Meta-Cast

No team is perfect.  At some point in your team's evolution a team member will have a string of bad days that cause a significant amount of strife and turmoil in your team.  Use this episode to pick up some tips, tricks, and advice on how to handle this situation and get your team back on the path to greatness! Get FREE agile coaching , twice a week, on Josh's new live stream .  If you ever wanted...

How do you know when you have too little/too much process in place?  Use this episode to get an understanding of what a "good enough" process looks like for a team of 5 versus a team of 50 so that you and your team can maintain success as you grow. P.S. Did you miss the YouTube video of a recent talk at #Path18 in Columbus, OH?  Check it out here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49csHWE0Dq8 Help...

This episode's topic comes from a listener via Twitter .  Big thanks to @Paul_V_Elia for the great question.  @bobgalen and @nosrednAhsoJ you mentioned the possibility of a follow up on #noestimates - I'd like to hear about estimating too far into the future; with high variability, wasteful in my view. Also, org culture, values, trust: correlation to estimate techniques that work there. — Paul Eli...

What should you do with customer feedback?  Ignore it?  Trust it completely?  Something in the middle?  Bob and Josh dig in and help you understand the best way to use customer feedback to support your team, product, and projects. How do you incoporate customer feedback into the process?  Let's discuss! Help Spread The Word:  Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our pod...

With 120+ podcast episodes, hundreds of speaking engagements, and hundreds of teams/companies coached, Bob and Josh have seen just about everything.  Using all of that experience, we continue our discussion of some of the most frequently asked questions across everyone we helped. What questions do you field over and over again in your travels?  Let's discuss! Help Spread The Word:  Love our conten...

With 120+ podcast episodes, hundreds of speaking engagements, and hundreds of teams/companies coached, Bob and Josh have seen just about everything.  Using all of that experience, we narrowed down on some of the most frequently asked questions across everyone we helped. What questions do you field over and over again in your travels?  Let's discuss! Help Spread The Word:  Love our content? Help us...

The relationship between most agile practices, estimates, and the planning those estimates relate to is a tricky one.  Many agile practitioners subscribe to the #NoEstimates movement.  Bob and Josh dig into the pros and cons of each approach (traditional agile estimation vs a "no estimates" approach). How does your team estimate?  Do you estimate at all?  Let's discuss... Help Spread The Word:  Lo...

Successful agile adoptions and transitions require truth, in all directions.  Unfortunately, many of us are ill-equipped to speak truth in the most challenging direction: towards power.  Use this episode to prepare for the difficult discussions you must have to ensure a successful agile implementation. Our Second Giveaway! Don't miss our second conference registration giveaway.  Listen closely to...

Bob and Josh break down how architecture fits effectively into the agile process.  If your organization is struggling to mix appropriate architecture practices into your process and remain agile, this is the episode for you! Our First Giveaway! Don't miss our first conference registration giveaway in this episode.  Listen closely to the intro and follow the details to enter your chance to win a fr...

Continuing the discussion from our previous episode , Bob and Josh recall their journeys into conference speaking.  We also provide a few lessons learned in hopes of one of our listeners decide to try out speaking at a conference.  What are you waiting for? Go submit a talk to your favorite conference! Help Spread The Word:  Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podc...

Bob has a new role!  We cover the changes happening for Bob in his new role as the Program Chair for TechWell and the changes he aims to implement in future conferences.  We also dig in a bit to what it takes to become a great conference speaker. Help Spread The Word:  Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on  iTunes , or by giving to our  Patreon  c...

On October 12th, Bob and Josh hosted a live, unscripted podcast recording session answering the audience's questions in real time.  This episode is the recording of that session.  We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to answering your questions at a conference near you! Help Spread The Word:  Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on  iTunes , or...

Many organizations overload the scrum master role, causing confusion for both the team(s) and the scrum master themselves.  We tackle this issue in response to a question from a listener's question (thanks Tim from Germany).   Have you been asked to serve multiples roles in your organization?  Are you operating as a scrum master and an organizational coach?  We'd love to hear how you are handling...

Bob and Josh revisit a topic from a recent panel they participated in covering the challenges many management roles face in a transition to agile.  We talk through the key differences between traditional management and agile leadership.   If you, or someone you know, is struggling with this transition, look no further than this episode! How do you define the difference between management and leade...

In our previous episode , we detailed when it is appropriate to create tasks for each of your stories.  After listening to that episode, a listener requested some details on the differences between stories, epics, and tasks.  So here we go! How does your team use these terms?  Share your thoughts, ideas, and preferences in the comments below. Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social medi...

When it comes to planning sprints and their associated user stories, should your team also create, assign, and size individual tasks?  Bob and Josh debate this topic and help you streamline your team's sprint planning and execution. Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on  iTunes , or by giving to our  Patreon  campaign.  Every time you give, in any...

Scrum can be a real drag.  After dozens and dozens of sprints, your team looks forward to yet another sprint with all of the same ceremonies.  Hooray... How can you make the endless sea of sprints that lay ahead of your team look less dreary?  FUN!   Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on  iTunes , or by giving to our  Patreon  campaign.  Every tim...

We've all been there.  Scrum is getting old, and you want to try something new.  Here comes Kanban to save the day!  Maybe not.  Kanban sometimes just makes things worse.  We help you figure out if Kanban is right for you. Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on  iTunes , or by giving to our  Patreon  campaign.  Every time you give, in any way, you...

Great leadership is hard to find.  When you boil leadership down to its essence, all you need is a little responsibility.   In this episode, learn what great leadership looks like so that you can either grow into a great leader for find a great leader to learn from. Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on iTunes , or by giving to our Patreon campaig...

Agile teams perform best when they have a well formed, and continuously refined, backlog.  That sounds great, but how do you get there if you don't have a backlog yet?!?  How in the world do you get started? This episode gives you everything you need to jumpstart your backlog, and in turn your road to a great implementation of agile.  Learn how to build your first stories and how to get your team...

We collected dozens of audience questions from one of our recent speaking engagements.  In this episode, we answer them for you, in rapid fire mode.  Good luck finding a more answer-packed agile podcast episode out there! Are there other questions you want answered that weren't tackled in this episode?  Send us your idea(s) in our contact us form . Heading to TechWell's Agile Dev West this year?  ...

Great teams, and leaders, build a safe environment where truths are told, even if they hurt a little.  How healthy is your team and their relationships?  Are truths told in a healthy manner?  If there are issues that need to be discussed, but they never get on the table because it is uncomfortable, we help you tackle that with this episode.  Learn from our mistakes as you hear some of the hard les...

Agile adoption is difficult.  When you are in middle management during an agile transformation, so many questions are raised.  What is my role?  How do I effectively lead in this new paradigm?  Does anyone need me anymore?  We answer all of these questions, and more!  Aside from tackling this classic agile challenge, but Bob throws down a HUGE challenge to Josh.   Sumo suits.  Yes, your two favori...

It all starts with a backlog.  The health of an agile team correlates directly with the state of its backlog.   That all sounds great.  How do we get our backlog to be "great"?  Listen to this podcast, that's how! We are kidding, or are we?  This episode offers a lot of great tips that can help you get your backlogs back on track and making a real difference in your team's performance.  Oh, and Bo...

Learn the importance of treating yourself as a brand, especially in the agile community.  Bob and Josh share their experience, and a few tips, as they walk through their thought processes in building their individual brand, corporate brands, and the brand of this podcast. More importantly, we want for your feedback and ideas on agile brand building.  To support the community, we need you to engage...