Agile, including technical practices. Al has made explicit his thought l

SPaMCAST 558 features our essay Story Points – Leave Them, Don’t Love Them.  Story Points are not evil and they may be useful in some circumstances. But like most tools, at some point, they lose focus. They have outlived their usefulness, therefore, I will leave them when at all possible.   This week, Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the podcast.  We talked about focus. How much focus is enough and how much is too much? Mr. Berriault has an opinion and stories to back his opinion up.  Re-Read Saturday News In Chapter 15 of Thinking, Fast and Slow we explore two types of fallacies. Logical and conjunction fallacies can impact any process improvement effort, typically in a manner that does not benefit change.  Remember, if you do not have a favorite, dog-eared copy of Thinking, Fast and Slow, please buy a copy.  Using the links in this blog entry helps support the blog and its alter-ego, The Software Process and Measurement Cast. Buy a copy on Amazon,  It’s time to get reading!    The installments: Wee

SPaMCAST 557 features our interview with Jorgen Hesselberg.  We talked about his book Unlocking Agility,  assessing agility, and whether leadership and structure lead culture when adopting an agile mindset.  It is a thought-provoking and fun interview. Jorgen’s irrepressible nature shines through even when tackling tough topics!  Jorgens Bio: “Jorgen Hesselberg is the author of Unlocking Agility and co-founder of Comparative Agility, a leading agile assessment, and continuous improvement platform. A proven thought leader of numerous successful enterprise transformation efforts since 2009, Jorgen provides strategic guidance, executive counsel, and coaching to some of the world’s most respected companies both as an internal change agent and an external consultant. He has trained thousands of people on agile and Scrum, disruptive innovation, and enterprise transformation strategy.” Contact Information Email: jorgen@comparativeagility.com  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jhesselberg  Comparative Agility:  https://www.c

SPaMCAST 556 features our essay on Socratic Questioning.  Questions are a critical tool that every coach, mentor or leader uses to help shape and improve the performance of those they interact with — I don’t think this statement should surprise anyone.  That said, pushing past the concept of just asking questions, Socratic questioning is a formal and disciplined approach to getting the person answering the questions to synthesize and answer based on knowledge and logic. We also have a visit from Susan Parente.  Susan brings her Not A Scrumdamentalist column to the SPaMCAST. In this installment, Professor Parente discusses being agile in name only. Being agile in name only is not an enviable place to be! Re-Read Saturday News The availability heuristic, introduced in Chapter 12,  states that we make judgments about an attribute based on how easy or hard it is to retrieve information about the attribute. In Chapter 13, Kahneman dives deeper into how the availability heuristic functions, and provides some hints

SPaMCAST 555 features our essay applying a simple filter to determine whether an interaction or event is collaborative. In this essay we put the simple four attribute model we introduced in SPaMCAST 554 to use.  Collaboration is an important tool, so let's recognize what is or isn’t collaboration and stop calling everything collaboration. We will also have a visit from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries. In this installment, Kim returns to the topic of lean software development.  In 2019, the concepts of lean and agile have become intertwined. Understanding concepts like waste is important for everyone involved in delivering value.   Re-Read Saturday News This week we dive into the availability heuristic.  The availability heuristic is useful for understanding what people believe and how they will act.  All leaders need to understand the impact of top of mind experiences on decision making and how to disrupt those biases; the availability heuristic is a tool for building that knowledge.  Remember, if you do not h

SPaMCAST 554 features our essay on the misuse of the word 'collaboration'. Collaboration is a hallmark of agile techniques, but people confuse collaboration with many other forms of interactions. When that happens everyone gets confused and disheartened. In order to stop the cycle, we identify four attributes to help recognize collaboration. We'll also hear from Gene Hughson who brings his Form Follows Function Column to the podcast.  In the second part of a three-part series on architects, Gene discusses the role of the solutions architect.  Part One can be found on SPaMCAST 543 - Value Chain, Solution Architects, Essays and Discussions Web Player and Show Notes: http://bit.ly/2L3tLku Re-Read Saturday News Today we dive into the concept of anchors and the impact of anchor bias. This is one of my favorite topics for understanding behaviors in negotiations. Negotiations are all around us whether you are discussing salary, buying a car, or wrestling with a request for an impossible due date.   Remember, if you

SPaMCAST 553 features our interview with Jim Benson.  Jim and I focused on prioritization and how prioritization can be a reflection of more deep-seated problems. One of the ideas Jim shares is that processes are the social contract for getting work done.  I really enjoy talking with Jim and think you will enjoy the conversation. During the close of the interview, Jim talks about Modus Cooperandi’s class on prioritization.  Jim has extended a discount code for listeners of the podcast for all of the MI classes. The code is SPAMCAST20 or you can use the link:   https://modusinstitute.com/p/me-what-do-i-do-next/?coupon_code=SPAMCAST20   Jim’s Bio: Jim’s career path has taken him through government agencies, Fortune 10 corporations, and start-ups. Through them all, his passion has remained consistent – applying new technologies to workgroups. In each case asking how they can be leveraged to collaborate and cooperate more effectively. Jim loves ideas, creation, and building opportunities. He loves working with

SPaMCAST 552 features our essay on the idea of “fit for purpose” and its impact on the definition of quality.  Even if you don’t deliver any defects, not being fit for purpose wipes quality off the board. BOOM! (Rather read the essay?  http://bit.ly/2wZxkxX) In the second spot this week, Jon M Quigley delivers with his Alpha and Omega of Product Development!  In this installment, Jon discusses the need to say no. A simple straight forward word that is nearly impossible to use in polite company. Re-Read Saturday News Today, two stories…ops, the wrong column…today we take on two chapters in our re-read of Thinking, Fast and Slow, chapters 8 and 9: How Judgment Happens and Answering An Easier Question. I would be interested in your feedback on the depth in this entry compared to previous entries. Remember, if you do not have a favorite, dog-eared copy of Thinking, Fast and Slow, please buy a copy.  Using the links in this blog entry helps support the blog and its alter-ego, The Software Process and Measurement C

SPaMCAST 551 features our interview with Michael (Mike) Lynn.  Mike and I talked about leadership and agile. Leadership is important any time two or more people get together to pursue a goal. Mike shares his expertise, experience, and wisdom to help shine a light on the relationship between agile and leadership.   Mike’s Bio Mike Lynn is a seasoned learning/leadership/organizational development professional with close to 30 years experience, including nine years with McKinsey and Company.  He provides executive coaching and custom consulting services, and is a principal of thoughtLEADERS, a global leadership development training firm offering a full menu of programs to help leaders think, communicate and succeed.  Mike has deep expertise and passion in structured executive thinking and decision-making as well as interpersonal success strategies (e.g., meeting leadership, tough conversations, coaching and feedback, presentation delivery, upward management, etc.)  His learning specialties are in the areas of ex

SPaMCAST 550 features our essay titled, Intertwining Conway’s Law And Agile. Conway’s Law trains a spotlight on how an organization’s structure impacts the product they ship. The “Law” states that the structure of a software product will mimic the structure of the organization that produces the software.  It can (and has) been said that you are shipping the “org structure.” How you are structured therefore is going to impact just how much agile you can achieve. We also visit the QA Corner with Jeremy Berriault.  Jeremy discusses the differences between test engineers and testers. We also tackle whether every person with the word test in their title should have the ability to code or script. Jeremy’s LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-berriault-mba/ I know this is not the show I promoted last week but my guest, Mike Lynn,  is out of pocket this week and wanted to around when the show went live. Not only am I agile, but I am also flexible therefore we are rearranging the lineup!   Re-Read Saturday Ne

SPaMCAST 549 features our essay Seven Issues Testers Experience Being Agile.  Recently I attended the QAI Quest Conference in Chicago, during the conference I got to talk with lots of people from across the development spectrum. From the conversations and workshops, I identified seven common threads that test and quality focused personal experience being or trying to be agile. In order to be agile, not just do agile, we need to tackle these seven issues We also have the completion of Susan Parente’s three-installment discussion of distributed agile.  In this installment of Not a Scrumdamentalist, Susan discusses tools and whether they are the hurdle some people make them out to be.   Re-Read Saturday News This week we re-read Chapter 6 of Thinking, Fast and Slow, Norms, Surprises, and Causes.  The chapter continues the deep dive into System 1 thinking. As noted before, System 1 thinking continually is active nearly all of the time making snap decisions based on associated that it has constructed. In Chapter 6

SPaMCAST 548 features our interview with Heidi Helfand.  Heidi and I discussed teams and her book Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams. Heidi challenges the conventional wisdom that in agile (or any walk of life) that you need to keep your teams "the same" in order to be successful. In short, there are no absolutes except for change. Heidi’s Bio Heidi Helfand is Director of Engineering Excellence at Procore Technologies, creators of cloud-based construction software. She is the author of the book Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams which challenges the notion that you need to keep your teams "the same" in order to be successful. Heidi was on the first team at two highly successful startups ñ ExpertCity, Inc. (acquired by Citrix) where she was on the teams that invented GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar and AppFolio, Inc., a SAAS property management software company. She is a co-active coach certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF). Buy the book!  https:/

SPaMCAST 547 returns to our standard staggered approach with a discussion of work entry.  The majority of work entry issues are caused by eight problems. The eight problems often occur in clusters and are a reflection of organizational culture.  Knowing that there are eight problems is useful so that you can do something about them! Also this week, Kim Pries, the software sensei is back and goes full curmudgeon.  Kim states ”After 40+ years of software work and lies, I get disgusted when I see yet another rehash of so-called tools that purport to do something valuable. The multi-colored risk analysis "tools" are essentially worthless. To date, I have never seen one of these catch or forestall idiocy on the part of a supplier or a customer. There's no fixing stupid!” Re-Read Saturday News This week we are re-reading Chapter 4 of Thinking, Fast and Slow, The Associative Machine.  This chapter begins a deeper dive into the nuances of system 1 thinking. If you do not have a favorite, dog-eared copy of Thinking,

SPaMCAST 546 features our interview with Michael Milutis. Michael and I talk about putting people back in charge of their careers. Michael provides advice that every listener can put to use immediately and in the long run. Michael’s Bio: Michael Milutis is an INFP and IT generalist committed to human capital development and continuous learning within a shifting technology landscape. He works with technology organizations from around the world to develop innovative learning cultures and he coaches individuals and teams so that they can develop continuously, grow personally, and realize their highest potential. Since 1997, Michael has worked in marketing, new business development, and L&D for Computer Aid, Inc (CAI), an international IT services and support firm. He is also the creator and director of CAI’s "Great IT Professional", an organization devoted to continuous learning and career development within the global IT community. Michael speaks around the world and his keynote presentations focus on digit

SPaMCAST 545 we have an interview with Cheryl Hammond, Jenny Tarwater, Faye Thompson, and Linda Podder.  We talk about Launching New Voices, Women in Agile, planned activities at Agile 2019 and more. There is a lot of good advice and ideas if you’re new to speaking or if you are a seasoned speaker. There is a call to action at the end of the interview. 2019 Women in Agile Conference site https://www.agilealliance.org/events/women-in-agile-2019/   Cheryl Hammond Cheryl Hammond, a.k.a. @bsktcase, has a couple of decades' experience as a software leader in the private and public sectors. She ran her team's successful adoption of Scrum-ban for a mission-critical regulatory compliance project under multi-agency state and federal government oversight, mentored former COBOL devs into true-believing unit-testing XP evangelists, and turned a threatened software product at risk of litigation into a lean, revenue-generating flagship offering in nine months, all of which leads her to believe that anything is possible. S

SPaMCAST 544 features our interview with Jeppe Hedaa.  Mr. Hedaa and I discuss his new book, Nucleon: The Missing Formula That Measures Your IT Development Team's Performance. Our discussion centers on the book but also touches on meritocracy and why you want top performers on a team. This is a wide-ranging interview with thought-provoking ideas as we talk about Nucleon! Jeppe’s bio: Jeppe Hedaa has been working with complex systems development for more than 30 years, serving the largest IT development departments. He is the CEO and owner of 7N, who is an agent for top 3% IT specialists. 7N has departments in the US, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, India and Denmark. In September 2018 he published the book "Nucleon: The missing formula that measures your IT department's performance", where he describes how to calculate a hard number for an IT team's performance that could best be compared to that of horsepower in a car. In the book, he also measures the factors that hold back an organization's d

SPaMCAST 543 features our essay on value chains.  In this essay, we tackle the mixed up world of Value Chains, Values Streams and Process Maps. This isn’t a vocabulary test but mixing the words up can cause a mess. Let's solve the problem. As a reminder - I am doing a workshop on value chains at QAI Quest 2019 (May 13 - 19 in Chicago). Do you need a discount?  Register at www.qaiQuest2019 using the code Speaker10. Let me know and we will do a hangout with Jeremy and myself! In the SPAMCAST 543, Gene Hughson’s returns with a new entry in his Form Follows Function column. Gene and I are beginning what turned out to be a three column set on solution architects. Today we begin by discussing just what the heck is a solution architect is and does! Re-Read Saturday News These days, every time I start a new book I am reminded that once upon a time I did not read the introduction or front matter in books.  I suspect there are things I still don’t know or only learned about from the school of wandering into doors at ni