Software Process And Measurement Cast

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 266 features my interview with Raja Bavani. We discussed distributed agile! We also discussed the new Global Distributed Agile Consortium (GDAC) to nurture an open community of practice and promote knowledge sharing. Visit http://blog.distributedagile.org Raja Bavani is Chief Architect of Mindtree and plays the role of Agile Evangelist. Raja has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT industry and has presented papers at international conferences on topics related to code quality, distributed Agile development, customer value management, and software estimation. His areas of interest include global delivery models, Agile software development, requirements engineering, software architecture, software reuse, and customer value management. Raja is a member of the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society and regularly interfaces with educational institutions, offers guest lectures, and writes for technical conferences. He has written article for magazines such as Cu

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 265 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 265 features our essay on retrospectives.  Retrospectives are part of most methodologies, even though there are many different terms. For instance, most waterfall frameworks call them post implementation reviews or postmortems. And each methodology focuses on different nuances. Agile, as a macro set of frameworks, has more aggressively embraced retrospectives than waterfall or iterative frameworks.  Retrospectives in Agile reflect the adoption of the principle of kaizen (Japanese for improvement, often interpreted as continuous improvement). They should be focused on discovering what will make the team or organization deliver more value. While many retrospective techniques posit the questions “what worked well” and “what did not work,” the real reason to do any retrospective is to identify, agree on and plan for what can be done better. The exact process any team uses is a reflection of the technique the team wa

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 264 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 264 features my interview with Alexei Zheglov.  We discussed lean, work-in-process limits and flow. A summary of Alexei's bio from LinkedIn . . . How does value flow through your knowledge-work organization? The reality for many knowledge-work organizations today is, not very well. Therefore, we need to design, evolve, discover and help better systems of work emerge. Alexei's present drive and ability to help guide people to those better ways go back to his programming since the 80s (professionally since the 90s), mastering many practices and discovering manyproblems and solutions. It was more than 10 years ago that I created my first test doubles and human-readable acceptance tests. He was in the engineering trenches of a lean startup long before there was such a term. Alexei doesn't "roll out" "methodologies." He draws from a large number of approaches - such as Kanban (and, by extension, many innovations

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 263 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 263 our essay on Transactional Analysis.  People are the heart of the interactions that drive every organization and team. Increasing the effectiveness of communication between people will directly translate to higher productivity. To improve communication you need to develop an understanding of psychology. Transactional analysis is one of the most useful psychological theories for IT professionals.  The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of the world's leading IT thought leaders and to create a single online destination where IT practitioners and executives can meet all of their educational and professional development needs. THe ITMPI offers a premiu

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 262 features my interview with Kevin Kruse (@Kruse) best selling author of Employee Engagement for Everyone.  If you are involved with people and want to improvement engagement this is an important interview  Kevin's Bio Serial entrepreneur and bestselling author, Kevin Kruse, used a relentless focus on talent and employee engagement to build and sell several, multi-million dollar technology companies, winning both Inc 500 and Best Place to Work awards along the way. He is currently an investor and advisor to Team Capital Bank, one of the fastest growing banks in America with a billion dollars in assets. Kevin is also the author of several books including the NY Times bestseller, We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement, which was named one of the top leadership books in 2011 by 800-CEO-Read.  In Employee Engagement 2.0, Kevin provides a detailed action plan that turns “task-managers” into “people-leaders” and in his latest book, Employee E

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 261 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 261 features our essay on distributed agile.  Distributed agile takes effort but can pay HUGE benefits. The essay begins: What is distributed Agile? The phrase distributed Agile is often used indiscriminately, therefore definitions can cover a wide range of situations and evoke a wide range of emotions. A precise definition encompasses three concepts. The first is a team, project or program that is using Agile techniques. The second is geographic distribution describing where team members are located. The location of team members in a distributed team can range from being spread across a single building to members sprinkled across continents. Finally, the third is organizational distribution, meaning that teams that can be comprised of members from different companies. The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Int

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 260 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 260 features my interview with Dr Richard Sykes.  Dr Sykes is the chair of the Board of Directors of the TMMi Foundation. The TMMi is the Testing Maturity Model Integration. When it comes to testing the TMMI is more than just a model! Dr Richard Sykes is a businessman with a breadth of involvement & experience that spans the chemical industry, the IT industry and the world of arts. He has held senior executive roles in a major global multinational and non-executive chairmanships in a number of smaller ventures - and has lived and operated internationally. Today Richard has a personal practice ('Dr Richard Sykes') as a board-level trusted advisor, assurer, strategic coach & facilitator. He works with senior management in the practical shaping of effective business information & communications technology (ICT) strategies & their implementation, sourcing & governance. He has a particular experti

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 259 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 259 features an essay title Agile Testing. Testing is an important step in the delivery of any piece of software. It is the processes required to find and remove defects from functionality before that functionally is delivered into production. For those of you that have not written code or been an integral part of a software project, a project of any size rarely jumps from that idea directly into executable code without a few hiccups (call ‘em whatever you’d like… explicative deleted, defects or problems). There are two basic ways to find these gremlins – testing (including reviews) before implementation or letting your customers find them after implementation. The SPaMCAST 259 also includes Kim Pries's column.  Kim discusses rubrics and why they are important to software development. And just in case you are confused . . . we are not talking about the "cube."Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 258 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 258 features my interview with Steve Tendon!  Steve focuses on helping to create high-performance organizations and teams.  He is also the the author of Tame the Flow.  Are you ready to make the jump to hyper-productivity? Steve's Bio: Steve is a senior, multilingual, executive management consultant, experienced at leading and directing multi¬national and distributed knowledge¬work organizations. Expert in organizational performance transformation programs. Adviser, consultant, coach, mentor, speaker and author, specializing in organizational productivity, organizational design, process excellence and process innovation. Steve helps businesses create high-performance organizations and teams.  Steve can be contacted at: Email: steve.tendon@gmail.comWeb: http://tendon.net/LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tendon Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics a

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 257 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 257 features the essay "Why Agile Implementations Fail." Unfortunately failure seems to be an option.  Why?  Is it always a bad thing? Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of the world's leading IT thought leaders and to create a single online destination where IT practitioners and executives can meet all of their educational and professional development needs. THe ITMPI offers a premium membership that gives members unlimited free access to 400 PDU accredited webinar recordings, and waives the PDU processing fees on all live and recorded webinars.  The Software Process and Measurement Cast recieves a fee if you sign up using the URL in the show notes.   http://mbsy.co/fGdw  

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 256 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 256 features my second interview with Kenny Rubin.  We talked about Scrum as well as economic frameworks for applying agile. An incredible interview! Kenny Rubin provides Scrum and agile training and coaching to help companies develop products in an effective and economically sensible way. A Certified Scrum Trainer, Kenny has trained over 20,000 people on agile and Scrum, Smalltalk development, managing object-oriented projects, and transition management. He has coached over 200 companies, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 10. Kenny was the first Managing Director of the worldwide Scrum Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on the successful adoption of Scrum. In addition to this book, Kenny is also the coauthor of the 1995 book Succeeding with Objects: Decision Frameworks for Project Management. He received his B.S. in Information and Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his M.S. i

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 255 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 255 features the essay Project Management is Dead, Long Live Project Management.  The role is what is at issue rather than the concept.  The cast also includes Kim Pries's column.  Kim addresses the use of checklists.  What a SHOW! The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of the world's leading IT thought leaders and to create a single online destination where IT practitioners and executives can meet all of their educational and professional development needs. THe ITMPI offers a premium membership that gives members unlimited free access to 400 PDU accredited webinar recordings, and waives the PDU processing fees on all live and recorded webinars.  The So

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 254 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 254 features my interview with Matt Heusser.  We discussed agile and testing.  It was a great interview full of thought provoking discussion and controversial ideas.   Matthew Heusser is the managing consultant at Excelon Development, where he focuses on software project delivery and risk management. A board member for the Association for Software Testing, lead editor of "How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing" (Taylor & Francis 2011), Matt recently served as co-chair of the test and quality track of the Agile Conference. You can learn more about Matt at www.xndev.com or follow him on twitter @mheusser. The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 253 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 253 features the essay titled, Cognitive Bias and Effective Teams. Effective teams build an understanding of the capabilities and biases of each member and the team as whole. The most effective means of a team learning about itself is by working together towards a common goal.  The essay begins . . . No man is an island,Entire of itself,Every man is a piece of the continent,A part of the main. John Donne John Donne may not have had project teams and cognitive biases in mind when he wrote his famous poem however the description is apt. Cognitive bias reflects a pattern of behavior in which a person acts differently than would seem normal in certain situations based on inaccurate judgment or illogical interpretation. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the phrase cognitive bias in 1972 . Biases can affect how we make decisions, how teams and individuals behave and even our perception of ourselves. Biases

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 252 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 252 features my intreview Jo Ann Sweeney, Jo Ann and I discussed the need for planning communication when working with distributed multi-cultural teams. Jo Ann's BioJo Ann Sweeney is a communications consultant who helps transformation teams win the support of their sponsors, senior executives and end users. She is known for her ability to help teams understand the change from their audiences’ perspectives, as well as developing communication activities that catch their interest. Jo Ann specialises in helping clients develop activities that take audiences on a journey from awareness, through understanding, to support, involvement and commitment. Teams are able to deliver sticky change. Programmes have spanned skills development, product launches, office relocations, redundancies and redeployment, business process re-engineering, political lobbying, technology rollouts and brand makeovers for corporates, governme

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 251 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 251 features Commitment Part 2 or Revisited depending on your point of view.  This new essay builds on the essay broadcast in SPaMCAST 239 and as I said before, "Committed individuals are the building blocks for building committed teams.  While teams are generally required for achieving results in software development, individuals are never optional" The essay begins . . . Making and keeping commitments is a core component of professional behavior. The simple definition of a commitment is a promise to perform. Commitment that builds motivation and trust is a fundamental part of the Agile framework that encourages us to “learn early and learn often.” Like any other behavior, there is some mix of reward and punishment that organizations can use to encourage appropriate commitment by teams. Whether Agile or Waterfall, commitments are used to manage software projects by driving the behavior of teams. For more on com

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 250 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 250 features my intreview with Ben Linders.  We discussed succeeding with Agile. We covered topics that ranged from success factors to change management.  A fitting interview for the occasion of SPaMCAST 250!    Ben's bioBen Linders is a Senior Consultant in Quality, Agile, Lean, and Process Improvement, based in The Netherlands. As an advisor, coach and trainer, he helps organizations by deploying effective software development and management practices. He focuses on continuous improvement, collaboration and communication, and professional development, to deliver business value to customers. Ben is an active member of several networks on Agile, Lean and Quality, and a frequent speaker and writer. He shares his experience in a bilingual blog (Dutch and English) at www.benlinders.com. Email:                info@benlinders.comTwitter:              @BenLindersWebsite:            http://www.benlinders.com/Facebook:

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 249 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 249 features an essay titled, Agile Decision Making. The essay is a collaboration between Meghan Cagley and myself. Leadership and decision making in Agile organizations and teams requires different processes and skills. We dive right in! We also have a new column by Kim Pries.  Kim expounds on the power of routine. The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of the world's leading IT thought leaders and to create a single online destination where IT practitioners and executives can meet all of their educational and professional development needs. THe ITMPI offers a premium membership that gives members unlimited free access to 400 PDU accredited webinar rec

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 248 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 248 features my intreview with Pat O'Toole.  We discussed project improvement and process improvement. A wonderfully practical interiew! Pat's bio Pat O’Toole is a Principal Consultant at Process Assessment, Consulting & Training (PACT) where he provides a variety of services to his CMMI-based performance improvement clients.  Pat is one of the most active SCAMPI lead appraisers, and has led assessments spanning all maturity levels, including some of the largest and most complex Level 5 appraisals conducted to date. With over 30 years of software development, project management, and consulting experience, Pat works with all levels of management, Engineering Process Groups, and Process Action Teams in establishing, evaluating, and sustaining performance improvement initiatives.  He has authored over 60 papers and research studies and is a popular instructor who supplements standard training material with his

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 247 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 247 features my essay on Sprint Reviews and Demonstrations.  It is all about the feedback. The essay begins . . . Demonstrations, or demos, are Agile’s mechanism to share what the team has accomplished during the current sprint. Show and tell, just like in kindergarten, is the basic component of the demo. The team can describe what they’ve done so that it is easy for stakeholders to interpret. Demos build the team’s confidence that they are on the right track and customer satisfaction with the product as it is being built. The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of the world's leading IT thought leaders and to create a single online destination where IT