Software Process and Measurement Cast

This week, Jorgen Hesselberg discusses the efficacy of assessments in helping to guide an agile journey. Assessments are a tool to help coaches coach and to answer the question of where are we in our journey toward being more agile. Jorgen last appeared in SPaMCAST 557 in 2019 (http://bit.ly/2MiBw4K). Jorgen Hesselberg is the author of Unlocking Agility and co-founder of Comparative Agility, a lea...

Planning is an important component of getting work done. Planning is not, however, creating and delivering work. Minimizing the amount of time spent planning but not under planning is almost mind-numbingly difficult. Flow metrics are tools to maximize the value of planning while minimizing the time spent on planning. Over the next few entries in the Software Process and Measurement Blog, we will e...

Today we begin year 17 of the Software Process and Measurement Cast with a presentation that Jeremy Berriault did at IdeaFest 2020. The presentation covered using supply chain concepts in an agile environment. When I originally recorded the session, I felt the idea was interesting but not very useful. But I am a bit of a packrat; I don't throw anything away. Last week I listened to the presentatio...

Today we revisit the topic of empathy as we mark the last show in year 16. As coaches and leaders, we are taught that being empathetic is critical. However, the blanket statement that we need to walk a mile in someone else's shoes is not all rainbows and kittens. We will also have a visit from Jon M Quigley who brings his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column to the podcast. Jon and I cont...

Luis Gonçalves returns to the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss his new book, Product First. We also talked about organizational mastery and change. Become a beta reader of Product First at http://bit.ly/3ZwQHL7 Luis last joined us on SPaMCAST 718, we discussed OKRs. Luis's Bio Luis Gonçalves is an Entrepreneur, Best Seller Author, and International Keynote Speaker. When consulting...

A funny thing happened on the way to this week's Software Process and Measurement Cast, I was asked about managing risk in Agile. In preparation for answering the question, I reviewed and updated some of my work on the topic. So instead of flow metrics, we have an essay on risk. That is just the chance you take when you ask me a question. Note -- I have a great question on risk to ask Susan Parent...

Today we share our year-end panel discussion with the SPaMcast contributors and occasionally our dogs (once one gets going everyone needs to get in on the action). The topic this year is engagement. Is being on two calls at once, engagement? Does just being present tick the engagement box? Patterns and antipatterns abound, but Is engagement really that important? The panelists for this installment...

Over the years we have explored a wide range of books on Saturdays. Sometimes our re-reads reflect the real world outside software development. For example, in 2018 we re-read Bad Blood, Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, the story of Theranos and Elizabeth Anne Holmes. This year Ms. Holmes went to prison. While I don't expect prison sentences for the subjects in the b...

While preparing for this week's podcast I ran across a recording of a presentation I did at IDEAfest 2020. The topic was the seven macro trends driving software development behavior. The presentation was crafted just at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic but the topics are still relevant, perhaps even more relevant than they were in March 2020. So to make a long story short, I re-edited the rec...

The SPaMCAST 733 features a reflection on a reflection. As I was reading Chapter 5 of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond (check out the re-read at https://bit.ly/3W4Mzzg) and retrospecting on my own behavior, I replayed some past coaching experiences. The point today is less the linkage to our current re-read than the confluence of continued lear...

The SPaMCAST 732 features our interview with Robert Cooke. Robert and I discussed the role of software development in delivering value in non-software product organizations. Robert Cooke is the Founder and Principal Architect at 3Forge, a New York-based provider of data virtualization and visualization technology. 3Forge has achieved significant growth over the years as a result of increasing dema...

The annual Thanksgiving holiday in the US was a few days ago providing space to reflect and give thanks to everyone involved in the 16-plus years history of the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog and podcast. There is a lot to be thankful and grateful for, this week we put the spotlight on everyone that makes the SPaMCAST possible. Also, Jon M Quigley brings his Alpha and Omega of Product...

The SPaMCAST 730 features our conversation with Ramzi Marjaba. Ramzi and I discussed the role of a sales engineer. The role solves customers' problems and is a bridge between customers and technical teams. With all that going for it, why is it a forgotten job path for people with deep technical acumen? Ramzi is an established Sales Engineer and the Founder of We The Sales Engineers and found his c...

This week we go back to basics and answer a listener's question (name and a bit of the context changed to protect the involved parties). In the essay this week we discuss why it is a rotten idea to have a functional product owner and a technical product owner. When it comes to product owners the old adage, "the more the merrier," does not hold. Also, we have an installment of Tony Timbol's "To Tel...

SPaMCAST 728 features a discussion with Anjali Leon and Nadezhda Belousova. We discussed their new model, Product Leadership Stances. One of my takeaways was how powerful the model was in helping to develop an understanding of product leadership and then highlighting gaps in how the role is practiced in organizations. Anjali and Nadezhda's Bios! Anjali Leon is an Agility, Product, and Professional...

In SPaMCAST 727 we discuss the assumptions behind Little's Law and Neglected WIP. Some of the assumptions you can cheat to generate useful conversations but there are limits and you need to be upfront about what you are doing. We also have a visit from Susan Parente who brings her Not A Scrumdamentalist column to the cast. In this installment, Susan answers a listener's question about the complica...

In SPaMCAST 726 Mr. Allan Kelly returns! We discussed the fact that backlogs often become dumping grounds. Allan suggested an energetic solution. We also discussed OKRs and whether they are related to backlogs. Are OKRs the chicken or the egg? Allan Kelly advises and mentors managers and teams in using agile approaches and OKRs to accelerate delivery, meet deadlines and execute against strategy. H...

One of the most common problems teams face is starting more work than they complete. Neglected WIP is the gap between all the work you say you are working on and the stuff you are doing. The natural vagaries of office life can cause an item to get stuck due to someone being out sick or because your co-worker hit the lottery - stuff happens. A little might be ok, but more is bad. When neglected WIP...

This week we feature an interview with Indus Khaitan, Founder & CEO at Quolum. A few of the topics covered include: Why do organizations need help in consuming SaaS at scale efficiently? How can looking carefully at how you are using Saas save organizations tons of money? How can organizations refocus on delivering value rather than on overhead? What does it take to take a vision and make it a goi...

SPaMCAST 723 features our essay on neglected WIP. Work that has been started and is now just sitting around is neglected. Running a team or organization above their natural level WIP for any length of time causes flow velocity (throughput) to slow and flow time (cycle time) to increase. When there is too much work, people try all sorts of techniques to get work done. Multitasking is the grandfathe...

We are back with new content this week! The bears did not eat us as we trekked in three national parks. We did see bears but kept a respectable distance from them. Today the SPaMCAST 722 features an interview with Scott Showalter, Agile Career Accelerator. We discussed the definition of an agile coach. Building on that definition we wrestled with how to scale the business of agile coaching. Note -...

The SPaMCAST is on a three-week hiatus. We will be back with new programming on September 25. In the interim, I asked the SPaMCAST columnists (Jeremy, Jon, Susan, and Tony) for a couple of favorite columns they delivered. Today we have: Jeremy Berriault from SPaMCAST 571 Jiu-Jitsu and Teams, Want to listen to the full podcast? http://bit.ly/2pCtlHI Susan Parente from SPaMCAST 556 Agile In Name Onl...

The SPaMCAST is on a three-week hiatus. We will be back with new programming on September 25. In the interim, I asked the SPaMCAST columnists (Jeremy, Jon, Susan, and Tony) for a couple of favorite columns they delivered. Today we have: Jon M Quigley - SPaMCAST 397 – Project Strategy - Want to listen to the full podcast? https://bit.ly/3pLztbU (Note: this was Jon's debut column and he doesn't know...

The SPaMCAST is on a three-week hiatus. We will be back with new programming on September 25. In the interim, I asked the SPaMCAST columnists (Jeremy, Jon, Susan, and Tony) for a couple of favorite columns they delivered. Today we have: Jeremy Berriault - Your Scrum Master Is Not Yout Team Admin from SPaMCAST 705 Want to listen to the full podcast? https://bit.ly/3wXIguD Tony Timbol - Agile Requir...

Earlier this year I attended Agile 2022; It was a fantastic conference. One of the undercurrent themes was the use of OKRs (objectives and key results for the uninitiated) to enable agility, align organizations, and cure Covid. There is no such thing as a silver bullet, especially with the wide range of interpretations of what an OKR is and how to apply them. Luis Gonçalves retunes to the podcast...