Troubleshooting Agile

Description: Squirrel and Jeffrey ponder the seemingly forgot lore of their younger days and ask how those lessons will make it to the next generation. Or does such a fast moving industry have no time to learn from the past? SHOW LINKS: - Livestream: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/04-21-continuous-integration.html - Doing the impossible 50 times a day: http://timothyfitz.com/2009/02/10/c...

Squirrel and Jeffrey develop a metaphor describing effective product alignment, and suggest some ways to apply and misapply it. SHOW LINKS: - Getting To Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts,...

Jeffrey defines "product-led" organisations and contrasts with "commercially-led", "project-led", and "technology-led" organisations. Squirrel disagreed with the verb "led" as it could leave out important opportunities to bring everyone in on a product-minded culture, and we settle on "product-aligned" as a better way of describing an effective end state. SHOW LINKS: - Project to Product: https://...

We describe Marquet's "Psychological Ownership" and how it goes beyond the "turn signal" we've advocated before when building trust with stakeholders. Then we go into applications to our clients, Microsoft Excel date formats, and the candy preferences of heavy metal bands. SHOW LINKS: - Inno-Versity Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmdLcyES_Q&t=260s - https...

Squirrel notices that when a client starts by telling him how great her relationship is with someone, it almost always signals a lack of true collaboration and productive conflict. Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss the difference between friendly and effective and the common confusion between being liked and being successful. SHOW LINKS: - Matt Parker on collaboration: https://twitter.com/realMattKPark...

Squirrel relates the tale of a sad client who refined their MVP so much all the business value was lost. Squirrel and Jeffrey reflect on the true meaning of "viable" and how boredom can be a sign your team has lost sight of delivering customer value. SHOW LINKS: - Elephant Carpaccio: https://blog.crisp.se/2013/07/25/henrikkniberg/elephant-carpaccio-facilitation-guide - Walking Skeleton: https://wi...

Squirrel and Jeffrey meditate on Brian Marick's announcement that he will no longer accept talk invitations on agile development, and the (different) reasons that both of them still use term "agile". Topics include joy at work, how it leads to profit, and the "near enemy" of that joy, which can lead to disillusionment. SHOW LINKS: - Listener Poll Results: https://twitter.com/TShootingAgile/status/...

Dragan returns to talk with us about why small batch sizes are valuable, and how to apply this idea way beyond just release frequency, to pull requests, co-creation, and more. Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/smallest-batch-is-pair-dragan-pt2/ SHOW LINKS: - Dragan: - draganstepanovic.com - https://twitter.com/d_stepanovic - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dstepanovic/ - Systems Thinking...

Dragan Stepanović joins us to discuss emotions as system signals, why intervening at the emotional level has less value, and why you should get back on the horse. Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/monitoring-intervening-pairing-mobbing-pt1/ SHOW LINKS: - Dragan: - draganstepanovic.com - https://twitter.com/d_stepanovic - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dstepanovic/ - Mobbing for Safety e...

We're joined once again by Jim Euchner, author of Lean Startup in Large Organizations. This week we discuss how the pioneers/settlers/town-planners model applies to large organisations and how to involve all three types to ensure you combine product experimentation with financial stability and avoid cannibalising your existing business. Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/lean-startup-...

We're joined by Jim Euchner, author of Lean Startup in Large Organizations, and discuss how to overcome the "antibodies" that big companies have against experimentation (and why those antibodies are actually healthy). Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/lean-startup-large-organization-pt1/ SHOW LINKS: - Jim’s website: https://jimeuchner.com - Book url: https://leanstartup.biz - Lean St...

We are once again joined by Matt Parker, author of the new book A Radical Enterprise, this time discussing specific examples of organisations operating as Matt describes (and discover along the way that everything is evolving toward the shape of a crab). Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/radical-enterprise-pt2/ SHOW LINKS: - Matt's website: http://mattkparker.com - A Radical Enterpri...

We are joined by Matt Parker, author of the new book A Radical Enterprise, and discuss how many organisations are achieving significant success with astonishing levels of autonomy and devolution. Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/a-radical-enterprise-pt1/ SHOW LINKS: - Matt's website: http://mattkparker.com - A Radical Enterprise: https://itrevolution.com/a-radical-enterprise/ - Demi...

Squirrel and Jeffrey continue discussing what to do with a giant backlog of work for your tech team, and suggest ways to think about paying off your tech debt and thin your features for faster feedback. SHOW LINKS: - Feature thinning: http://www.agilekiwi.com/other/agile/feature-thinning/ - Technical debt: http://wiki.c2.com/?WardExplainsDebtMetaphor --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out n...

Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss how to help a listener whose team has a mountain of work growing beyond all proportion, and how to work with sponsors to tame (or even better, delete!) a 5-year backlog. SHOW LINKS: - Gold Owner / Goal Donor: https://wiki.c2.com/?GoalDonor - Mythical Man-Month: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month - Induced demand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_...

Squirrel describes an amazing Christmas present that captures perfectly why user empathy is vital for all types of agile teams — even in hardware. SHOW LINKS: - The Braille Cube: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1476967045430398979 --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mai...

Squirrel and Jeffrey trade stories about two types of organisations: ones that want to give developers perks and opportunities to learn, and those that actually want disruptive change and new ideas. Then they invite listeners to weigh in on what they're aiming to get from this podcast, on a Twitter or LinkedIn poll (see below). SHOW LINKS: - Twitter poll: https://twitter.com/TShootingAgile/status/...

Continued conversation with one of our favourite authors, James Shore, who joins us to discuss the new edition of his semnal book, The Art of Agile Development. SHOW LINKS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamesshore - Website: https://www.jamesshore.com - AOD2: https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/books/aoad2 - Bookclub: https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/books/aoad2/book_club - Book: Accelerate: https://itrev...

One of our favourite authors, James Shore, joins us to discuss the new edition of his seminal book, The Art of Agile Development. SHOW LINKS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamesshore - Website: https://www.jamesshore.com - AOD2: https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/books/aoad2 - Bookclub: https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/books/aoad2/book_club - Book: Accelerate: https://itrevolution.com/book/accelerate/ -...

Responding to a provocative Twitter thread, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss why pull requests may be harmful to collaboration, and explore the seemingly mad world of mob programming (20 people and 1 keyboard?!). We discover how these "co-creation" techniques can help increase psychological safety and reduce errors. SHOW LINKS: - Dragan's Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/d_stepanovic/status/1470009...

This week, we bring you one of our most popular previous episodes to refresh your memory or listen to for the first time. The first chapter of Agile Conversations is all about people-centred development, and we tell the story of our own journey from over-determined software factory to today's feature factories, with similar Taylorist theories of management in both. In today's episode, we go into m...

Jeffrey and Squirrel draw lessons from unlikely sources like Henry Ford and Eliezer Yudkowsky on creating a culture that favours innovation and inquiry. SHOW LINKS: - Henry Ford article: https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/experts/ - Hero License: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dhj9dhiwhq3DX6W8z/hero-licensing - Dan Luu on productivity: https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/ - Chris Matts o...

When your team misses a sprint goal, or you let down a stakeholder, you or your team may feel guilty—but we make concrete recommendations, using Pixar movies and Adlerian psychology, for grief as a more effective alternative that leads to faster recovery and improvement. SHOW LINKS: - The Courage to be Disliked: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43306206-the-courage-to-be-disliked - Feeling Good...

Continuing from last week's episode on Gemba Walks, we explore how leaders can use information they gather from the "coal face" to tell compelling stories and change culture and direction. SHOW LINKS: - Last week's episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/gemba-walks-and-ride-alongs - Three Perspectives on Future Search: http://www.marvinweisbord.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Future%2...

Squirrel and Jeffrey tell two stories of leaders who "walked the floor" to see what work was being done, in two very different situations, and how the resulting stories helped transform their teams. SHOW LINKS: - Gemba Walk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemba - Container Stacking blog post: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/an-unexpected-victory-container-stacking-at-the-port-of-los-angeles...