Meta-Cast

Why is cadence/temp so important to agile success?  It is amazing to see how something as simple as a well defined cadence reduces the "noise" of a process and provides focus for teams and individuals. Have you experimented with different tempos?  What success stories do you have?  Let's discuss! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

Even though Bob and Josh believe agile is the right path, there are some situations when trying to "go agile" just might not be right.  We take a deep dive into uncovering common indicators that taking on an agile transition in organization would actually be a bad idea. Did we miss anything?  Have you run into any of these scenarios?  Let's discuss! This is a public episode. If you would like to d...

How should you handle roles inside an agile team?  Can/should you share responsibilities or is it best to have a bunch of specialists?  Bob and Josh share their views on how highly effective agile teams operate and manage the complexities of roles and responsibilities. How does your team handle this?  Are you a group of generalists or specialists?  Let's discuss! Become a Meta-Cast Partner We rece...

What exactly does a rockstar product owner look like?  Would you know one when you see one?  After this podcast, that won't be a problem!  Bob and Josh dig into what it takes to really be a world class product owner. If you are new to the product owner role, are hiring your first product owner, or are just looking to sharpen your product owner skills, this episode is for you! Did we miss anything...

Richard Khor joins Bob and Josh to discuss his agile journey.  As the first scrum master at Dude Solutions, Richard provides additional context into the daily like of a scrum master.  Learn from someone "in the trenches" exactly what it takes to become a world class agile leader. Become a Meta-Cast Partner We recently launched a Patreon campaign to help take us to the next level.  Our goal is to s...

In response to a listener request, we dig deeper in to the approach Josh and the Dude Solutions team uses to select and tweak agile frameworks for their unique problem set.  Bob and Josh step through a few frameworks to provide experience and advice on the ways you could/should individualize each.   What tweaks have you implemented that worked?  Have you implemented any tweaks that didn't work? Le...

Everyone started with a base desire to learn agile.  Someone reached out, lent a hand, and helped you get up to speed.  Maybe it was a blog, a co-worker, or even a podcast, but someone offered you help along the way. In this episode, we provide some ideas on how you can "pay it forward" and lend a helping hand.  We know this isn't an exhaustive list, so please share you ideas on twitter or in the...

We spend most of our days focusing on agile, writing code, and everything else that goes into delivering world class software.  However, agile is applicable well beyond the realm of software engineering. How can you relate agile to family, friends, or anyone else that wonders what you do?  Can you explain agile to someone and help them apply it in their daily life?   Bob and Josh take a stab at do...

After six years (and 100 episodes!) of learning and growing, Bob and Josh take a look back at how they, and their agile opinions, changed over the years. A big thanks to Cory Bryan for the topic idea! @metahyphencast Couple - 1. What's the biggest thing each of you believed 6 years ago that you don't anymore — Cory Bryan (@isCoryBryan) August 10, 2016 @metahyphencast 2. What's something you advise...

Bob and Josh revisit their "good cop, bad cop" routine and apply it to SAFe.  In this episode, Josh takes the side of pro-SAFe, while Bob attempts to persuade Josh that adopting SAFe is not the best approach for this dreamt-up scenario.  You be the judge on who is good cop and who is the bad cop!  :) REMINDER: Episode 100 is upon us!  If you have any topic ideas for our 100th episode tweet using t...

As organizations adopt agile, many employees evolve their career to adopt roles such as scrum master and product owner.  What do the career paths look like for someone in these roles?  Bob and Josh discuss their approaches and strategies for tackling this problem.  What do the career paths look like in your organization? We are nearing our 100th episode!  If you have any ideas for a BIG topic for...

Continuous improvement is a foundation of agile, but generating a culture that fosters and even requires it can be a bit tricky.  Learn how to transform your culture with tips and tricks from Bob and Josh on how they've transformed the cultures of their organizations. What tricks do you have?  Let's discuss! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...

Frameworks, frameworks, frameworks!  So many folks are selling one, and everyone else thinks they need one.  Bob and Josh rip into the idea that any one framework can be a silver bullet for your situation.  Learn how to evaluate what makes sense for you and how to build an agile approach that fits your unique situation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscri...

In response to this #meta-question on Twitter... @metahyphencast #meta -question I am reading Mike Cohn's take on coaching teams to be self organizing. Are there any Meta-Casts on this? — John Kaplan (@kaplanapps) May 25, 2016 ... Bob and Josh take a deep dive into what exactly is needed to become a self-directed team and how you, and your team, can become one.   We've danced around this topic acr...

Is that title just clickbait? Give us a listen and find out...  ;) Just kidding!  Don't worry, we really do dig into a growing movement declaring that agile is dead.  Some of our more recent experience aligns with this view.  How did we get here?  What can we do about it? Do you think agile is dead?  What are you doing about it?  Let's discuss!!! This is a public episode. If you would like to disc...

We originally discussed agile testing over 5 years (and 80 episodes) ago.  Today we revisit the topic to learn how our views of testing in an agile world have evolved.  We cover topics ranging from QA/Dev ratios to automation.  You'll find that we've learned a lot over the year and this episode reflects that. How has your view of agile testing evolved over time?  Leave a comment below or mention u...

Hiring a Scrum Master is one of those things that doesn't happen often, especially when you compare it to how often you hire an engineer to fill a role in your agile team.  Like anything in life, practice helps refine your skills.  If you haven't had the opportunity to hire bunches of Scrum Masters (and therefore refine your process of doing so), this episode will help you sharpen up quickly.   Wh...

Episode 90 set the stage for our "return to basics" approach.  The first step of that approach requires us to start at the beginning.  Over six years ago, we opened our podcast with what we believed to be the most important piece of agile, Trust.  Today, we revisit that topic with a combined 12 years of new ideas, theories, failures, and thoughts. How has your definition of trust evolved over the...

A big thanks goes out to our listeners that have either been with us from the beginning or those that went all the way back to episode #1 and binge-listened until they were caught up. We know not everyone has done that, so we are introducing a plan to revisit some of the basics.  In this episode, we tee up that renewed focus on the basics.  We've learned a lot since we started podcasting six years...

In our last episode  we discussed how  to lead an organization into the world of agile.  Now we tackle supporting your agile adoption by coaching upwards (AKA into your leadership team).  There are countless resources for coaching agile teams, scrum masters, etc., but how do you coach an executive that is unknowingly squashing your adoption's success?  How do you ensure that the entire organizatio...

So much talking, writing, debating, etc. is done around how to operate an agile team.  What about the rest of the organization?  If you are a leader, how does agile affect you and your daily efforts?  Bob and Josh dig into the approaches they use as agile leaders in hopes of answering these questions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access...

Josh introduces what The Dude team calls "The Agile Donut" to Bob.  This new model (some might even call it a framework) combines multiple agile approaches into a successful, unique recipe for scaling agile.  Learn how Josh and team applied portions of Lean, Scrum, Spotify, SaFE, and others into what we refer to as "The Agile Donut".   What are your thoughts on our new approach?  What parts would...

Like the word "agile", the "microservices" buzzword gets thrown around a lot.  Just like agile again, it often gets used by folks who don't fully understand what it means.  In fact, you may already have an executive coming to you saying "we need microservices!".   Learn what microservices are and how they affect/support/challenge many of your existing, basic agile and software engineering principl...

Every band of superheroes has an origin story.  Learn how our dynamic duo of Bob and Josh came together.  This episode covers how we met, the struggles we worked through while helping Teradata adopt agile, and the start of the friendship that launched this podcast.   This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetacas...

Bob and Josh tackle a listener request centered around how far/hard should a Scrum Master push the team when they aren't fully bought in to the agile process.  We share our experience in situations like this and offer a few suggestions to try out. We also introduce Dude Solutions' Tech day in this episode.  This one day conference offers attendees an opportunity to see many of the podcast's episod...