Agile for Humans with Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Bill Caputo Discussion Bill Caputo (@logosity) joined me (@RyanRipley) for a discussion about 12thprinciple.org – a site dedicated to the only principle in the agile manifesto that describes how teams should be organized: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. We dug in to team dysfunctions, system dysfunctions, and how metaphors help us exchange information both effectively and poorly. And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com Happy New Year! Dan Greening Base Patterns Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck Bill – http://12thprinciple.org Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur Metaphors We Live By – George Lakoff & Mark Johnson The Shift from Metaphor to Anology by Dedre Gentner & Michael Jeziorski David Easton – Political Science Systems The New Economics – W. Edwards Deming The post AFH 024: A Bonfire of Metaphors with Bill Caputo [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Mark Kilby, David Horowitz Discussion Mark Kilby (@mkilby) and David Horowitz (@ds_horowitz) – CEO of Retrium (@RetriumHQ) – joined me (@RyanRipley) for a discussion about continuous improvement, retrospectives, and remote teams. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com No plugs this week. Just a big thank you to the listeners for continuing to spread the work about the podcast and for your feedback and support. Mark – http://markkilby.com/ Paper – Can you be remotely agile? Slides – Can you be remotely agile? More on how Sonatype works 100% distributed and agile More on distributed facilitation I also work with distributed volunteer teams as well. I’m not only the co-founder of Agile Orlando, but I’m the co-founder of Agile Florida, a network of multiple user groups in the state of Florida. We collaborate on events, share information on speakers, and help other user groups through our efforts. You can read our Agile2015 experience report on how we work as a distributed team at…. User group dying? Time to build a state-wide learning network! by Mark Kilby, Stephanie Davis and Alex Kanaan. David – https://www.retrium.com/ Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen Why Group Brainstorming is a Waste of Time The post AFH 023: Remote Teams with Mark Kilby and David Horowitz [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Tim Ottinger, Mark Davidson Discussion Tim Ottinger (@tottinge) and Mark Davidson (@agiledelivery) joined me (@RyanRipley) for a discussion about the Product Owner Role, #NoEstimates, Product Management, and the concept of “controlled disappointment”. The Product Owner (PO) role is near super-human. Shared responsibility is one approach to bring this role back down to earth. During this discussion we talk about the complexity of the PO role, the impact that the PO has on the project, and how developers and Scrum Masters can support the PO as they lead the team towards delivering a successful product *release*. And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com Slide deck from SDEC2015 Agile in a Flash by Tim Ottinger Tim – http://agileotter.blogspot.com/ Modern Agile post by Josh Kerievsky Product Owner’s Maximizing Value Mark – https://twitter.com/agiledelivery The post AFH 022: The Product Owner Role with Mark Davidson [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Allen Holub Discussion Allen Holub (@allenholub) joined me (@RyanRipley) for a discussion about #NoEstimates, #NoManagement and what it truly means for an organization to adopt agility. Allen is a trainer, writer, speaker, and coach who takes a non-tribal view of software development and eschews the dogma that surrounds many of the current agile topics and practices. Allen recently gave a keynote at DevWeek 2015 on #NoEstimates where he opened with: “We just need to stop doing all estimation now.” Along with #NoEstimates, Allen I discussed what it truly means for an organization to adopt agility, why such a transformation is so difficult, and how Kanban wrapped around a waterfall can make life easier for both companies and coaches. We wrapped up with a discussion on #NoManagement and Holocracy. And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com Vasco Duarte’s NoEstimates Book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Drive by Daniel Pink Allen – http://holub.com Allen is teaching a 3 day class on agility at SDD Deep Dive in London on Nov 10-12 Allen’s class offerings: “Agility” focuses on agile culture and what you need to do as an organization to make agile processes work “Designing for Volatility” – an in-depth dive into how to design scalable fault-tolerant systems that can be built in an incremental way and can stand up to the stress of constant change “Design by Coding” an extension of TDD/BDD techniques to the architectural level. Self-Insight: Roadblocks and Detours on the Path to Knowing Thyself by David Dunning The original Kruger/Dunning paper Then of course, there’s John Cleese on Kruger/Dunning The post AFH 021: Agility with Allen Holub [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Vasco Duarte Discussion Vasco Duarte (@duarte_vasco) joined Ryan Ripley (@RyanRipley) for a discussion about #NoEstimates. Vasco is the author of the #NoEstimates Book, Founder of Oikosofy, and host of the Scrum Master ToolBox Podcast. One of the staring points of #NoEstimates is: “We as an industry are not able to estimate well.” We as an industry are not able to estimate well.Tweet This With that starting point, alternatives are necessary. #NoEstimates seeks to explore those alternatives. We started with Vasco’s early days of discovering the #NoEstimates path. It started with data. I won’t steal Vasco’s thunder, but it was interesting to learn how much many of the #NoEstimates ideas are driven by actual project data from a variety of sources. Software projects are a search for value. My goal is to find value. @duarte_vascoTweet This We then moved on to cover many of the questions that #NoEstimates critics and skeptics ask when hearing these ideas for the first time. How to pick one project over another, how to align with project dependencies and more are covered during our hour together. Finally, we touched on the kind of environments where #NoEstimates is not an option: In cases where you are not allowed to experiment, where you are not allowed to learn, where you have to know everything upfront, you have no option but to speculate about the cost of a particular project. And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com Woody Zuill Neil Killick Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck Agile in 3 Minutes via Amitai Schlair I’m presenting at SDEC 2015 – November 2-5 2015 – Winnipeg, CA Vasco – http://softwaredevelopmenttoday.com/ #NoEstimates Book Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Vasco’s company – Oikosofy User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton Impact Mapping by Gojko Adzic The post AFH 020: #NoEstimates with Vasco Duarte [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Amitai Schlair, Bryan Beecham Discussion Ryan Ripley (@RyanRipley) Amitai Schlair (@schmonz) and Bryan Beecham (@BillyGarnet) started the show by talking about the great impact that Tim Ottinger (@tottinge) has had on their lives and on the agile community. To learn more about Tim and his thoughts on agile, you can visit his blog: agileotter.blogspot.com We then jumped over to the #NoEstimates topic where value and impediments to continuous delivery were highlighted. Bryan also went in to the people side of #NoEstimates and finding the value in the work that we do. We spoke about trust in the workplace and how Industrial Logic promotes trust as a core value. If there is no trust, then there cannot be alignment. Which begs the question: If the people aren’t aligned, how are they supposed to do great work? If the people aren’t aligned how are they supposed to do great work?Tweet This We also noted that the #NoEstimates discussion on Twitter isn’t “safe” at times and that needs to change for real progress and learning to happen. We then moved in to the art of human refactoring and how people can implement change in their own lives. We barely scratched the surface of this topic and will tackle it again on a future episode. And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com I’m speaking at SDEC 2015 in Winnipeg, Canada on November 2-4th and would love to meet you if you are also attending Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Agile in 3 Minutes 11: Safe Follow Michael “GeePaw” Hill on Twitter Bryan – https://humanrefactor.wordpress.com/ Agile Brazil – TDD with Legos Agile Testing Days Agile in a Flash by Tim Ottinger Tim Ottinger’s I Want Agile Back The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss Llewellyn Falco’s visualization of mob programming The Industrial Logic Blog The post AFH 019: Human Refactoring with Bryan Beecham [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Esther Derby, Don Gray, Amitai Schlair Discussion Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) Esther Derby (@estherderby) Don Gray (@donaldegray) and Amitai Schlair (@schmonz) got together to discuss the vast topic of “trust”. We covered how to establish trust with a new team, how trust impacts the scrum master role, and how easily managers can lose the trust of their teams. Agile coaches can set expectations early and establish an environment of trust through intentional behaviors and follow through. This is a nuanced discussion that scratched the surface of how large of an impact trust plays on the success of a team. We also talked about Ryan’s horrible laundry skills…and then we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com I’m speaking at the Software Development and Evolution Conference 2015 (SDEC) Esther – http://www.estherderby.com/ Coaching Beyond the Team – October 19-20 2015, in Minneapolis, MN “What’s the Worst that Could Happen?” via Marc Burgauer (@somesheep) “Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life” by Robert C. Solomon & Fernando Flores “Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great” by Esther Derby & Diana Larsen “Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management” by Johanna Rothman & Esther Derby Don – http://www.donaldegray.com/ Coaching Beyond the Team – October 19-20 2015, in Minneapolis, MN Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Agile in 3 Minutes is finally on iTunes! Agile in 3 Minutes: Trust Toronto Agile Conference The post AFH 018: Don’t Trust Ryan with Your Agile Laundry [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Dan Greening Discussion A rejuvenated Zach Bonaker (@zachbonaker) joined Dan Greening (@greening) and Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) to talk about #NoEstimates and some of the limitations of not estimating work. We quickly moved on from that topic to an area that Dan has put a lot of work in to: What are the patterns that agile organization exhibit? In other words, how do we know that we are agile? Dan has expressed his thoughts on what it means to be agile within 5 base patterns that he explained to Zach and Ryan: Measure economic progress Experiment Limit work in progress Embrace collective responsibility Solve systemic problems From there the discussion pivoted to top down vs. bottom up agile transformations. We discussed how they work, the pitfalls of each, and our personal experiences with trying to help organizations adopt agile. Management must be the first mover when adopting agile, followed by the rest of the company. Dan gave a few cautionary tales of what happens if management does not adapt along with the rest of the organization. Management must be the first mover when adopting #agile, followed by the rest of the company.Tweet This Dan gave us a preview of some exciting work he’s doing with Scrum, Inc.…and then we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com Joy, Inc. By Richard Sherridan Software Development and Evolution Conference 2015 (SDEC) Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker Agile Cancer: Stop Whining and Cure It The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas Dan – http://senexrex.com/ Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences Agile Base Patterns The post AFH 017: 5 Base Patterns to Guide Agile Teams [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Amitai Schlair, Arlo Belshee Discussion Ryan Ripley (@RyanRipley) Amitai Schlair (@schmonz) and Arlo Belshee (@arlobelshee) covered one of the most diverse agendas ever covered on the podcast. We started with a discussion about scaling agile, the limitations of frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, and DaD. We then moved on to the limits that consistency puts on innovation and how tuning consistency can be a serious competitive advantage. However, this is complicated task because “anytime we are going for consistency we are necessarily hurting innovation in that same space.” Next we discussed the controversial topic of refactoring vs test driven development (TDD). Arlo described his views on the differences between the two skills and ways that teams can work to refactor their designs safely – with tools – so that the code can then be come testable using TDD practices. On the TDD side of the discussion the group agreed that “a unit test that uses mocks is not a unit test.” Mocks are a smell that can reveal design issues within your code. Arlo also provided ideas about how to work without mocks and improve designs. Finally, we covered hiring people for emotional intelligence instead of skills. If smart, inquisitive people can be taught programming and other related skills quickly (~6 months) then what advantage does hiring for skills really bring to a team? Couldn’t it be better to hire for empathy and culture first if skill are cheap to grow…especially in a pair/mob-programming environments? The answers to these questions and how this mindset shifts hiring led to an interesting conversation about how such thinking can help companies build innovative and effective teams. Empathy and Emotional Intelligence are skills worth hiring for.Tweet This And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com No plugs from me this week. Just a big thank you to the listeners for your feedback and support! Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Agile in 3 Minutes Podcast What’s there to be afraid of? Approval Tests via Llewellyn Falco Arlo – http://arlobelshee.com/ Industrial Logic Blog 7 Languages in 7 Weeks by Bruce Tate The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You by Karla McLaren The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill by Karla McLaren The post AFH 016: Are You Mocking My Unit Tests? [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Tim Ottinger, Don Gray Discussion Ryan Ripley (@RyanRipley) Tim Ottinger (@tottinge) and Don Gray (@donaldegray) got together to talk about the word “enterprise”. Quite a few connotations were thrown around: inertia, masses of people, waterfall. Better, Faster, Cheaper was even discussed. We moved on to talking about the limitations imposed on scaling by Dunbar’s Number (150) and then learned about the Rule of the 2nd Floor: “Nobody 2 levels above or below you in the organization really understands what you do for a living.” The discussion then shifted to how we can do Agile with 5,000 people. Typical scaling patterns emerged: Scale by Division: Dividing people in to functional teams. Scale Out, Not Up: Group people in to feature teams. Holocracy: Peer to peer organization. Using Extreme Programming (XP) and other disciplined software engineering practices to improve team outcome were discussed as was an organizationals ability to move up the Agile Fluency Model. We talked about Mike Cottmeyer’s recent post about stopping the anti-management rhetoric and finding ways to meet management where they are and help them find the path to an agile organization. The discussion then shifted to how teams can measure their agility and the renaissance of craftsmanship in the software development world. Don walked us through transformation management theory, we asked why organizations should even go “agile” in the first place, and worked on a definition of “agile” in the enterprise. And then…we called it a night. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – https://ryanripley.com Nature of Software Development by Ron Jeffries Holocracy by Brian Robertson Name Calling and Ad Hominem Attacks by Mike Cottmeyer Dan Greening’s Agile Base Patterns Tim – http://agileotter.blogspot.com/ Industrial Logic Blog Agile by Example Don – http://donaldegray.com The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas Managing Transitions by William Bridges Jerry Weinberg books on lean pub The Future of Organizations The post AFH 015: The USS Agile Enterprise [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”] Hosts Ryan Ripley, Aaron Griffith Discussion Aaron Griffith (@aaron_griffith) is a member of the Hunter #mobprogramming team, agile speaker, and #NoEstimates enthusiast. He joined Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) to talk about agile in a galaxy far far away, agile coach camp (#accus) experiences, and a bonus topic from the Agile Coaching Cards Lean Coffee volume 1 deck. We started with Aaron’s talk about agile and Star Wars. During this talk, Aaron compares and contrast the Republic and the Galactic Empire to an agile team. Using movie quotes and scenes he brings to life agile concepts and practices in ways that newcomers to agile can relate with and understand. He’s received great feedback on this talk and will be giving it again at Agile Testing Days in Potsdam, Germany – November 9th-12th. We then moved on to our time at Agile Coach Camp 2015. We were both able to attend some interesting sessions. Ryan shared his experiences discussing the business side of agile and telling stories with Woody Zuill. Aaron explained insights learned in #MobProgramming sessions and gave his overall thoughts on his first visit to a coach camp. Finally, we wrapped up by doing a quick Lean Coffee session using Victor Bonacci’s (@agilecoffee) new agile coaching cards deck. We pulled the “Dealing with bullies, naysayers, and other bad apples” card and shared stories and insights from past experiences with difficult agile team members. And then…we called it a night. If you would like to continue the conversation, please visit www.agileanswerman.com/ask-a-question. You can record a message that could end up on the show or send us an email with your feedback, topics, and questions. We hope to hear from you soon. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Agile Coaching Cards – These are the Lean Coffee decks that were mentioned on the show. The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas Slack by Tom Demarco The Star Wars Saga Aaron – https://twitter.com/Aaron_Griffith Agile Testing Days – Potsdam, Germany – 11/9-11/12 Agile Open SoCal The Hunter Mob is hiring! mobprogramming.org teachingkidsprogramming.org The post AFH 014: Agile in a Galaxy Far Far Away [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Amitai Schlair Discussion It’s a miracle that this episode happened. Zach Bonaker (@zachbonaker) got lost in an English bog, Amitai Schlair (@schmonz) was wandering in Guatemala and Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) was nearly sucked in to the power fueled DC world, but the three managed to come together to ponder some questions about coaching agile teams. WHEN DOES AN AGILE TEAM NEED COACHING? We started with defining coaching, then mentoring, and finally consulting. And ultimately came upon an important insight. If the team knows how to learn together and has a high level of skill in conducting retrospectives, they likely need little coaching. However, such stars rarely align. We discussed if the team should choose when a coach is needed, and managements role in the process. We then moved on to our next question: WHEN SHOULD AN AGILE COACH LEAVE? When the checks start to bounce, of course! This is another difficult situation to handle. It takes a great amount of awareness to realize that the team can find success without you (the coach). Watching the teams behaviors, the systems they are working within, and the response they have to the coach are all important considerations. On the other hand, we did discuss that in professional sports, the coach never leaves. Even LeBron James has a coach. The conversation then pivoted in to agile transformations. At the heart our discussion was the idea of influence vs coercion and how coercion can tank an agile transformation quickly. The tendency to hold on the old practices, even harmful ones, is hard to break as teams new to agile often struggle to embrace self-organization. Trust was also a key theme throughout. Amitai was kind enough to share episode 8 (care) of his podcast: Agile in 3 Minutes. He creates art each week by focusing on one agile idea each week. Insightful and poetic, Agile in 3 Minutes is clearly a labor of love that I’m grateful to enjoy each week. I hope you give Agile in 3 Minutes a listen and subscribe via rss here. Finally, Zach told us about Victor Bonacci’s recent Kickstarter project: Agile Coaching Cards. Vic was a recent guest on Agile for Humans and taught us how to play Lean Coffee. He’s now selling a deck of cards on Kickstarter designed to help teams get up to speed quickly with Lean Coffee discussion. This is a fun tool that can help teams facilitate conversations about agile topics. And then…we called it a night. If you would like to continue the conversation, please visit www.agileanswerman.com/ask-a-question. You can record a message that could end up on the show or send us an email with your feedback, topics, and questions. We hope to hear from you soon. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Differences Between Hiring a Contractor or Consultant – Johanna Rothman Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker Agile Coaching Cards Agile Open SoCal Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Agile in 3 Minutes Agile in 3 Minutes Patreon Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile The post AFH 013: When Does an Agile Team Need a Coach? [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Woody Zuill Discussion Woody Zuill (@WoodyZuill) joined Zach and Ryan to talk about experimentation in Agile. Woody talked about his early experiences in the workforce and the need to investigate. These experiences taught him to never take anything for granted and to be inquisitive about all things. This lead to one of his key mantras: Question the things that you have the most faith in. We then moved on to The Pattern of Continuous No Improvement. This phenomenon occurs when teams set out to correct the same issue sprint over sprint but cannot seem to make progress. Often this pattern is caused by not addressing the root cause of the issue. We talked about 5 why’s as one means to discovering the root cause. We also talked about the team’s need to recognize this pattern and to confront it head on. #NoEstimates was born from this insight as a team tried repeatedly to improve their estimates but continued to miss that goal. Finally the team decided to work without task estimates and found some improvement and later on, success. #MobProgramming is another idea brought to the agile world by Woody. He described its origin as an impromptu presentation during Agile 2012. Fortunately, that open jam session was popular and an important conversation about how teams get their work done was born. Asking the inverse of a question was highlighted as a powerful probing technique, especially during retrospectives. We all agreed that frequent retros bring valuable insights to the team and that effective mob programming is fueled by effective retrospectives. The discussion then shifted to how teams can measure their agility and the renaissance of craftsmanship in the software development world. And then…we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com No Estimates Book by Vasco Duarte Agile for Humans EP 7 – #NoEstimates “War of Words Is Goofy” Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker The Subversion of Agile: Agile is a Cancer Woody – http://zuill.us/WoodyZuill/ Mob Programming Introduction A Day of Mob Programming – Time Lapse Video No Estimates: Let’s Explore the Possibilities Wiki Management by Rod Collins The post AFH 012: Agile Experiments with Woody Zuill [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Victor Bonacci, Jon Jorgensen Discussion This episode is a cross-over between The Agile Coffee Podcast and Agile for Humans. Victor and Jon host Agile Coffee and do a great job of cultivating interesting topics and engaging guests. Not too long ago, Victor joined me on Agile for Humans and we had so much fun that we thought we’d give this cross-over experiment a try. I have to say that it was a lot of fun having someone else do the facilitation. We managed to cover a wide range of topics that we hope you all enjoy. The HR Side of Agile – Performance Reviews, Raises, & Transparency The Business of Agile – How we justifiy the investment in agility Ken’s Complaint -Trademarking Scrum User Groups Crossing the line – Pushing and pulling hair Organisational Psychotherapist, the new coach Agile Transformation – The REST of the story Agile games, simulations, and learning activities Resources, Plugs, and More Group Picks Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, et all Holding Space by Heather Plett Bob Marshall’s “Why Me?” [reminder]What did you think of this experiment? Did you like the lean coffee format? Please let us know your thoughts below.[/reminder] The post AFH 011: Agile Lean Coffee for Humans [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Ron Quartel Discussion Ron Quartel (@AgileAgitator) is an agile coach, blogger (blog.agileagitator.com) and the creator of the FAST Agile framework. The FAST Agile (www.fast-agile.com) is a combination of Open Space Technology, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Story Mapping. After watching hundreds of participants use open space technology to organize and hold a conference, Ron decided that such self-organization practices could also be applied to software development. Rather than relying control mechanisms like SAFe and LeSS, FAST Agile is a scalable agile framework that relies and individuals and interactions along with pulling work in to teams. Utilizing a 2 day sprint, FAST Agile implicitly requires teams to break their work down in to small chunks and to swarm the work in a #MobProgramming fashion. Documentation on the FAST Agile framework can be found at (www.fast-agile.com). We then moved on to the pain points of agile coaching, including: Fixing bad scrum implementations over and over again Lack of XP usage on scrum teams Mis-understanding of what makes scrum work Especially surprising is the low adoption rates of XP on scrum teams. According to the Scrum Alliance State of Scrum Survey 2015, only 16% of scrum teams also practice XP. The Version One survey had the usage rate even lower. Ron is giving a talk at Agile 2015 about using Scrum and XP for Hyper-productivity. If you’re going to be in DC for the “big conference” this is a must see session. Finally, we wrapped up with a conversation about agile certifications. While the classes are good, Ron questions the value of “certifying” CSM’s after a 2-day course. He started the #SayNoToAgileCertifications and hopes to see improvements in this area. And then…we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Extreme Programming Explained – Kent Beck Scrum – Jeff Sutherland Ron – http://blog.agileagitator.com FAST Agile Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki The People’s Scrum by Tobias Mayer Agile 2015 Talk – Scrum and XP for Hyper-productivity The Land That Scrum Forgot – Bob Martin The post AFH 010: FAST Agile with Ron Quartel [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Victor Bonacci Discussion Victor is an independent consultant who hosts the Agile Coffee Podcast. He helped organize this years Agile Coach Camp US West in California, and participates in many local events on the west coast. We started the discussion on our involvement in the agile community and some of the conferences that we enjoy. We’re both connected by our love of the Agile Coach Camp conferences are both looking forward to this years meeting later in July in Washington DC. The topic shifted to podcasting. We both host podcasts, product podcasts, and listen to podcasts. We fielded some of the questions that we sometimes get such as: Which agile podcasts do we listen to – other than Agile Coffee and Agile for Humans? This Agile Life Meta-Cast Agile Revolution Agile in 3 Minutes Agile Toolkit Podcast Scrum Master Toolbox How do you produce and record your shows? Ryan’s Setup: Recording: Skype & Pamela Call Recorder Post Production: Adobe Audition Hosting: Libsyn Victor: Live recordings with mixer and mics (see below) Post Production: Audacity Hosting: Libsyn What kind of equipment do you use? Ryan Rode Podcaster (mic Victor Behringer X1222 mixing board Zoom H5 handy recorder Audio Technica ATR2100 (mics) We moved on to the recent Scrum Coaching Retreat in Seattle where Victor and his team worked on the concept of coaching dojo’s. Finally, we discussed pair coaching and the impact this practice can have on coaches who are mentored in this manner. The similarities to pair programming are hard to ignore, as are the immediate benefits coaches can experience. And then…we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com The Nature of Software Development – Ron Jeffries Predicting the Unpredictable – Johanna Rothman Victor – http://linkedin.com/in/vbonacci Three Pillars of Quality & Testing – Robert Galen Extreme Programming Explained – Kent Beck & Cynthia Andres Essentialism – Greg McKeown The Fifth Discipline – Peter Senge The post AFH 008: A Show Full of Hosts [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Tim Ottinger Discussion We opened the discussion by defining the critic’s view against #NoEstimates: Estimates are natural, ubiquitous, useful, and unavoidable in practical life and in business. Estimates are an important part of the process of collaboratively setting reasonable targets, goals, and commitments within an organization. The process of estimating, in and of itself, has by-products and benefits. Given that a rational estimating process is an integral part of making decisions in the presence of uncertainty, it is hard to understand why anyone would state that a desirable goal is to push forward into limiting estimates; down to zero where possible. –Peter Kretzman From there the discussion flowed in multiple directions as we discuss the many areas of agreement that we have with some of the #NoEstimates critics: The process of estimating, in and of itself, has by-products and benefits far beyond the sheer “number” or other indicator of sizing that emerges at the end. When asking for estimates, management is acting benevolently and is looking to have a need met. Abuse of estimates is poor management and a sign of dysfunction The word “estimates”, as used in our debates, has been interpreted in a wide array of possibilities – from guesses to predictions. It’s reasonable to feel a sense of shock here. It sounds like people are saying to “just stop giving estimates” and leave managers hanging. Throughout the conversation we shared what we have learned from the interaction with the critics and worked on clarifying many of these areas: Ambiguity around the #NoEstimates tag and the lack of civility demonstrated at times by those supporting NE has damaged the discussion and limited collaboration. The connection between agile principles & values and #NoEstimates is not clear. The role of systems thinking in the approach to minimizing the role of estimates is also not clear. The field of “professional estimating” is highly complex, sophisticated, and dedicated to continuously improving the quantitative practice of estimating software development. The remaining time was spent on systems thinking, pre-conditions necessary to question estimation processes and value, and the role of excellent engineering practices in reducing the role of estimates in a software delivery system. Then, we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com An Introduction to General System Thinking by Jerry Weinberg Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux Tim – http://agileotter.blogspot.com/ Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art by Steve McConnell The post AFH 007: Lessons from #NoEstimates Critics [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, JB Rainsberger, Amitai Schlair Discussion Amitai started our night with a recap of his experiences at the Problem Solving Leadership (PSL) course led by Esther Derby and Jerry Weinberg. The PSL course teaches leaders how to think and act clearly during a wide range of situations. Amitai and many other have recommended it highly as a valuable course for getting to the next level of leadership. We then moved on to conference recaps. Amitai presented at Agile Roots and made Ryan regret not going. Ryan presented at the Agile Development Conference West in Las Vegas and got some great feedback on his well received talk about managers in an agile environment. JB Rainsberger found some slack in his schedule and joined us for a great discussion about organizations dysfunction, the Amplify Your Effectiveness (AYE) conference, Mob Programming, and Rebooting XP. We dropped a few book recommendations along the way. Talked about the joys of living in Canada, and wrapped up with some thoughts about the next generation of developers entering the market and how they can have a strong, humane influence on the software development culture. Then, we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change by Kent Beck JB – http://www.jbrains.ca Arlo Belshee’s Promiscuous Pairing Paper The Goal by Goldratt The Fundamental Theorem of Agile Software Development Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Shoestring Agility in a Velcro Environment Agile Roots 2016 is June 16 – 17 Slides and other artifacts from the 2015 Agile Roots sessions Agile in 3 Minutes on Pair(ing) The post AFH 006: Rebooting XP and #MobProgramming [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, George Dinwiddie, Neil Killick, JB Rainsberger Discussion #NoEstimates means many different things to many different people. The group defined #NoEstimates as a conversation around when estimates are appropriate and to which level of precision teams should target. We noted that the hashtag can lead to more “heat than light”, but also acknowledged that a rich conversation has formed around the questions that #NoEstimates poses. We moved on to discussing estimates being useful at a portfolio level for deciding which projects to do and to forecast budgets. To some this did not go far enough and we continued to highlight other benefits of estimating such as: Conversations that occur when estimating Shared understand of programming activities Enabling decision making at the executive level Validating project/program/product assumptions Indication of possible issues when reality and the estimate do not match When discussing when estimates are needed, there are no stock answers. George highlighted the need to meet the expressed needs of those seeking estimates. Once that is understood, we can determine an appropriate level of precision and act accordingly. JB cautioned against the mindless use of estimates, but everyone agreed that estimates created with a goal of “making good decisions” are useful. We turned to real world examples where burn-up charts are used to estimate the delivery of programs. This revealed some important considerations about estimates like the need to build uncertainty in to your estimates, while removing inappropriate levels of precision. We also covered situations with mandates and fixed dates where estimates may not be as critical as focusing on delivering the software frequently. Part of improving estimates requires improving software engineering practices. If the team can deliver consistently sprint over the sprint, the creation of estimates can move be performed by the stakeholders. While this type of improvement is difficult, George reminded us that focusing on the little things can have a great impact of making delivery more predictable. To wrap up, we circled back to the idea that we should focus on meeting needs. This aligns well with “individuals and interactions over process and tools”, but is also more difficult to do. Exploring how to meet needs requires soft skills, trust, and good relationships to succeed. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com #NoEstimates Does Not Stop Agile Metric Abuse The Product Owner Says #NoEstimates. Now What? Woody Zuill’s Blog George – http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/ Estimation as Hypothesis George’s post on Estimation Neil – http://neilkillick.com/ Interview about #NoEstimates with Chris Chapman and Neil The Requestimator’s Intent Babies, Bathwater, and #NoEstimates JB – http://www.jbrains.ca/ One Practical Alternative to Estimates The Trouble with #NoEstimates Those #NoEstimate People! The post AFH 005: A Panel Discussion on #NoEstimates [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Amitai Schlair, Bob Galen Discussion Agile isn’t simple anymore. We talked at length about the added complexity that has emerged in the agile community and the impact on transformations and projects. Amitai offered a lean start-up approach that we all agreed could be a competitive advantage to companies in years to come. We focused on organizing companies around products to limit risk and maximize value. We moved on to what’s leading edge and new in the agile world. Bob shared his finding from many informal polls and discussion – that we are not leading edge. 70-90% of people polled acknowledge “bad agile” in their organizations. This has proven consistent when other speakers and coaches pose the questions to large groups and teams. Next the team discussed meeting the needs of the people we serve and how trust, safety, empathy, compassion, kindness, and love play in to that end. Some of the questions covered include: Is it safe to say you don’t know something? Can you fail quickly in your organization? Do we trust one another to not cause harm in the workplace? These insights led us down the past of advocating for coaching at the leadership level. This practice is critical as pressure and adversity can cause people to revert to comfortable patterns and practices. Leadership, however, can limit this by “being agile” through thick and thin. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Kindness is the missing agile value Lean Startup by Eric Ries Teaching Pointy Haired Bosses to Be Agile Enablers Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ 5th Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge Agile Roots Self.Conference Agile in 3 Minutes – The simplest podcast that could possibly work Bob – http://rgalen.com/ Scrum Product Ownership: Balancing Value from the Inside Out by Bob Galen Three Pillars of Agile Quality & Testing: Achieving Balanced Results in your Journey Towards Agile Quality by Bob Galen Agile Reflections: Musings Toward Becoming “Seriously Agile” in Software Development by Bob Galen The post AFH 004: Agile transformations with Bob Galen [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley and Zach Bonaker Discussion Zach is an independent consultant who recently posted a provocative article called: “The Subversion of Agile: Agile is a Cancer”. We discussed his post, talked about what the cancer is in the community that needs to be removed about posts from others in the community about the “death of Agile”. We moved on to what Agile in a business language would look like – agile base patterns – and he shared some ideas that he and Dan Greening have been contemplating. We discussed the 5 pillars of an agile organization, which include: Measure economic progress Experiment Limit work in progress Embrace collective responsibility Solve systemic problems From there the discussion pivoted to top down vs. bottom up agile transformations. We discuss how they work, the pitfalls of each, and our personal experiences with trying to help organizations adopt agile. Of course I found a way to bring up agile management. We added a few more books to Don’s book club, talked about the difficulty of filling the role of the product owner, and then…called it a night. Zach was a great guest who I hope becomes a regular contributor to the podcast. He recently posted a follow-up to his original post called “Agile Cancer: Stop Whining and Cure It” which has expanded the conversation, set off a few flame wars, and provoked some important conversations about our industry. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo Drive by Dan Pink Lean Change Management by Jason Little Scrum Product Ownership: Balancing Value from the Inside Out by Bob Galen Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux Joy Inc. by Richard Sheridan Dan Greening’s Site Agile is Dead – Long Live Agility The post AFH 003: Agile is a Cancer [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agile for Humans is a podcast dedicated to the individuals and interactions that make agile work. Hosts George Dinwiddie, Ryan Ripley, Amitai Schlair Discussion First up was a lively discussion about the life of a consultant. Amitai and George represented the contractor side of the story, while Ryan talked about the full time employee side of the equation. We all agreed that life on the road may not the most glamorous, but the upside can be interesting. We had a quick follow on discussion about whether or not an agile coach needs to have a programming background to be effective. Next the team moved on to the difficult art of facilitating retrospectives. A recent twitter exchange sparked a conversation about whether or not retrospectives were still needed or if teams should just fix issues in real time. We decided that retrospectives are critical to a teams success, but many of today’s retrospectives suck. We shared some thoughts on how to make retros better. We then plugged back in to the management discussion and whether or not the agile community left middle management behind. The overall agile message can be overwhelming to management, but there is still a place for managers that we need to work on communicating in a more effective way. Ryan proved incapable of saying Amitai’s name (AH-MEE-TY), we added more titles to Don’s book club, and then called it night. Resources, Plugs, and More George – http://idiacomputing.com/ The Secrets of Consulting & anything else by Jerry Weinberg Flawless Consulting by Peter Block The Art of Agile Development by James Shore John Cleese explains Dunning-Kruger Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com What Do Managers Control on an Agile Project Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Dunning-Kruger Effect Problem Solving Leadership Agile Gardening Metaphor The post AFH 002: The Life of an Agile Consultant [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I’m excited to share episode one of the “Agile for Humans” podcast. This is a regular podcast hosted by a rotating group of agilists who take on various topics and issues. I’m working on getting a site setup for the podcast, but for now you can find the episodes here and eventually on iTunes. Hosts Don Gray, Mark Kilby, Aaron Kopel, Ryan Ripley Discussion On our inaugural episode the team started off by trying to name this new podcast, however, they eventually moved on. First we discussed Hala Saleh’s talk at Agile Indy 2015 title: My Agile is Better Than Your Agile. Overall the group agreed that empathy and kindness are key ingredients when talking about agile topics. Next the team moved on to the caring and feeding of user groups. Aaron and Mark shared their experiences in this area and provided cautionary tales and solid advice to Ryan, who is looking to start and agile user group in Fort Wayne, IN. Ryan discussed his recent talk at Agile Indy 2015 – Help!!! The Scrum Master IS the Impediment – and talked about the need for scrum masters to inspect and adapt their behaviors to avoid becoming impediments to their team’s success. The team wrapped up with a some light talk about “change” and decided to table that large discussion for next time. Ryan completely butchered the word “cynefin”, Don started a book club, and then we called it a night Resources, Plugs, and More Don – http://www.donaldegray.com/ Coaching Beyond the Team – Workshop co-taught with Esther Derby Humble Inquiry Mindful Coaching Leadership Agility Mark – http://markkilby.com AgileOrlando.com – agile user community in Orlando AgileFlorida.com - network of agile user groups in Florida AgileOpenFlorida.com - Open Space for agile practitioners, June 26, St. Petersburg, FL Agile Transformation Summit 2015 – May 28, Ft. Lauderdale Aaron – http://www.projectbrilliant.com Urban Dictionary: Silver Alert Agile Indy Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Help!!! The Scrum Master IS the Impediment Hala Saleh’s “My Agile is Better than Your Agile” The post AFH 001: My Agile is Better Than Your Agile [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices