Software Process and Measurement Cast

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 423 builds on our interview from last week with Philip Lew. This week we lead with a discussion of measuring quality. Quality is related to risk, productivity and customer satisfaction. Next Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the Cast to discuss the impact of certifications in software testing. Want a bit of foreshadowing? The answer is not cut and d...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 422 features our interview with Phil Lew. Phil and I talked about the topic of Agile risk management. We explored how risk can be managed in Agile projects and the barriers to effective risk management. As important as the mechanics of Agile risk management are, Philip and I also explored the relationship between quality and risk, which may be more importa...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 421 features our essay on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics make people feel good, but are less useful for making decisions about the business. The essay discusses how to recognize vanity metrics and the risks of falling prey to their allure. We will also have columns form Steve Tendon with another chapter in his Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 420 features our interview with John Hunter. John is a SPaMCAST alumni; John first appeared on SPaMCAST 226 to talk about why management matters. In this podcast John returns to discuss building capability in the organization and understanding the impact of variation. We also talked Deming and why people tack the word improvement on almost anything! John's...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 419 features our essay on eight quick hints on dealing with stand-up meetings on distributed teams. Distributed Agile teams require a different level of care and feeding than a co-located team in order to ensure that they are as effective as possible. Remember an update on the old adage: distributed teams, you can't live with them and you can't live withou...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 418 features our interview with Larry Cooper. Larry and I talked about his project, The Agility Series. The series is providing the community an understanding of how Agile is applied and how practitioners are interpreting practices and principles. Reminder: Schedule Change for Vacation, Travel and Holiday Last week I was in Sweden for the Øredev conference...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 417 discusses the six elements of business stories. These six elements are required for effective business stories. We also tackle whether each of those elements are equally important in telling the different types of stories spun in a business environment. Steve Tendon joins the SPaMCAST this week to discuss Chapter 12 in Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive K...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Kirk Botula on capability. Kirk makes the argument that capability is crucial for organizational health and agility. Kirk Botula is the CEO of the CMMI® Institute, the home of the globally-adopted capability improvement framework that guides organizations in high-performance operations. Botula is a global growth company executiv...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast features four columns. We begin with our essay on recognizing risk and risk tolerance. Any discussion of risk begins with acknowledging that risk exists and then recognizing specific risks. Once we know risks exist we need to determine which risks we care about. Risk tolerance affects how everyone in an organization behaves. Kim Pries the Software Sensei d...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Marcus Hammarberg. We often think of Agile as a tool to build or maintain software. In some cases, people have recognized the applicability of Agile and lean techniques in other parts of the business. In even rarer circumstances people, like Marcus, have found a way to use Agile techniques to have a huge impact in the real world...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 413 features our essay on Scaling Agile and Management Styles. This essay builds on our recent discussion of servant leadership. It is not as simple as adding teams or building a hierarchy. Steve Tendon joins the SPaMCAST this week to discuss Chapter 11 in Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 412 features our discussion of XP Explained, Second Edition with Steven Adams. It was a great talk that helped me understand why the book has (and continues to have) such a large impact on how I view Agile and software development. Steve lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (a.k.a, Silicon Valley) where he has a successful career in software development. St...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 411 includes four columns! The first is our thoughts on servant leadership. A servant leader facilitates collaboration not only by creating a learning environment but also by helping the team to establish a vision and goals. Servant leadership is a powerful tool to unlock the ability of teams or groups to deliver value. Many of the links between servant le...

In Software Process and Measurement Cast 410, we feature our interview with Jessica Long. Jessica and I discussed storytelling. I find that storytelling is a useful tool to help individuals, teams, and organizations. Projects can use stories to generate user stories and as a tool in retrospectives. Stories are also a tool in generating a vision of the future in organizational transformations. Thos...

Special Note - SPAMCAST 409 was due to be posted last week, but bad things happened to my main computer and my backup decided to air-gap itself from the Internet. That said, #409 is going up a week later so the Re-read Saturday news is a week out of date. This week we talk about Chapters 22 and 23. I have declared that last weekend was a very stressful vacation from posting. Now the show goes on!...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 408 features our interview with Kupe Kupersmith. Kupe and I discussed the role of the business analyst in today's dynamic environment. It is critical to defining and facilitating the delivery of value. Weighty topics, but we also had a bit of fun. "Kupe" Kupersmith, President, B2T Training, possesses over 18 years of experience in software systems developm...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 407 includes four separate columns. We begin with a short essay refreshing the pros and cons of Test Driven Development. Test Driven Development promises a lot of benefits but all is not light, kittens and puppies. Still, TDD is well worth doing if you go into it with your eyes open. Our second column features Kim Pries, the Software Sensei. Kim discusses...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 406 features our interview with Erik van Veenendaal. We discussed Agile testing, risk and testing, the Test Maturity Model Integrated (TMMi), and why in an Agile world quality and testing still matter. Erik van Veenendaal (www.erikvanveenendaal.nl) is a leading international consultant and trainer, and a recognized expert in the area of software testing an...

Software Process and Measurement Cast 405 is a cornucopia of topics! We begin by exploring a bit of the psychology of change in four short essays. These topics are important for any change agent at any level to understand. Change at any scale is not an easy task. Change requires establishing a goal, recruiting a sponsor, acquiring a budget, developing a set of plans and then there is the part wher...

Software Process and Measurement Cast 404 features our interview with Ryan Ripley. We discussed The Business of Agile: Better, Faster, Cheaper at Agile. We discussed why having the answer for whether Agile is better, faster and cheaper is still important in the business world. Along the way, we wrestled with the concept of value and why having value sooner is not the same as going fast. Ryan Riple...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 403 features our essay on Agile practices at Scale. Scaling Agile is a contentious topic. Frameworks and techniques for scaling are often lambasted as semi-Agile or perhaps even backdoor waterfall techniques. Occasionally you still hear that if a piece of work is too big for one team to complete in a reasonable period of time it should be broken down or ju...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 402 features our interview with Ulises Torres. Ulises and I talked about how his firm, Intellego, has leveraged Agile and the CMMI to improve quality, increase customer satisfaction and business. Ulises makes a strong argument that for his company, Agile and the CMMI are better together. Ulises Torres has over 24 years of experience in IT, either as a Deve...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 401 features three columns! We begin with our essay on listening. Every time we answer the phone, interact with a co-worker or even turn on the television we need to hear and interpret the messages that are being sent. Our complicated business and life environments impact how we listen through the situations we face. Listening is important. Like reading, i...

Software Process and Measurement Cast 400 features our interview with Jim Benson. Jim and I talked about personal Kanban, micromanagement, work-in-process limits, pattern matching, Pomodoro and more. A great interview to cap our first 400 episodes! Jim's career path has taken him through government agencies, Fortune 10 corporations, and start-ups. Through them all his passion has remained consiste...

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 399 features our essay titled, Storytelling: Developing The Big Picture for Agile Efforts. Agile reminds us that the focus of any set of requirements needs to be on an outcome rather than a collection of whats and whos. Storytelling is a powerful tool to elevate even the most diehard requirements analyst from a discussion of individual requirements to a di...