Software Process And Measurement Cast

In the Software Process and Measurement Cast 800 Johanna Rothman takes over the podcast and interviews Jeremy Willets and me. We discussed , why principles make more sense than best practices, and how disciplined work intake is the core to getting work done. We learn that in practice, stop starting and start finishing only works when you pay attention to the work that goes into a system.  Contact info: Johanna Rothman  LinkedIn: Website:   Jeremy Willets LinkedIn:   Website:     Tom Calgey  LinkedIn: Website: https://tomcagley.com/ I was asked the best way to spread the word about . The single best way is to leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you buy your books. Reviews increase the likelihood that someone like you will discover the book!   New Workshop Cohort Open! Jeremy Willets and I have opened a new workshop cohort to help you learn to tame the work intake beast!  The workshop will run from 31 May to 28 June in five manageable one-hour chunks. For more details hop over to our Maven site 

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 799 discusses why all communication is not collaboration. It is a commonly held belief that complex problems require collaborative efforts to solve. Couple that with an almost fad-like insistence that if a little collaboration is good, more is better, which leads to everything being deemed collaboration. We can do better with a little effort.  We will also have a visit from Jon M Quigley and his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column. Mr Quigley and I talk about prioritization as micromanagement. And how if you are not there to pick up the pieces when work is pushed into an organization you have a poor perspective.  .New Workshop Cohort Registration Open! Jeremy Willets and I have opened a new workshop cohort to help you learn to tame the work intake beast!  The workshop will run from 31 May to 28 June in five manageable one-hour chunks. For more details hop over to our Maven site  for more information, sign up, or just join the mailing list!   Re-read Saturday

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 798 features my interview with Steve Taplin of Sonatafy Technology. Steve and I discussed the nuances and benefits of nearshore software development. Steve also provided his thoughts on why building an uplifting culture both inside and outside the organization reaps powerful rewards for everyone it touches. Steve Taplin leads Sonatafy Technology as its CEO, bringing an entrepreneurial flair and inspirational leadership to the forefront of nearshore software development. His career is marked by a series of successful business scalings, showcasing his ability to tackle complex challenges within the tech industry. Steve's expertise spans across critical business domains, driving Sonatafy to excel in delivering top-tier software solutions.  Contact Information: Re-read Saturday News This week we put a bow on our re-read of with a few final thoughts. This book has earned a place on my useful bookshelf. The quote from last week sums up my rationale for Re-read Saturday

In the Software Process and Measurement Cast 797 we ponder a statement from Roger Turnau in SPaMCAST 796, “You can’t expect the process to save you from yourself in every circumstance.” The statement poses a leadership quandary leading to questions every leader must ask. When does process guidance make sense? When do processes infantilize teams and leaders? These are not the basis for an after-work philosophical discussion. Vast movements within the software industry have been spawned as cultures have swayed between directive and laissez-faire poles.  We also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault who brings his Evolutionary Agilst™ Column to the podcast. We discussed whether testers are part of the team and if they own quality. Re-read Saturday News This week we finish our re-read of with two chapters. Chapter 13 is titled Scaling Monte Carlo. In a perfect world, one team could do all of the work needed for a product or feature a manageable piece at a time. Unfortunately, this is the real world. In Chapte

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 796 features a conversation with Roger Turnau. Roger and I talk about prioritization using the cost of delay. Every organization and team I have ever worked with has a backlog of work and lots of people screaming that their piece of the backlog is the most important. The cost of delay is an important tool to filter out the noise and it can be as nuanced as you need it to be. Roger Turnau is an Agile Coach at Accenture. His mission is to empower and inspire leaders and organizations to create an environment where high performance feels effortless. His approach to achieving this combines an emphasis on psychological safety, building trust throughout the organization, and close attention to KPIs, OKRs and flow metrics to ensure durable results. For the past five years, Roger has specialized in enterprise and DevOps coaching, product development, and Agile transformations. Contact Information LinkedIn:  Website: (Blog) Last Call for Cohort 1! Slay Work Intake Chaos: Be

Part of every profession is the jargon practitioners adopt. Having a language links people together and creates a sense of community. It also creates private gardens: a profession set off from those around it. Jargon is a form of secret handshake. Jargon is a two-edged sword, both gathering and excluding people. Be wary! We also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. We discussed her recent mini-sabbatical. Stepping back has the power to clear your mind.  Slay Work Intake Chaos: Become a Master in 5 Weeks! Based on Tom Cagley and Jeremy WIllet’s new book , learn to diagnose and solve work intake anti-patterns to stop drowning in work. Work intake is the biggest challenge facing organizations today. If you don’t get work intake right, you won’t be in business for very long. A 5-week cohort-based course, meeting weekly for an hour, includes teaching, peer feedback & discussion, feedback from the authors, time for Q&A, templates, and an electronic copy of our book, Master

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 794 features our conversation with Nick Schrock. Nick and I discussed data engineering, AI, and entrepreneurship. As the Founder at Dagster Labs, Nick has the perfect standing to talk about three of the hottest topics of 2024. Nick’s Bio: Nick is the Founder and CTO of Dagster Labs, the company behind Dagster, a popular open-source data orchestration platform. Before Dagster Labs, he was a Principal Engineer and Director at Facebook from 2009 to 2017, where he founded the Product Infrastructure team and co-created GraphQL. After cutting his teeth at Facebook, he pursued his passion for working on engineers’ pain points after hearing that data infrastructure was a big issue. He founded Dagster to address this issue, highlighting how quickly open-source projects were able to make an impact at legacy companies.  Dagster couldn’t come at a more critical time as data and ML engineering are beginning to drive both human and business decision-making.   Contact Information:

As you would suspect, I have recently been talking up Mastering Work Intake which Jeremy Willets and I co-authored. One conversation turned to the topic of whether value stream analysis was useful in controlling work intake. The simple answer is YES across the whole value stream and up and down the hierarchy. We will also have a visit from Kies Kostaqi who brings her “You Are Not Alone” column to the podcast. In this installment, we discuss whether anyone (within reason) can play the Scrum Master role.  Mastering Work Intake  by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets    Have you purchased your copy of  ?  Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively - no longer. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, proj

by Thomas M Cagley Jr and Jeremy Willets, gives you the tools to prioritize and deliver the right work at the right time. The book is on the shelves today! One of the topics covered in the book 9 Core Principles of Work Intake. Today’s audio promo describes the 9 principles to promote both the book and our cohort-based workshop.  To whet your whistle, when you join the cohort waitlist (near the bottom of the Maven landing page) you will receive a copy of the 9 Core Work Intake Principles Worksheet. This is one of the handouts from the class that you can use to determine how your team or organization is doing with them. Purchase a copy of Mastering Work Intake at: J Ross:   or  Amazon (US): Sign up or join the waiting list for the workshop at   If you have any questions email me at tcagley@tomcagley.com  

Happy Birthday to the Software Process and Measurement Cast.  Today we begin year 18 with our interview with Gil Broza. Gill and I discussed his new book, Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization’s Potential. The book is available NOW! I am excited by the ideas in the book and I think you will be also.  If you are involved in improving value delivery this is a must-have-book. Why? Because it identifies what organizations that successfully improve value delivery have in common and provides those ideas to you. Gill specializes in helping leaders deliver far better results by upgrading their organizations’ Agile ways of working. He is the author of , , , and Listen to the podcast and then download Chapter 1 from:   Other Contact Links:  The book: Gill’s  My website: LinkedIn:   Mastering Work Intake  by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets  Have you purchased your copy of  ?  Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you

With SPaMCAST 791 we complete Year 17 with our interview with Vinnie GIl. Vinnie and I talked about conferences and staying connected with the Agile Community. One of the topics we covered was the value of conferences and meetups to the community and individuals—a great way to complete year 17.   Vinnie puts people and culture first. She enjoys connecting with people and companies to find their purpose, walking alongside them in their organisational growth journey. Her passion is influencing change at the Enterprise level to help bring about wide-ranging agile organisational transformation. Vinnie has vast industry and has deep business experience mining, engineering, retail, financial services, public sector, education, travel, automotive to name a few.  She has over 20 years in the project space and previously held roles in Project Management, Contracts, IT, HR, Strategy as well as experience working in and with start-up companies.  She is a Chartered Fellow of the MCIPD. She is deeply involved in the Ag

SPaMCAST 790 features our interview with Stefan Wolpers. Stefan and I talked about the Scrum Master's role in the 21st Century, his new book The Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide (), and remembering that it's all about people. Stefan’s Bio: Embarking on a Scrum career unintentionally in 2006, Stefan was initiated as a Scrum Master for a small German startup. Lacking initial knowledge but employing careful observation, note-taking, and dialogue, the author embraced the role and learned from the team’s experiences. Eighteen years into his Scrum journey, Stefan maintains an unwavering appetite for learning, humbled by the vast knowledge shared within the agile community. Recognizing newcomers’ overwhelming challenges in this field due to scarce formal education, he aspires to provide guidance, emphasising a pragmatic, common-sense approach grounded in observing human interaction and collaboration. Since 2019, Stefan has served as a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org. LinkedIn:   Email:   Websites (Other) (Other)

As a coach and mentor, I often observe meetings and events so I can debrief with the person(s) I am coaching afterward and provide them with a different perspective. I was involved in observing a planning session in which a stakeholder stated, “Combine these two items, they are similar, and only count it as one toward our capacity.” What?   We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley and his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column. Jon and I talk about including technical people in sales and estimates.   New  Book! Jeremy Willets and I have written  which will be released on January 9th. Regardless of whether you’re creating, enhancing, or maintaining software products, work intake is a challenge you deal with constantly. Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively. You need to know what your team is executing, what work is next, and the skill sets required to do the work. focuses on the f

SPaMCAST 788 is our annual SPaMCAST panel featuring most of the podcast regulars including:  Jeremy Berriault, Keis Kostaqi, Jon M. Quigley,  Jeremy Willets, and Tom Cagley appears in the ringmaster role.  Tony Timbol and Susan Parente, regular contributors, were unable to join and we missed them (this time of year is busy). Maybe I should do the annual panel in February, no one is busy in the colder parts of February.  During this year's panel, we talked about using AIs in coaching, working in the office, Jon tent, and took a look into 2024. This is a long podcast so I will keep the chit-chat down to a dull roar.  Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a

This week we continue in the minefield of why starting everything you are asked to do is problematic that we began in SPaMCAST 785. Framing the discussion is a text from a friend of the cast which highlights those requests that you just can’t say no to. Lots of rationalizations and negative impacts. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. In this installment, we discuss the idea that everyone has a book in them.  Re-Read Saturday News Vacanti begins Chapter 3 of , by reminding the reader: “A predictable process behaves in a way we expect it to.” Further a predictable process exhibits only routine variation which means learning to distinguish signal and noise. Buy a copy and get reading - .  The current re-read entry Week 1:  – Week 2: – Week 3:   -     Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor

Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 features our conversation with Kevin Surace. Kevin is an AI Inventor, Futurist, and Keynote Speaker. We talk about the hype and promise of AI and whether you can ignore using AI in the workplace. My synopsis, embrace AI or live under a bridge. That might be a bit of hyperbole but if you lived through the PC revolution and the birth of the internet I think not.  Kevin’s Bio Kevin Surace, is a renowned futurist, disruptive innovation keynote speaker, and pioneer in the AI space since the 1990s He is the  CTO of Appvance.ai which applies AI in the testing space.   Kevin has an impressive portfolio of nearly 100 worldwide patents, including the groundbreaking technology behind Siri and other virtual assistants. He is the visionary creator of one of the world's first smartphones and a dynamic speaker featured in over 15 thought-provoking TED and TEDx talks. His accomplishments have earned him accolades such as Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year, CNBC's Innovator of t

I was asked, “Why shouldn’t I say yes and start everything that comes my way?” As we celebrate the impending publication of (it is going to the printers very soon) we continue the discussion of work intake scenarios that bedevil teams and organizations. Controlling work entry is controlling WIP which helps us be our best selves. But are there times when you have to say yes when you don’t want to?   We also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault bringing his Evolutionary Agilist Column to the cast! Mr Berriault and I discussed the concept of root cause. Everybody is looking for one but very few understand the concept.  Re-Read Saturday News This week we begin the read of by Daniel S. Vacanti. This is the second of Mr. Vacanti’s books we have covered in Re-read Saturday. The 260-page book includes a Preface, 14 Chapters broken into two sections, two appendices, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index (hooray).  I am planning to cover this book in approximately 16 weeks. Reviewing the book, there are several chapte

Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 features our interview with Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson. We talk about their Agile Best Self Initiative. We also, and perhaps more importantly, discuss being in control of yourself so you can truly deliver value to those around you. As we start to close out 2023 it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how you can be your best self. Michaele Gardner started out as a counselor at an emergency crisis line. Clients were too messy: clear inputs did not lead to predetermined outputs. So she moved into the world of IT and has not looked back. Becoming a developer on an XP team brought together her interests in psychology, flow, teamwork and problem solving. She quickly realized that many teams (and organizations) poured their hearts and souls into projects that added little value. Her next natural step was to help engineers and organizations understand business value at a micro and macro level. At all levels, Michaele loves giving change agents tools to define t

Software Process and Measurement Cast 783 tackles a classic work intake problem, “Do you have the authority to ask for this work?” Work input processes need to vet more than just requirements.  We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley. Jon and I discussed taking control of your personal growth. It is not your organization's responsibility.  Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 10 of is titled, The Red-Blue Operating System. Marquet starts this chapter with the cautionary tale of the Ford Pinto. The chapter highlights the outcome of the industrial approach to leadership going wrong. My wife had a Pinto when we first started dating. It was our only car and we both remember waiting for it to be recalled, even as we drove to work every morning. We discussed the potential of the fuel tank exploding. What we were oblivious to was the reason for the problem. The failure of leadership and the failure of the decision-making model literally sentenced people to death to achieve a goal.   Previous installments of our re-read of

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 782 features our conversation with Govind Balu on the importance of data and the concept of data transformations. Data represents the gold rush of the 21st Century! Govind Balu is a visionary entrepreneur and experienced executive with a strong background in leveraging data and AI to drive business growth across different industries. As the Founder and CEO of QuaXigma, he spearheads the company’s vision to transform organizations into data-driven enterprises.  Govind observed that small and medium businesses struggle to effectively extract value from data and are unable to compete in a landscape where larger organizations more effectively leverage AI. Motivated to make data and AI easily accessible to SMBs, Govind founded QuaXigma with a clear mission to develop and deliver solutions that deliver business value by focusing on innovation, customer satisfaction, and strategic consulting. Govind’s LinkedIn Profile:  Email:   Company Website:   Re-Read Saturday News In Ch