Ryn The Guardian Melberg

This week on the interview segment of the program we will talk to Ryn about Continuous Integration in Agile. According to Martin Fowler of ThoughtWorks, continuous integration is a software development practice that requires team members to integrate their work frequently. With lots of code writers all working on the same product but doing so separately this might yield as many versions of code as there are code writers. We also have news from the world of Agile. To read and learn more go to www.rynmelberg.com.

This week on The Guardian Podcast with Ryn Melberg, Ryn discusses the pros and cons of the 'scrum of scrums' and calls out some things she finds 'stupid and ineffective'. In the news segment we learn about an agile bear and software written by a company called Smart Bear. To learn more visit www.rynmelberg.com.

In the age of the Internet and instant communications it is no longer necessary for team members to work in the same office floor or building. In fact it is not really necessary to even be in the same country, or time zone. This means freedom for many workers who need or choose to live in a certain locale but whose location differs from that of the office. But how can a team like this be managed and coordinated without a sacrifice of resources somewhere? To help us navigate the geographic diversity of this brave new world is the Guardian herself, Ryn Melberg.

Is money the best tool for attracting and retaining the best knowledge workers? Or, is there a formula for finding what is too little, too much or what is just right, like porridge. Some employers are getting creative in order to hold on to key employees. As the job market improves, competition for the best talent ramps up. Top programmers and code writers are offered lavish salaries, cars, housing allowances, club memberships, day care and other services that were once only found at resorts and five star hotels. It sounds great at first, but there is always the law of unintended consequences.

The infrastructure that allows everything from streaming movies and songs to international banking, commerce and satellite directed intelligence and defense is not as secure as it should be. Some in government and business believe that cyber attacks are a certainty and that the best way to prepare for them is to adopt the same habits as “preppers” do, like hoarding food, gold and ammunition. But perhaps a more rational approach would be to view information security as both a technical and corporate governance issue. So this week, Ryn will describe some general guidelines for us around this issue and also talk about some specifics. The specific cases include Apple Computer, The U.S. Department of Defense and even Donald Trump. To learn more, go to www.rynmelberg.com

While not a cage match or winner take all, this week on the podcast Ryn describes the differences between Devops and Systems Teams and their respective roles in Agile. While there is plenty of opportunity for conflicts, when these are managed and executed properly there is tremendous benefit to the Agile team. To read more about this and other issues in Agile, be sure to visit www.rynmelberg.com.

This week on the Guardian Podcast, Ryn describes the role directors must play to make cyber security a day to day job for everyone in the organization. Ryn also describes in detail the monetary losses experienced by companies that were hacked and the damage to their reputations for trust among consumers. To read more, visit the website online at www.rynmelberg.com.

Nothing succeeds like success and one of the ways to recognize success is to know the signals or signs that you and your Agile transformation are flittering with disaster. There are several of these that we are going to ask Ryn about on the podcast this week. To learn more go to www.rynmelberg.com

What are the qualities of the best ‘coaches’ or teachers that you’ve ever had? Do those same qualities make for good Agile and scrum coaches? And are you a candidate for a coaching role in Agile or scrum? To help us answer those and other questions is Ryn Melberg. No matter how well trained people are, few can sustain their best performance on their own. That’s where coaching comes in.To follow Ryn and read the latest from her, visit her website at www.rynmelberg.com.

Leadership in general and leadership in an Agile setting may or may not have a number of similarities. Most people would likely see leadership as an ‘eye of the beholder’ kind of thing that is hard to define and with a definition that will differ depending on who you ask. Is it the same for a leader in an Agile environment? To learn this and more we turn as always to Ryn Melberg. To learn more, visit Ryn on the web at www.rynmelberg.com.

Nothing is perfect. There are no perfect solutions to anything and no solver bullets. We have all heard these expressions hundreds of times. The same thing can be said of Agile, Scrum, Scaled Agile or any of the many Agile inspired methods of organizing projects. So this week on The Guardian Podcast, we lean in and find out the objections to Agile from the philosophical to the individual team member.

This week on The Guardian Podcast with Ryn Melberg, the topic is Epics. What are Epics in Agile and Scrum? Are they better suited to Scaled Agile or are they appropriate elsewhere? And what are the differences between Epics and Themes? To learn more be sure to visit the web site, www.rynmelberg.com.

This week on The Guardian Podcast, Ryn Melberg helps Agile/Scrum/SAFe users define what a feature really is. There is a lot of confusion and misuse of the term. Ryn describes how using the term consistently will help prevent misunderstandings and reduce wasted time explaining and then re-explaining what was intended. To learn more visit www.rynmelberg.com

There was bound to be a nexus between social media, company policy and best practices. This includes what employees do on line while on and off the clock and extends to customers, suppliers, shareholders, neighbors and yes employees. There are some businesses that do not allow their employees to say anything about them on social media. I am aware of a company where the owners monitor their employee’s social media posting, holds things they do not like against them, but has no written policy. But the world of Facebook will include 1 billion users this year and Twitter will have 500 million. There has to be a more informed and enlightened way to give directions to people so for enlightenment and information we turn, of course, to Ryn Melberg. To follow Ryn and see more about her expertise go to www.rynmelberg.com.

This week on The Guardian Podcast with Ryn Melberg, the science of motivation in the workplace, based on the writing of Daniel Pink. As Ryn has said previously, the carrot and stick approach to management is not as inspiring as the ones that come from intrinsic motivation. To read more about this podcast visit www.rynmelberg.com.

This week on The Guardian Podcast with Ryn Melberg, Agile and tools for managing and tracking are the topic. Among others, Ryn reviews: Atlassian. Jira, Leankit, Rally Platform for Agile Lifecycle, Excel, Version One, Agile Craft and Planbox. Each has its advantages and things that are also less desirable. Listen to hear Ryn's candid assessment.

This week on The Guardian Podcast With Ryn Melberg, we learn more about Ryn and how she came to be where she is and where she is hopeful of being in the not too distant future. How did she turn a study of philosophy into a business analysis, and systems thinking? What was it like moving from employee status to consultant? How was she named "Ryn"? To learn more, visit the website at www.rynmelberg.com.

This week Ryn The Guardian Melberg discusses the ways that practices from Agile can be used to improve the overall work and practices of boards of directors for privately owned, publicly traded or even non-profit companies. The benefits of an Agile Board will extend to the entire company. Similarly, if Agile stops at the board, there is a break in governance and transparency. Examples of companies that are truly Agile from top to bottom are Apple and Google, both of which are very successful. To learn more or be in touch please visit www.rynmelberg.com.

This week on the podcast Ryn will discuss the issue of governance on university campuses. Specifically the board members of those universities who come from outside the respective college campuses and have roles and responsibilities tied directly to those schools. Graduates, who have been successful in business, are elected officials fill a lot of these roles, or in charge of a successful non-profit who are asked to bring a real world perspective to campus. But what is the ideal role for them? Are they fundraisers? Cheerleaders or simply there to rubber stamp what the school president wants to do anyway? Listen to find out.

This week on the program Ryn will discuss with us some much needed steps that parents or anyone with children in their lives needs to take to protect the privacy of those same youngsters. This in the wake of the hack of Hong Kong based VTech, maker of electronic learning toys. That hack exposed information about over 6.4 million children. To follow Ryn, visit her web site at www.rynmelberg.com. Photo shows where in the V-Tech tablet the break-in was possible. Photo Courtesy of Forbes.