LiminalArc SoundNotes

During a recent LeadingAgile offsite Jeff Vogelsang and Tom Churchwell sat down with Dave Prior to break down the TIES approach of Agile planning that they have bee using with clients. This approach been used to help organizations who need a way to manage long term strategy planning that creates visibility all the way down to the execution level. TIES addresses planning at 4 levels: Themes – Strategic long term goals broken down into time boxes of 1 to 3 quarters. Initiatives – Themes are broken down into elements that collectively address the theme. These are broken down into time boxes of 1 to 3 months. Epics – Initiatives are broken down into Epics which would take between 1 to 3 sprints to deliver. Stories – Epics are broken down into User Stories that are small enough to be completed by a Team within a Sprint, ideally within 1 to 3 days. In this interview Jeff and Tom explain the different level of planning TIES, how they work and how they can be used to help management understand their capacity to introduce more work. Contact Info for Jeff Vogelsang Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffvogelsang LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffvogelsang/ Email: [email protected] Contact Info for Tom Churchwell Twitter: https://twitter.com/tchurchwell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomchurchwell/ Email: [email protected] The TIES podcast Tom Churchwell and Dave did previously https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/agile-planning-ties-tom-churchwell/ Certified Scrum Master class in Las Vegas https://www.leadingagile.com/event/certified-scrummaster-training-nevada-10-14-17/ For information on the special CSM training discount available to attendees of the Digital PM Summit Email: [email protected] 2017 Digital PM Summit http://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm-2017/

In this Agile 2017 interview Johanna Rothman talks with Dave about her new book “Create Your Successful Agile Project Collaborate, Measure, Estimate and Deliver” and how teams that are struggling to make Scrum work may want to adopt an approach that focuses on continuous flow in order to deliver value for their customers with greater frequency. The interview includes a conversation about working with User Stories that are sized to only take the team a single day to complete, how this can help teams that are struggling with estimation, and how Johanna’s approach to writing (she averages about 1 book a year in addition to posting to her blog every few days) involves writing for just 15 minutes a day. For more on Johanna: Web: https://www.jrothman.com Books: https://www.jrothman.com/books/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/johannarothman?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannarothman/

Radtac Co-CEO Laura Powers took some time out of her busy schedule at Agile 2017 to talk with Dave Prior about the benefits an organization can gain from introducing play into the workplace. In this interview she explains how it can help unlock creativity within the team. Laura led an additional session at Agile 2017 called “It’s Not Just About Culture: Co-creating an Awesome Agile Climate in an Imperfect World”. During their conversation Laura explains how to create a working climate that supports safety for knowledge workers. If you work in an environment that does not have a supportive climate, there are tips in her for how to cope with that as well. If you’d like to get in touch with Laura: Radtac: https://www.radtac.com/about-us/page/3/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurapowers LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurampowers/ Laura’s session descriptions from Agile 2017 It’s Not Just About Culture: Co-creating an Awesome Agile Climate in an Imperfect World - http://sched.co/ATWv The Power of Play - Coaching Teams to Play at Work - http://sched.co/ATXu

At Agile 2017 Diana Larsen sat down with Dave Prior to talk about the Agile Fluency model. In this interview she explains what it is (a way of thinking about what benefits an organization needs to get from it’s teams) and how she and James Shore co-founded the Agile Fluency Project with the hope of moving past the question of whether or not a given team, practice, etc. was Agile or not. They wanted to shift the focus to a more positive approach that would help teams develop routine, skillful ease as they move further down the path of adopting agile practices with the ultimate goal of providing enough benefit to the organization so that they, in turn, receive the organizational support for continuous improvement. If you’d like to learn more about Agile Fluency, please check out the following: Your Path through Agile Fluency https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/agileFluency.html The Agile Fluency Project http://agilefluency.org And if you’d like to learn more about Diana Larsen check out: FutureWorks Consulting - https://www.futureworksconsulting.com Her books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Diana-Larsen/e/B002BM7U7Q Diana on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DianaOfPortland

This podcast features LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant John Tanner who joins Dave Prior foo discuss how to take on a “Goal-Question-Metric” (GQM) approach to gaining clarity on how well Agile is being employed across the organization. Last Spring at Agile Day Atlanta, John led a session called “The GQM Approach to Agile Metrics”. The session was very well received and when we posted the video of John’s presentation and the slide deck he used, there was a great response and we thought it was worth digging a little deeper on. SHOW NOTES 01:08 Interview Begins 02:18 Three distinct ways of looking at metrics 05:22 What is GQM and how does it work? 06:14 How does an organization know if they are asking the right questions? 08:33 How to know if your questions are well formed 10:00 How do we collect the data? 12:37 Interpreting the data 13:29 Metrics are not the answer. They are just data points that need to be investigated 16:29 Debating whether it is okay to ask the team NOT to work extra hours 17:47 The metrics are very seductive and can create an illusion of understanding 19:48 In their sexy Monopoly pajamas rolling around in money 21:00 GQM and Agile 22:09 For coaches - how to help your customer figure out what their goals actually are 23:25 Contacting John 24:08 Podcast Ends CONTACTING JOHN Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/john-tanner/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/tannerjs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tannerjs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tannerjs/ Blog Post w/ Video and Slides: https://www.leadingagile.com/2017/05/agile-metrics-gqm-approach/ The GQM Book Referred to in the Podcast: Aligning Organizations Through Measurement: The GQM+Strategies Approach (The Fraunhofer IESE Series on Software and Systems Engineering) http://amzn.to/2x30uxd

In this interview with David Bland, he and Dave Prior discuss definitions of lean startup and design thinking as well as his passion for building businesses that matter. David goes into detail about how he works with existing companies to create new lines of businesses using internal venture capital, as well as how the scientific method applies to business.

LeadingAgile CEO and Founder, Mike Cottmeyer led two sessions at Agile 2017: Agile Transformations Explained and Faster Food and a Better Place to Sleep: Applying Agile Outside of Software. In this interview Mike and Dave discuss how an organization can get better at setting appropriate constraints, making iterative and incremental decisions that inform execution and creating feedback loops that will help drive a more successful adoption of agile across the organization. If you’d like to learn more about Mike’s sessions at Agile 2017: Agile Transformations Explained: sched.co/ATZ5 Faster Food and a Better Place to Sleep: Applying Agile Outside of Software: sched.co/ATa2 And if you would like to contact Mike, here is how you can reach him: Web: leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer/ Twitter: twitter.com/mcottmeyer LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/

Adam Weisbart led a session at Agile 2017 called “Surviving Backdraft (or How to Not Die in a Hellish Explosion of Dysfunction)”. During his session, Adam shared some personal experiences with backdraft and introduced tools to help agile coaches and practitioners cope with the pushback that often accompanies organizational change and the dysfunction that impedes that change. In this interview Adam and Dave discuss his session and some mindful self-compassion techniques that will help you manage your internal and external response to the resistance that shows up when coaching an organization through transformation. If you’d like to contact Adam, here is where you can reach him: Web: https://weisbart.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/weisbart LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weisbart/ Adam’s session at Agile 2017: http://sched.co/ATXD

Yi Lv became the first Certified Scrum Trainer in China in 2008, and is currently an Agile coach at Odd-e. Yi is also an expert in Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) and in this interview, he talks about the session he led at Agile 2017, “LeSS without Scrum”. Yi’s presentation focused on explaining how you can implement the principles of Large Scale Scrum in an environment that does not have a proper Scrum implementation at the team level. If you’d like to check out Yi’s experience report on the subject you can find it here: https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/less-without-scrum/ If you’d like to contact Yi here is how you can reach him Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/yi_lv

Dr. Harry Koehnemann is the Director of Technology at 321 Gang and a SAFe Fellow. Harry led a session at Agile 2017 conference entitled: When Worlds Collide: Regulatory Compliance Meets Lean Agile Development. During his talk, he discussed some common mistakes companies make when trying to scale Agile in the face of regulatory compliance. In this interview Harry and Dave discuss his talk at the conference and some of the ways in which compliance requirements can be incorporated into development using Scaled Agile Framework. Click here for an audio only version of this podcast If you’d like to learn more about Harry, you can find him at Twitter: https://twitter.com/harrykoehnemann Web: http://321gang.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-koehnemann-7a76191/

Christopher Avery kicked off this year’s leadership track at Agile2017 with his talk the on the Four Characteristics of Good Goals; an idea that stemmed from his book The Responsibility Process, which outlines a model that will help people overcome patterns that are hardwired in our brains from the day we’re born. Find Christopher Avery Online Twitter: twitter.com/christopheraver LinkedIn: linkedin.com/christopheravery Facebook: facebook.com/christophervery2 Web: christopheravery.com Web: the.leadershipgift.com

Michael J. Tardiff is a conference veteran with a lot to say about most things. Watch as Dave and Michael talk about topics such as: networking while at the conference, some of the latest mergers in the industry, the legitimacy of norms, and even the Mexican government. The topics are varied, but the message is consistent. The Agile world is changing but is that change for the better. Contacting Michael • Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjt • Web: https://feelingagile.wordpress.com • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljtardiff/ For more Agile2017 LeadingAgile SoundNotes interviews check out http://www.periscope.tv/leadingagile

At Agile 2017, Dr. Sallyann Freudenberg led a session called “Why the tech industry needs all kinds of minds and how to support them”. Along with her work coaching Agile organizations and teams, Sal is a champion of neuro-diversity in the workplace. In this video Sal chats with Dave about how neuro-diversity became a concern for her, why neuro-diversity is so important to Agile, her session at Agile 2017, and her book “Inclusive Collaboration Experiments”. For more on Sallyann Web: SallyannFreudenberg.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/salfreudenberg Sallyann's Book “Inclusive Collaboration Experiments” https://leanpub.com/theinclusivecollaborationexperiments

Agile Uprising is one of the fastest growing networks in the Agile community, and Mike helped to create it and is an active board member. He’s also helped organize the Heart of Agile conference for the last two years and is one of the developers of the Lean Agile Intelligence tool which is a self-assessment model that Mike is helping to grow. In this short video, Dave and Mike discuss the what Agile Uprising is all about and the development of Lean Agile Intelligence. Agile Uprising: Web: http://www.agileuprising.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/agileuprising?lang=en Lean Agile Intelligence Web: https://www.leanagileintelligence.com The video of Troy Lightfoot giving Dave a walkthrough of LeanAgile Intelligence: https://vimeo.com/218602967 Mike McCalla Twitter: https://twitter.com/msmccalla_1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsmccalla/

SAFe Fellow Em Campbell-Pretty led a session at Agile 2017 called “The ART of avoiding a Train Wreck”, which offered guidance on how to better plan Agile Release Trains in Scaled Agile Framework. She stopped by to chat with Dave about her session, and her new book “Tribal Unity: Getting from Teams to Tribes by Creating a One Team Culture”. Em’s book focuses on one of her main areas of passion — creating awesome Agile tribes. During the interview she also offers advice about how to handle cross team dependencies in Agile.

Esther Derby led two sessions at Agile 2017 - Creating an Environment for Successful Agile Teams and Change Artist Super Powers: Leading Change in an Agile Manner. In this interview Esther and Dave discuss her sessions at the conference, some of the abilities you can work to develop if you are trying to lead change in your organization, and how to manage teams without top down control. Esther also responds to a question from Dave on how to lead retrospectives with distributed teams. And, of course… they talk about kale.

Lyssa Adkins stopped by after her Stalwarts session to throw down the gauntlet! During this live interview at Agile 2017 Lyssa talks about her recent trip to Peru where she and her daughter did volunteer jungle conservation work. Her experiences there, and a powerful question she was asked in her session at Agile 2017 led her to a new challenge she is taking on - bringing Agile practices to the people who are working to help solve global problems like saving the rainforests. Lyssa also provides an update the Agile Coaching Institute and the work she is doing to help Agile Coaches strengthen their ability to have a deep, meaningful impact in the organizations they are working with. If you’d like to learn more about Lyssa check out http://agilecoachinginstitute.com/

Agile 2017 opened with a Keynote from David Marquet. David is a former Navy Submarine Commander and the author of the book "Turn the Ship Around A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders" (http://amzn.to/2v4yc1T). David gave a presentation at Agile 2017 about how his experiences in the Navy influenced his style of leadership. Being the loudest and clearest voice in the room and using swear words doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a great leader, neither does pretending you know all the answers. Sometimes the best way to lead is to learn to trust and empower the people on your teams. In this interview David talks about his experiences, the challenges of learning to trust, and his first hand experiences of seeing the powerful impact of intent-based leadership. If you'd like to learn more about David Marquet and his approach to Intent-Based Leadership, please visit http://www.davidmarquet.com

Troy Magennis led two different sessions at Agile 2017. “Getting started with Agile Data Science” focused on helping Agile practitioners deepen their understanding of how valuable data can be to Agile teams who want to improve their performance. In his second session, “Prioritization – 10 Different Techniques for Optimizing What to Start Next”, Troy explored a variety of approaches intended to help a team make smarter decisions about what is the next most important thing. If you’d like to learn more about Troy, check out http://focusedobjective.com. If you’d like to try out some of the many tools he makes available (for free) to teams that are trying to learn more about their performance through data science, check out http://bit.ly/SimResources

Dean Leffingwell stopped by to chat with Dave Prior about some of the changes introduced to Scaled Agile Framework with the SAFe 4.5 update, including the reasons for including the Implementation Roadmap, DevOps and Lean Startup. For more information about Dean or Scaled Agile Framework, please visit: http://www.scaledagileframework.com For information on the SAFe Summit, please visit: http://www.safesummit.com

This file is audio only. The video version can be found here: https://vimeo.com/229799105 At Agile 2017, Johanna Rothman and Mike Griffiths sat down with Dave to talk about the work they've been doing on the PMI Agile Practice Guide. Their work was part of a joint effort between the Agile Alliance and PMI and is intended to offer guidance for traditional PMs on how to begin applying Agile in their work. The PMI Agile Practice Guide will be released in September 2017.

In this week's SoundNotes, Tim Wise joins Dave Prior for a short conversation about Stretch Goals. Even is this is a topic you have a strong opinion about, this podcast has valuable information for you. Before the end the discussion, Tim offers up a version of stretch goals that is positive and healthy for a team. SHOW NOTES 02:35 Podcast Begins 02:44 Topic Intro: Stretch Goals 03:20 Tim’s initial thoughts on Stretch Goals at Team and Portfolio Level 06:08 Technical Debt 06:39 The difference between stretch goals and having a well groomed backlog full of “sprint ready” items 08:40 The lazy queue 09:13 Dave’s thoughts on Stretch Goals 10:31 A story of stretch goals gone wrong 11:30 The Stretch Goal Paradox explained 12:40 The negative Scrum team is not a knife you want to sharpen 13:12 Slack Resources and planning for personal slack which will be used for personal growth 17:38 Planning Healthy Stretch Goals to invest in giving the team more flexibility. 18:22 It’s not always about points. 21:00 Atlanta Scrum User Group update HBR ARTICLE The Stretch Goal Paradoxhttps://hbr.org/2017/01/the-stretch-goal-paradox Atlanta Scrum User Group https://www.meetup.com/agile-38/?https=on CONTACTING TIM LeadingAgile http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/tim-wise/ WiseAgile http://www.wiseagile.com Tim on Twitter https://twitter.com/timswise Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwise CONTACTING DAVE LeadingAgile: http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.net LEADINGAGILE CSM & CSPO CLASSES For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

LeadingAgile's Chief Cultural Officer, Rachel Howard, joined Dave for this pre-Agile 2017 podcast to focus on providing tips for folks who are heading to Agile 2017 in search of work. It's the biggest Agile event of the year. If you are looking for a new gig, this may be the best place to find it. SHOW NOTES (this is a pretty brief podcast, so no timed show notes this week) During the interview Rachel and Dave discuss: - Prep work to do before you leave for Orlando - Some do's and don'ts for job hunting while you are at Agile 2017 - Setting realistic expectations and goals - The importance of follow up At the end of the interview Rachel offers some tips for first time attendees at Agile 2017. LEADINGAGILE AT AGILE 2017 Mike Cottmeyer's Sessions - Agile Transformations Explained Tuesday, August 8 3:45 PM - Faster Food and a Better Place to Sleep: Applying Agile Outside Software Wednesday, August 9, 10:45 AM Paul Argiry's Session - Avoiding the Pitfalls of Capitalizing Software in an Agile World Tuesday, August 8 3:45 PM Rick Austin's Session - Portfolio Management in an Agile World Tuesday, August 8 10:45 AM CONTACTING RACHEL LeadingAgile https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/rachel-howard/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelhoward/ Twitter https://twitter.com/agilerecruiter CONTACTING DAVE LeadingAgile: http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.net LEADINGAGILE CSM & CSPO CLASSES For information on LeadingAgile's upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you'd like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile's SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

At Agile 2017, LeadingAgile Principal Consultant, Rick Austin, will lead a session that focuses on how organizations can transform their Portfolio Management from an approach that is more closely aligned with waterfall to an approach that is better able to support Agile. In this podcast Rick outlines some of the key concepts he will be digging in to during the session and then he and Dave discuss some of the challenges that come along with this aspect of transformation, like governance, prioritization and how work flows through the organization. SHOWNOTES This is a fairly short podcast (10:42) so no ShowNotes this week. RICK AUSTIN at AGILE 2017 Portfolio Management in an Agile World Tuesday, August 8, 10:45 AM CONTACTING RICK LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/rick-austin/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/rickaustin CONTACTING DAVE LeadingAgile: http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.net LEADINGAGILE CSM & CSPO CLASSES For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected].

In this week’s podcast, LeadingAgile Founder and CEO Mike Cottmeyer shares his thoughts on how Agile Transformation has been evolving, common patterns of transformation, what steps an organization needs to take to become fit for transformation, and to develop the optionality needed to fulfill the promise of Agile. SHOW NOTES The list of show notes was too long to fit into the SoundCloud listing. To view the ShowNotes for this podcast, please visit https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/mike-cottmeyer-e…e-transformation/ Links from the Podcast: Switch - Chip and Dan Heath http://amzn.to/2tenVOE LeadingAgile on YouTube http://bit.ly/2uRq1X2 LeadingAgile on Periscope http://bit.ly/2sQt4xb Agile 2017 LeadingAgile Sessions Mike Cottmeyer Sessions Agile Transformations Explained http://bit.ly/2sPQNO4 Tuesday, August 8 3:45 PM Faster Food and a Better Place to Sleep: Applying Agile Outside Software http://bit.ly/2uiLoDt Wednesday, August 9, 10:45 AM Paul Argiry Session Avoiding the Pitfalls of Capitalizing Software in an Agile World http://bit.ly/2vcFtfE Tuesday, August 8 3:45 PM Rick Austin Session Portfolio Management in an Agile World, http://bit.ly/2t43rx8 Tuesday, August 8 10:45 AM Contacting Mike LeadingAgile https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer/ LInkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/ Twitter https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer Contacting Dave LeadingAgile: http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.net LeadingAgile CSM & CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/. Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

This week Devin Hedge joins Dave Prior for another student question. This time about architecture and if the complexity of it would be better served by a waterfall approach: The Question: "How to plan for the Architecture effectively. With waterfall, we try to figure out all aspects of the business and the technical solution in advance before we start development. In Agile, we discover as we go. It's very likely that when we come to a certain, we'll find either the current business logic or the current technical framework cannot adapt our upcoming demands. There's a high opportunity that we'll need to destroy all the work that we've done. Talking in this perspective, isn't waterfall better than Agile?" Show Notes 00:08 Interview Begins 00:51 This week’s question 02:00 What do we mean by architecture 02:29 The design principles and standards you need in place to support your work 03:35 If it isn’t loosely coupled, neither waterfall or agile can really help 04:17 Challenging the assumption that big up front planning could help you eliminate the risk of having to do rework and whether or not waterfall is actually supposed to do that 07:43 If we can’t eliminate the risk of not knowing everything up front, what can you do? 08:30 Devin puts on his architect hat - guardrails and guideposts 09:53 Reframing the problem 10:40 How physical building architects are still designing even after the building is built - you never know what the tenants of the building will actually want 11:48 The risk of making decisions too early 12:18 Advice from Devin on how to reduce your risk of designing architecture up front and put up the guardrails and guideposts you need 14:14 How architects look at the work and decision making 17:02 Making decisions at the last possible responsible moment 17:43 Having a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset 19:10 Is there value in waiting to make your decisions until you have all the information? What is your cost of delay of waiting to make the decisions? 20:57 Devin’s upcoming events: Agile Budgeting and Cost Tracking for the PMI North Carolina Chapter on July 11 and PMI South Carolina on July 20 21:57 How to get in touch with Devin 22:47 Interview Ends Links from the podcast Does Agile addresses the 25 point Federal IT Reformation plan? (June 29) PMI Washington DC http://conta.cc/2sov4vn Agile: Budgeting for Agile Financial cost planning/tracking (July 11) PMI North Carolina http://bit.ly/2tmVMZz Jeff Bezos Memo about Cloud Services http://apievangelist.com/2012/01/12/the-secret-to-amazons-success-internal-apis/ Contacting Devin LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/devin-hedge/ Twitter: twitter.com/agiledevin LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/devinhedge Contacting Dave LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: drunkenpm.net LeadingAgile CSM & CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

One of the challenges many organizations face with Agile is how to handle long term strategic planning in a way that creates visibility all the way through to the execution level. TIES is an approach to Agile planning that can help the business engage in long term planning, understand their organization’s capacity to actually execute on the work, and then see how that work can be broken down into pieces that are sized to allow the individual teams to execute on them. In this episode of SoundNotes, Tom Churchwell explains how TIES can help with Agile Planning. Using this approach the work is sized into: - Themes - Strategic long term goals broken down into time boxes of 1 to 3 quarters. - Initiatives - Themes are broken down into elements that collectively address the theme. These are broken down into time boxes of 1 to 3 months. - Epics - Initiatives are broken down into Epics which would take between 1 to 3 sprints to deliver. - Stories - Epics are broken down into User Stories that are small enough to be completed by a Team within a Sprint, ideally within 1 to 3 days. Show Notes This is a pretty short podcast (less than 20 minutes) so I have not broken it down into timed show notes. Contacting Tom Churchwell LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/tom-churchwell/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/tchurchwell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomchurchwell/ Contacting Dave LeadingAgile: http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.net LeadingAgile CSM & CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

Successfully completing a CSM or CSPO class doesn't impact everyone the same way. For some, it is like a lightbulb went off and everything about Agile just makes sense. For others (like me), some of the ideas and values from waterfall persist for a time. Questioning agile and trying to reconcile this new way of thinking with the old way is part of the personal journey of moving from a traditional approach to an agile way of working. I tend to think of it as a hangover that occurred from drinking a little too much waterfall. In this week's podcast, I address 3 questions that were submitted by a student following a recent class. These were the same kinds of questions I was asking when I took my CSM training and was getting my head around agile. In the podcast I address not only the questions that were asked, but the bigger ones that may be more subtext - around, why do we need to work this way? The questions: 1. What are the factors that lead us to the decision to go Agile or Waterfall? The simple "Scrum is best suited for complex projects" (page 10 of the workbook) doesn't seem to be enough and there could be challenges against that statement. The more complex the issue is, the more effort we would want to spend upfront instead of down the road. Is earlier we detect the issues the less cost to fix it? 2. We know a perfect scrum team should be cross functional but in reality, we're far from that. The question is how to fix the velocity gap between the roles to maximize their efficiency? E.g. developers code faster than testers (usually when the system is huge and a single change would require a lot of regression testing). We know we can fix it by adjusting the ratio among the roles but the amount of work changes overtime, if we keep adjusting the ratio we will NOT have a stable scrum team. 3. As User Stories do NOT contain the requirement details, the requirement is actually conveyed through discussion between PO vs Dev team, how can we capture the product specification? The Product Specification is extremely important for many purposes including training of new team member, doing impact analysis, or for PO to know how the current system works so they can plan for future improvement. Should we spend effort to compose/update Product Specs? If we do, will that be a User Story or just count it as overhead ? This is a pretty short podcast (less than 15 minutes) so I have not broken it down into timed show notes. Contacting Dave LeadingAgile: http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

This week Dave received a request for advice from a student in one of LeadingAgile’s Certified Scrum Product Owner classes: How to effectively work with a distributed scrum team (both time and distance). We have an IT Software project in which PO is in the US, Development is in Ukraine and Testing is in Vietnam. ShowNotes A summary of the suggestions Dave and Derek offer during the podcast: - Reorganize the team - Have additional POs or BAs in each location - Set up a US based team of rockstar POs who organize themselves specifically to support this distributed effort - Spend more time in backlog refinement and try to eliminate risk by taking as much are as possible to make sure the PBI’s area clearly defined enough for the teams to work on them (largely) without needing additional questions answered - Bring the entire team together for a time to establish patterns of communication and personal relationship, with the idea being that they are together for a time to shorten the feedback loop while they practice working together so that they can manage it better when they all go back home. - Team offsites to build the connection and create empathy between the disparate parts of the team - Online interaction - like the recent TDD Mobbing exercise Dave participated in on Twitch for Agile Uprising (https://youtu.be/4HX0JrnHSjI) Contacting Derek You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ Via Email: [email protected] On Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether Or via his personal site at: http://www.derekhuether.com Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his blog at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

Note: This is an audio only version of a video podcast that can be found here: http://bit.ly/2qiC2C5 Dave Prior and Derek Huether respond to a student question: What is wrong with management wanting to normalize points across teams and use them as time. Tools mentioned in the video Focused Objective - Troy Magennis has a wide variety of tools he makes available for free that will help you understand team performance (among other things). You can find them at http://focusedobjective.com/free-tools-resources/ or watch a video where Troy walks through how to use two of those tools... https://vimeo.com/190973081 LeanAgile Intelligence is another great tool that is worth checking out. It is an assessment tool that will help you understand team performance across the organization. You can learn more about it (and sign up for the free beta) at https://www.leanagileintelligence.com. You can also watch a video walkthrough that the tool's co-creator, Troy Lightfoot, gave to Dave recently in response to a question about how to evaluate performance of an individual ScrumMaster... https://vimeo.com/218602967 Contacting Derek You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ Email: [email protected] On Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether Or on his personal site at: http://www.derekhuether.com Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected]

Note: This is the audio only version of the video podcast which can be found here -> https://vimeo.com/217951635 This is a short version of the HOA + Personal Agility Canvas session led by Dave Prior at the 2017 Heart of Agile Conference in Pittsburgh. During this video Dave provides a walk through of the Personal Agility Canvas with a focus on the expanded Heart of Agile. If you are new to this tool, it is a great way to conduct a self-assessment on your own Personal Agile Transformation. It will also help you establish personal goals for your desired state of personal agility and help you define actions you can take immediately to amp up your adoption of Agile. THE PERSONAL AGILITY CANVAS If you'd like to download a PDF of the canvas to complete on your own while you are viewing the video, you can find it here: http://bit.ly/2pVW7Ol CONTACTING DAVE You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: https://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/ FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LEADINGAGILE CSM AND CSPO CLASSES For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. HEART OF AGILE And to learn more about The Heart of Agile, please visit Alistair Cockburn's site here: http://heartofagile.com

As the 2017 Scrum Gathering in San Diego would down to a close a few weeks ago, Dave Prior and Chris Li began a debate: Is it okay for a Scrum Team to leave the Sprint Planning Meeting with individual work assignments? This is a question that often comes up for both Dave and Chris when they are teaching CSM and CSPO classes. In this podcast you’ll hear them each explain how they respond to this question based their experiences working with teams. You’ll also get to hear what happened when they decided to check in with some experts at the Gathering. SHOW NOTES 00:08 - Podcast Begins 00:26 - How Chris and Dave got into a heated debate about Sprint Planning and went to check with experts 01:50 - Debate setup: During Sprint Planning, is it okay for Team Members to self-assign tasks they will work on during the Sprint? 02:41 - Chris explains his position supporting Team members selection tasks during Sprint Planning 05:30 - Dave explains the reasons why he does not want Team members to leave Sprint Planing with specific work assigned. 08:20 Chris responds to Dave’s position 09:54 - Dave tracks down Diana Larsen to ask for her opinion on the subject 10:39 - Dave asks Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson on the subject 11:52 - “We’re all trying to get to the same place” 13:00 - How to get in touch with Chris 13:53 - Podcast Close CONTACTING CHRIS You can reach Chris on the LeadingAgile site at: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/chris-li/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealChrisLi On his personal site: http://www.sparkplugagility.com/ CONTACTING DAVE You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: https://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/ FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LEADINGAGILE CSM AND CSPO CLASSES For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

In our third podcast focusing on Cost of Delay, LeadingAgile’s Dean Steven explains how he has used Cost of Delay with management working on defining priority for items at the portfolio level. Dean also explains why the problem Cost of Delay helps you solve is not a math problem, but a collaboration problem. SHOW NOTES 00:08 Interview Begins 00:56 Some background on the work Dean does day to day for LeadingAgile 01:43 Does Senior Mgmt. normally have a specific technique for prioritizing work across the portfolio? 02:40 Clarifying teams at the project, program and portfolio management 03:33 How does a team work at the portfolio level 04:27 What is a Business Architect 05:20 Why do we need Cost of Delay and what question does it help us solve? 06:35 It’s not a math problem, it’s a collaboration problem 07:12 How Cost of Delay will help you develop an understanding of relative business value 09:00 How to calculate Cost of Delay = (User Business Value + Time Criticality + Opportunity Enablement) / Effort SWAG 11:57 Defining Opportunity Enablement 13:18 What happens after all the work is sized? 15:40 When you get to re-estimate the values in Cost of Delay and adjust the relative priority 16:04 An example of how Dean used CoD with a client to align multiple programs of work across the organization and define relative priority for each of them 17:44 It’s not a math problem, it’s a collaboration problem 20:15 Dean’s focus on the portfolio level with Cost of Delay 21:38 Ordering vs. Prioritizing 22:18 Validating your understanding of relative User Business Value 23:40 Using the data and the math to figure out where to point the compass 24:46 What is an MVP? 25:13 Where to go for more information on Cost of Delay 25:57 How to to get in touch with Dean 26:19 Podcast Ends LINKS FROM THE PODCAST An Overview of Cost of Delay with Jim Hayden https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/an-overview-of-cost-of-delay-with-jim-hayden-and-dave-prior/ Calculating Cost of Delay with Marty Bradley https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/calculating-cost-delay-marty-bradley/ The Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen http://amzn.to/2m6u0xL CONTACTING DEAN You can reach Dean: LeadingAgile https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dean-stevens/ CONTACTING DAVE You can reach Dave: On the LeadingAgile site On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo On his personal site at: drunkenpm.net FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LEADINGAGILE CSM AND CSPO CLASSES For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

This is an audio only version of a video podcast that can be found here: https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/can-product-vision-without-company-mission-derek-huether/ In this podcast, Derek Huether and Dave Prior take on a question asked by a student in one of Dave’s classes. Can you have a Product Vision Statement if you do not have a Company Mission Statement? Contacting Derek You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ Email: [email protected] On Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether Or on his personal site at: http://www.derekhuether.com Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

Last week at the 2017 Scrum Gathering in San Diego, Dave Prior had a chance to sit down with Maria Matarelli and Alistair Cockburn to discuss the 2017 Heart of Agile Conference in Pittsburgh on April 27-28, Guest Leadership, the importance of dancing at conferences, Maria’s budding career as a DJ, her upcoming humanitarian work in New Zealand as well as her Agile Lifestyles event that will be live streamed from a stadium in New Zealand on May 3 (US time)… and of course… the Tango. If you’d like to learn more about the 2017 Heart of Agile Conference being held in Pittsburgh on April 27-28, follow this link: http://heartofagile.com/heart-of-agile-conferences/heart-of-agile-pittsburgh-2017/ Here are some additional links from the podcast: The Scrum Alliance has posted the presentations from the 2017 Scrum Gathering in San Diego on their site. You can find them here: https://scrumalliance.org/why-scrum/scrum-resources/gathering-presentations For more information Guest Leadership please check here: http://alistair.cockburn.us/Guest+Leadership Maria’s presentation in New Zealand on May 4th at 9 AM New Zealand time / May 3rd at 4 PM EST https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/join-powerful-agile-lifestyle-live-streamed-from-new-may-matarelli Dave’s previous interview with Alistair Cockburn on Designing Quality of Life https://soundcloud.com/drunkenpmradio/alistair-cockburn-designing-quality-of-life Contacting Alistair Cockburn Web: http://alistair.cockburn.us Twitter: https://twitter.com/TotherAlistair Contacting Maria Matarelli Web: http://mariamatarelli.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariaMatarelli Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

The original video version of this file can be found here: https://vimeo.com/213030252 The Heart of Agile 2017 is being held on April 27-28 in Pittsburgh. It is the 2nd annual HOA conference and it will also be the first Agile Conference held in Pittsburgh. Derek Huether and Dave Prior will both be speaking at the event. In this short video Derek and Dave each provide an overview of the sessions they will be leading at the event celebrating Alistair Cockburn’s approach to getting back to the basics of what makes Agile work. If you’d like to check out Derek’s session: How to Find Early Indications That Your Delivery System Will Fail April 27, 2017 1:30pm - 2:15pm Empress Deck 1 http://heartofagile.com/Session/how-to-find-early-indications-that-your-delivery-system-will-fail/ And if you’d like to see Dave’s session: Heart of Agile + Personal Agility Canvas April 28, 2017 3:30pm - 4:15pm Empress Deck 1 http://heartofagile.com/Session/heart-of-agile-personal-agility-canvas/ And if you need information on the conference in general or want to attend http://heartofagile.com/heart-of-agile-conferences/heart-of-agile-pittsburgh-2017/ We hope to see you there!

In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes we focus on a question submitted by a student from one of our recent classes. Jennifer, the student, asked about what to do when the Chief Product Owner is defining the Release Plan without input from the Product Owner or the Stakeholders. During the podcast, LeadingAgile’s Jim Hayden and Dave Prior dig into reasons why that might be happening, and how to respond. Show Notes 08:00 Interview Begins 00:46 An update on Jim and his recent motorcycle accident 03:15 Topic Introduction - What to do when you have a Chief Product Owner who is defining the release without inout from the Product Owner or stakeholders. 03:29 Explanation of the Chief Product Owner role 04:04 Jennifer’s question 04:18 Jim explains of the PO’s role with regard to the release and the role the Chief Product Owner plays 05:09 The release plan is never set 05:44 How the Product Roadmap impacts the Release Plan 08:16 What happens when you create a release plan 10:35 Wisdom from Chet Hendrickson about Release Plans 11:12 The business wants/needs the ability to make and meet a commitment for work that is valuable, usable and feasible 12:02 A tactical view of what may happen if the CPO is imposing the release plan 12:40 How Jim would respond in this situation 15:04 Should the PO expect the CPO to include them in creating a release plan? 15:52 Where things go wrong 16:30 It’s not kind of like an insane work environment, it is an insane work environment 16:58 What should the PO or the SM do in this situation and why the CPO may be pushing the release plan down to the PO and Team 19:20 Suggestions for how to retrospect with the CPO (since they aren’t included in the Scrum Team’s Sprint Retrospective 21:28 Figuring out why this is happening and how to improve communication to address the true issue 23:18 Addressing a lack of clarity about the roles 23:49 Finding a time and place to have a safe conversation with the CPO 24:23 Jim’s parting words of advice on the issue 24:40 Don’t be an order taker 24:50 Having patience and empathy for the CPO 25:40 Where you can send questions we will use in future podcasts 26:20 Podcast ends Contacting Jim You can reach Jim on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/jim-hayden/ Email: [email protected] Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

The 2017 Heart of Agile Conference will be held in Pittsburgh on April 27 and 28. This is the second annual conference dedicated to helping Agile practitioners let go of some of the dogma and ornamentation that has been glommed on to Agile and get back to the core principles and the Heart of Agility. In this interview, Rob Lingle, one of the conference organizers took some time to speak with Dave about the conference, why it is happening in Pittsburgh, why you should attend and what you can expect once you are there. In the latter half of of the podcast, (beginning at 08:12) Rob and Dave discuss the work Rob does volunteering for several different organizations, why he considers it to be so important and how being of service to others helps him in his work as an Agile coach. Leading Agile is proud to be a sponsor of the 2017 Heart of Agile Conference! Both Derek Huether and Dave Prior will be presenting at the conference. Show Notes 00:08 Podcast Begins 00:33 Some background on Rob and his work 01:01 The first ever Agile conference in Pittsburgh and on a Riverboat! 01:48 Boat jumping 02:35 Bringing the Heart of Agile Conference to Pittsburgh 04:25 Getting back to the basics of Agility 05:00 There is so much to learn, you’ll never be done. Stay focused on the core (or heart) of Agile 06:14 The intended audience/level of expertise for the conference… who should attend 07:10 Crowd sourcing topics for the conference 07:42 Pricing, dates and registration for the Heart of Agile 08:12 Rob’s work volunteering with different organizations 09:05 How Rob selects the organizations he volunteers for 09:30 Volunteering for Jubilee Soup Kitchen 10:15 Volunteering for Junior Achievers as a Teacher 11:01 Volunteering for Code.org’s Hour of Code 12:15 How the volunteer work influences Rob’s work as an Agile coach 12:54 “Real success … comes through service to others” 13:50 How dedicating your time and being of service to others can benefit you on many levels 15:15 Getting more details about the 2017 Heart of Agile Conference in Pittsburgh Links from the Podcast The 2017 Heart of Agile Conference in Pittsburgh https://www.eventbrite.com/e/heart-of-agile-pittsburgh-tickets-30705192056 The Heart of Agile Website http://heartofagile.com The organizations Rob volunteers for Jubilee Soup Kitchen http://jubileesoupkitchen.org Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/ja-westernpa Hour of Code https://hourofcode.com/us Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank https://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org Contacting Rob Lingle LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/linglerob/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/lingle_r412 Summa Company Website - http://www.summa.com Contacting Dave LeadingAgile Profile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.blogspot.com Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. social networks

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile’s Derek Huether and Dave Prior tackle a student question about how Scrum works with Marketing. In a recent class, a student names Cherie explained that in the work her Marketing Team does, it isn’t possible to achieve “potentially shippable” at the end of a Sprint. The Team may finish the work and the Product Owner may accept it, but nothing can actually be “shippable” until after the client has had a chance to review a work item and provide feedback or approval Show Notes 00:08 Interview Begins 00:26 An update on Derek’s upcoming events 01:30 Topic Introduction 01:59 Cherie’s Question about how Definition of Done works when you are using Scrum in Marketing if nothing can ship until after you have client approval 02:26 Derek and Dave respond 03:03 We’re going to have an argument here… 04:33 The difference between a more pure Definition of Done and potentially shippable vs. what often happens in the real world 05:23 Derek shares a story on his experience with this issue 06:51 SHAME ON YOU FOR NOT MAKING HER HAPPY! 07:24 Why you should not blame the client for not having total clarity on what they need 09:05 Is it a big deal if you can’t get “shippable” out of a sprint 09:48 It’s more important to get the customer something they can provide feedback on 10:20 Always be learning a little more than you knew yesterday 10:52 Derek’s advice for things Sheri could do to remedy the situation 11:48 Try to make a smarter decision tomorrow than you could today 12:15 Scrum is a feedback mechanism 12:31 Where to send your questions for LeadingAgile’s Student QA podcasts 13:11 Podcast Ends Derek and Dave will both be presenting at the Heart of Agile 2017 in Pittsburgh on April 27-28, 2017. To learn more about the conference: http://heartofagile.com/heart-of-agile-conferences/heart-of-agile-pittsburgh-2017/ Contacting Derek LeadingAgile Profile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/derekhuether Personal Blog: http://www.derekhuether.com Contacting Dave LeadingAgile Profile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo Personal Blog: http://drunkenpm.blogspot.com Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class. social networks

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile’s Chief Cultural Office, Rachel Howard, joins Dave Prior to answer some of the “getting a job” related questions that are frequently asked during the CSM and CSPO classes Dave teaches for LeadingAgile. The topics covered in the interview include: How to get a job if you have little (or no) experience in Scrum, How to make the move from being a team member to being an Agile Coach, as well as some general tips about interviewing at Agile Consulting Companies. Show Notes 00:08 Interview Starts 00:30 Rachel’s role at Leading Agile 02:33 The surprising thing about trying to establish culture in a virtual organization like LeadingAgile 05:56 Mike’s question - If you are new to Scrum, how to you get over the “minimum experience in Scrum hurdle” 09:46 Finding ways to apply Agile outside of work to get some experience with using the practices 10:48 Why “They won’t let me do Agile here” is not an excuse for not doing it at your current job 11:54 The value of certifications when you are looking for a job in Agile 17:23 If you are applying for a job in Agile and don’t have a basic certification like CSM or CSPO 18:13 Transitioning from working on teams to being an Agile Coach 19:40 Is it better to stay at one job for a long time, or jump around to get different experiences? 20:26 Do you need a coaching certification to be an Agile Coach? 21:26 Advice from Rachel on interviewing: Stuff you should research/know before interviewing for a job at an Agile Consulting company 23:00 The importance of finding a company that matches best with your own personal mission 26:05 How to reach Rachel with additional questions or to find out about working at LeadingAgile Contacting Rachel: You can reach Rachel via email at : [email protected] Contacting Dave You can reach Dave: On the LeadingAgile site: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo On his personal site at: www.drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

This is the second interview in a series we are doing on Cost of Delay. The first interview, where Jim Hayden provided an overview of Cost of Delay can be found here: http://bit.ly/2lUDWFR In Part 2 of the series, Marty Bradley explains how Cost of Delay actually works. During the interview we discuss things like Weighted Shorted Job First (WSJF), how to determine relative Business Value of different features or projects and how to evaluate that value against different factors like risk. During the interview Marty refers to two different graphics that help explain Cost of Delay. Here are links to the two graphic files*: The Formula for Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF)https://www.dropbox.com/s/slfrifz9pqqqgex/WSJF%20Formula.jpg?dl=0 The Cost of Delay Table https://www.dropbox.com/s/9lwrd0tjs5wcmqy/WSJF%20Table.jpg?dl=0" * These graphics are based on examples Marty was referencing in the interview. The originals can be found at http://www.scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/. Show Notes 00:08 Interview Begins 00:34 Background on Marty 01:47 Intro to the topic 01:54 It’s okay to be confused about what Cost of Delay actually is 02:36 Dave “mansplains” the basics of Cost of Delay 03:05 Why people are using Cost of Delay to prioritize work 05:00 Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) (see link above) 05:49 Using a table to calculate WSJF (see link above) 06:19 Using relative sizing to determine User Business Value and the other WSJF factors 06:44 What is “Business Value”? 08:39 How relative sizing works 09:10 How to use the table to get guidance on prioritization 11:07 The actual value of Cost of Delay may not be mathematically quantifiable, and that’s ok because it’s all about relative sizing 13:00 Be careful about bias and gaming the scores 13:24 Using the iPhone 7/Apple Bluetooth Headphones example 14:45 Adding columns to the table so that it works best for you 16:27 Deciding what to do first, second and what to kill 16:40 WSJF - a simple explanation 17:18 The formula for determining WSJF 17:44 Examples of how WSJF can help 19:50 Resources you can use to learn more about Cost of Delay 22:49 Understanding and measuring “value” 23:18 Are we getting smarter about understanding value or just delaying understanding it? 23:45 Key indicators of value and the importance of smaller batch size 25:32 Getting in touch with Marty 25:50 Podcast Close Links from the Podcast An Overview of Cost of Delay with Jim Hayden https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/an-overview-of-cost-of-delay-with-jim-hayden-and-dave-prior/ The Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen http://amzn.to/2m6u0xL Black Swan Farming http://blackswanfarming.com Contacting Marty: You can reach Marty: On the LeadingAgile site: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/marty-bradley/ Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martybradley/ Contacting Dave You can reach Dave: On the LeadingAgile site: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo On his personal site at: www.drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

This episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes offers a case study of how the technology teams at NewSpring church have been using Agile practices to develop innovative products that will enable their members to stay engaged with NewSpring throughout the whole week. Jon Horton is the Web Director at NewSpring. A few weeks ago he and several members of his team attended a LeadingAgile CSM class. In the interview Jon explains how he introduced Scrum to the organization, how it is being adopted by the technology teams, how it impacts their ability to deliver value for NewSpring members and some of the challenges that they’ve faced along the way. This podcast offers a great case study of how Agile practices are extending beyond traditional software development teams and are being used to innovate and deliver value to all types of “customers”. Show Notes 00:08 Podcast Begins 00:55 Some background on Jon and his role at NewSpring Church 02:20 How technology help NewSpring Church meet people where they are 04:10 How Agile practices were introduced at NewSpring 05:25 The Agile practices that have proven to be the most valuable to Jon’s team 07:10 How work gets prioritized at NewSpring 09:00 The way teams are set up at NewSpring 09:24 The Sprint lengths used by different teams and why they’ve been selected 10:25 How Jon’s team got started with Scrum and how they’ve evolved their learning and adoption 11:10 Traditional practices that the team’s use to support their Agile practice 12:30 Challenges in introducing Agile at NewSpring 13:44 Jon’s plan to extend Agile beyond the technology group 14:37 Is there a difference in applying Agile within a religious organization than in a more traditional software group? 15:50 Jon’s advice for other religious organizations that are interested in trying to implement Agile 18:00 Getting in touch with Jon 18:37 Podcast end Links from this podcast NewSpring Church https://newspring.cc Essential Scrum by Kenny Rubin http://amzn.to/2mMA3Ux Contacting Jon Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonhorton Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: http://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

This podcast is the first in a series we intend to do on Cost of Delay. This podcast features LeadingAgile Enterprise Transformation Consultant, Jim Hayden, and Dave Prior discussing the ideas behind Cost of Delay at a fairly high level. If you are new to the subject, or are struggling with understanding it, this may help provide clarity on what Cost of Delay is and how it works. In a future podcast on this subject we will look at Cost of Delay from a more Reinertsen-centric viewpoint. We also plan to do at least one podcast that offers a case study on how Cost of Delay has been put into practice within an Agile organization. We will look at how they are using it to understand and prioritize work at the project, program and portfolio level. Show Notes 00:09 Podcast Begins 1:12 Why (and how) we are talking about Cost of Delay 2:52 Some background on Jim Hayden 3:16 What is Cost of Delay 3:37 Example 1: Laptop Manufacturer with a set window of sales opportunity 4:22 Example 2: Selecting between two different projects based on time to develop and ROI 5:10 Is Cost of Delay vs. opportunity cost? 5:54 Understanding the impact of deferring a release 8:43 What if you delay your launch and a competitor beats you to the market and your customer 9:15 Example 3: Apple launching the iPhone 7 without the bluetooth headphones 10:15 Visualizing and understanding the Cost of Delay across multiple projects 12:08 Why understanding the Cost of Delay and decision making process is not solely about revenue 14:31 When new projects arise… determining where to prioritize them against existing work 15:57 The organization’s cost for doing the project 17:03 Additional factors to consider when understanding the value a project provides 18:00 Standardizing rules around how to prioritize work 18:59 Decomposing work to understand the value better 19:51 Defining “value” and Cost of Delay within your organization 21:57 Why it is so important for a Product Owner to have a method for prioritizing work that is understood by all stakeholders 23:04 When value is vague, Cost of Delay becomes more important 23:57 Example 4: Prioritizing 12 projects across an entire year 27:39 Adding a new project mid-year 29:10 How does sunk cost factor in? 30:37 Again with the logic! 31:29 We value starting things, not finishing things 33:27 Why we want to work in small batches 33:51 Where to find more information on Cost of Delay 34:26 Getting in touch with Jim Hayden 34:39 Closing Links from the Podcast An Introduction to Cost of Delay by Derek Huether https://www.leadingagile.com/2015/06/an-introduction-to-cost-of-delay/ The Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen http://amzn.to/2m6u0xL Black Swan Farming http://blackswanfarming.com Contacting Jim Hayden You can reach Jim on the LeadingAgile site at www.leadingagile.com/guides/jim-hayden/ Email: [email protected] Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

In Andrew Fuqua’s blog post “Slack and the Agile Manager’s Role: Be the Slack” https://www.leadingagile.com/2017/01/slack-agile-managers-role/ he shared his thoughts on the need for management to make space and time for teams and individuals to be creative and innovative. In this podcast Andrew and Dave Prior dig deeper on the topic, how and why organizations resist it, and how managers can get started with introducing time to allow teams to be innovative. Show Notes 00:15 Podcast Begins 00:48 Some background on Andrew’s work as an Enterprise Consultant 01:47 Introducing the topic of Slack 02:05 How the PMBOK defines slack 03:00 How Andrew defines slack and what he focuses on when he’s looking at it 04:12 Why wringing all the slack out of a team is not necessarily a good idea 05:00 Finding the slack you need to keep 05:44 Flow Trumps Waste and Value Trumps Flow 06:56 When you see downtime, what do you lose when you feel compelled to fill it up? 07:44 Whose job is it to create an environment and culture that supports creativity? 08:33 Why it goes beyond the responsibilities of a ScrumMaster 08:58 BUT ANDREW! WE ARE TOO BUSY TO STOP AND BE CREATIVE! 09:24 Someone is going to come along and eat your lunch! 09:43 Why organizations forget to take the time to be innovative 10:40 Why it is about more than simply holding innovation days. 12:18 What’s the manager supposed to do in Agile anyway? 12:54 How we end up with managers who do not know how to manage and like to crack the whip 14:09 Creativity also needs sustainable pace 15:26 Making space for creativity every single day 16:31 The manager shouldn’t be delivering stuff 17:07 Taking personal responsibility for protecting your own space/time to be innovative 17:43 How Andrew creates and protects the innovation space for himself 19:08 Time spent recovering from working at an unsustainable pace is not the same as slack time set aside for innovation 20:09 How Managers can introduce Slack 22:05 How much slack should I make sure each person has and how do I track it? 22:42 How do you become a change agent that will transform an organization to support Agile? 23:18 Focusing on Lead Time to help the organization understand what needs to change 23:53 Is the best way to create change changing the CEO 24:09 What a manager can do to understand Slack more 24:47 How do we get more creativity in the organization 25:13 Happiness Metrics, Employee Retention and taking a baseline before introducing Slack 25:51 Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose 26:56 Things a Manager Should Not Do 29:02 Beware the Hero 29:58 Parting words of advice for a manager who is trying to understand how to let Slack live in their environment 30:42 How to reach Andrew Links from the Podcast Slack and the Agile Manager’s Role: Be the Slack https://www.leadingagile.com/2017/01/slack-agile-managers-role/ Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom DeMarco http://amzn.to/2lkow1C How to Use an A3 In An Agile Transformation https://www.leadingagile.com/2015/08/how-to-use-an-a3-in-an-agile-transformation/ Contacting Andrew You can reach Andrew via LeadingAgile at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/andrew-fuqua/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewmfuqua On LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewfuqua/ Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

This episode of SoundNotes features two questions that were submitted recently by students. 2:11 Question 1 - Design and Cross Functional Teams Submitted by Sergey via Email : “Every time I hear you speak about cross-functional team I am not sure who these teams comprise of exactly. In my world the confusion here is most often related to design inputs. Any digital product will have a visual UI and thus its development will require design inputs. Do most of Leading Agile clients consider this a separate process that contributes to the readiness of stories for a technical Scrum team? Or do you normally assume designers are a part of a Scrum team? In my view, the former creates waterfall-like dependencies and the latter gets in the way of confident estimations. So, even if both models are feasible, none of them seems ideal, because it leaves an are that has to be tightly managed.” 8:20 Question 2 - How do you deal with a manager who thinks you should be ScrumMaster for multiple teams AND Product Owner at the same time? This question was submitted by a student in a CSPO class who allowed me to record the question being asked as long as I promised not to post the recording or identify the person by name. In order to honor that, I played the recording for Derek before hand, but in the podcast, what you’ll hear is me (Dave) relating the question. The question shared by the student related to the fact that they are currently playing the role of ScrumMaster on three different teams and have also been asked to act as Product Owner for these teams. The person explained to their manager that the way Scrum is designed to work, a ScrumMaster is supposed to be dedicated to a single team, should definitely not be trying to support three teams and absolutely should not be playing the role of ScrumMaster and Product Owner at the same time. The manager responded by asking that the person give a detailed account what they are doing all day as a Scrum Master because the manager did not believe the person was too busy to be able to serve as ScrumMaster for three teams and Product Owner for as those teams as well. 9:32 Derek and Dave respond and respond to the question. 19:25 Podcast wrap up 20:12 Podcast end Contacting Derek You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether Or on his personal site at http://www.derekhuether.com Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/ Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

The Project Management Office (PMO) has traditionally been responsible for providing governance over projects, programs and portfolios; ensuring projects are managed according the standards set forth by the PMO; and to provide reporting on progress to leadership. When Agile is introduced into an organization, along with new ways of tracking work, self-organizing teams and new ways of understanding priority, the value the PMO provides comes into question. In a recent blog post, LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant Marty Bradley addressed the question “Should the PMO Go Away?” In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, Marty and Dave dig deeper on this topic and explore what PMO’s (and PMO Leaders) need to do in order to remain relevant to an organization transitioning to Agile. Show Notes 00:08 Podcast Begins 00:35 What does a LeadingAgile Executive Coach actually do 01:40 When the Executives say “Stop saying Agile.”, it’s actually a good thing. 3:05 Should the PMO go away? Who’s asking and why? 07:12 Why do we need a PMO and governance if the teams are supposed to be self organizing? 08:38 If we do not have trust, how can we have self-organization and Agility? 09:39 All night deployments and the impact of not trusting the team 10:43 When the people who “know better” create a system that fosters missed deadlines and failure, they create a very dysfunctional form of predictability 12:15 How the PMO can maintain its’ relevancy in an organization transitioning to Agile. 13:27 How do we maintain the necessary non-agile elements when we transition to Agile? 14:55 How can we have more empathy for the members of the PMO and the massive personal and career change they are facing in maintaining the stability of a traditional approach while supporting the change to Agile? 16:29 Changing the focus and the metrics used to track the work 17:10 The impact on Development Managers 18:12 Why would I want to eliminate the need for my own position (if we transition from waterfall to Agile) 18:42 Coping with transition: “This is my job,…I got a family…What am I supposed to do?” 19:55 Maintaining a balance between preserving the necessary domain knowledge and changing as fast as you can 20:29 What PMO Leaders need to know before the Agile transition team shows up - “Not everything needs to be perfect Agile.” 23:51 If I am in a PMO and I want to get up to speed and maintain my own relevancy, what do I need to learn? 25:10 “I’d look at my company and figure out what is value in my company?” How do you define value? 27:02 Finding your organization’s own definition of value 27:46 Closeout Contacting Marty Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/AskCoachMarty Contacting Dave Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo Related Links: Should the PMO Go Away? (Marty’s blog post mentioned in the interview) http://bit.ly/2jwshAS Cost of Delay http://bit.ly/2jVLfx4 Agile Governance at eVestment - A More Agile Approach to PMO http://bit.ly/2khDBhq Agile Governance - An interview with Liana Dore from Agile 2016 http://bit.ly/2kRXj6F Kanban http://bit.ly/1cXGeK9 Lean Startup http://bit.ly/1ky8H1h Don Reinertsen “The Principles of Product Development Flow” http://amzn.to/2jYlyOY Feedback/Questions If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

2017 is here and Mike Cottmeyer is ready. In this episode of SoundNotes, the CEO of LeadingAgile shares his thoughts on the primary issues facing organizations as they continue working to transform. There are many who claim culture is the main issue, but is that really the impediment to Organizational Agility? ShowNotes 00:08 Interview Starts 00:47 How do you lead change in large organizations? 02:17 Is the biggest impediment to Agile really culture change? How do you do that at scale? 03:00 What is getting in the way of culture? 04:16 I can change my attitude and value system, but will the organization support that changed attitude and belief? 04:51 The mindset shift is just the starting point 07:15 How do you get 1,000 people to simultaneously have a mindset shift and then know what to go do 07:42 Is the industry still stuck? How do we get past wanting Agile to being able to do Agile? 08:12 A positive Agile culture has to be reinforced 10:07 The difference between culture and the basic actions you should do 11:29 Can you have the behavior without the culture system shift? 13:29 Can you use the mechanics to reach a desired end state without worrying about becoming Agile? 15:35 Where does Mike see the industry going in 2017? 19:49 Does the organization really need to understand how Agile works or can someone coach the organization into an Agile state? 22:02 How does the organization recognize the fundamentals of what needs to be changed to achieve Organizational Agility? 24:18 Does having data that explains the problem help strengthen the case for change? 25:10 Your organization is deeply flawed. 26:41 How are we going to measure that the problem was indeed solved? 28:07 The organizations are broken. Teaching them to want something is not enough. At some point you have to do the work. 30:00 If we teach culture change will people really self organize in the presence of constraints 31:19 Should everyone be more disruptive? Who designs the structure to support that? 32:18 Is there a point where you need to be more directive to help people become more Agile? 33:04 We are so myopically focused on self organization. 34:02 If i am an executive with limited time to learn and research, what do I focus on? 35:18 The problem is that people are overselling how Agile can work. 38:35 Do you want to do Agile on a team, or do you want to become an Agile organization? 39:08 How Agile do you need to be? 43:57 The music Mike has been listening to lately and is looking forward to listening to. 45:05 The one thing Mike wishes all the clients knew before he got into the room. 46:41 Closeout Books Mentioned in the Podcast The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey http://amzn.to/2jUektH Christian Self-Mastery by B.W. Maturin http://amzn.to/2jU0cjZ The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn http://amzn.to/2jzO4DL Music Mentioned in the Podcast Collective Soul http://www.collectivesoul.com Peace Trail by Neil Young http://amzn.to/2kmlFBU Reaching Mike If you’d like to know more about Mike, or reach him with follow up questions: http://bit.ly/2kvoOyo Feedback/Questions/Reaching Dave If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at [email protected] LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

A Retrospective on Vacations If you love your work and are very driven, the idea of “vacation” can be a daunting thing. In this episode of SoundNotes, Derek Huether and Dave Prior hold a retrospective on how they each coped with the challenge of taking time-off from work over the holiday. If you count yourself among the vacation challenged, this conversation may provide insight into why you need to take the time, why you need to protect the time BUT why your version of taking a break to restore yourself doesn’t have to fit the standard definition of “vacation”. Show Notes 00:08 Podcast Begins 00:17 Topic Intro - a Retrospective on taking vacation 00:52 Derek explains why he took his first vacation in almost 2 years 02:07 Pre-vacation anxiety 03:12 If you get grumpy when you don’t have too much work to do “YOU NEED TO GET AWAY” 03:52 When your sustainable pace is an unsustainable pace 04:10 Some of us are wired a little weird and there is no “balance” 05:11 Sometimes having too much to do can be a positive 06:03 The dopamine rush of getting something done… how much sleep do you really need 07:33 Debating the argument for getting “enough” sleep 09:14 Derek’s Kanban board for vacation activities 11:06 What Derek reads on the beach for relaxation (feel free to roll your eyes) 12:00 How “the damn ocean and seagulls” prevented Derek from relaxing with his DevOps books on the beach and how the Beastie Boys saved the day 13:20 If you are reading work related books on the beach, aren’t you still at work? 14:10 When you take time off from work and your hobbies are work related 15:48 Finding your own way to satisfy the need to unplug, take a break and get refreshed 16:38 The restorative joy that comes from watching seagulls attack people 17:08 Pomodoro Timer 17:22 The weight of vacation guilt - for doing work, or for not really taking “vacation” 18:20 Why would you want to go on vacation and be remorseful when it is supposed to be a reward 19:14 Derek’s trick of reserving play time as a planned activity 20:15 Having intentionality and discipline to carve out time for creative fun stuff 20:48 Super not productive time may be recovery time and that is part of being productive 21:30 Giving yourself permission to be not productive and then protecting that time 21:55 What happens when YOU don’t respect your not productive time 22:20 “I have to respect it” and take the time without carrying the guilt 23:04 Dave’s resolution to get less done in 2017 and trying to create a small vacation every day 23:45 Derek’s quiet time (with coffee) 25:10 Meditation … it’s not about emptying your mind - it’s about not dancing with the thoughts that arise 26:20 Derek’s version of meditation - post-its and coffee 26:50 It’s a way of looking at your though and saying “yeah, but not right now” 27:02 Wrap up thoughts, it’s okay to suck at vacation, it’s okay to not do stuff, protect the time with discipline, acknowledge that you derive and need the time, and don’t let other people tell you how much time you should take 27:56 Podcast End Links from the Podcast Visible Ops Handbook http://amzn.to/2jzVqKM DevOps Handbook http://amzn.to/2iTX8FM Ariana Huffington “The Sleep Revolution” http://amzn.to/2k2ySik Contacting Derek You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether Or on his personal site at http://www.derekhuether.com Contacting Dave You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net

LeadingAgile’s Derek Huether and Dave Prior take on two questions from someone who attended a workshop Dave ran on Redefining Your PMO for Agile: Should I change Sprint length to account reduced capacity during the holidays? Is it okay to performance at the individual team member level? During the podcast Derek and Dave respond to both questions and offer different ways of coping with reduced capacity as well as things to consider if you are inclined to try and track individual team member performance. This podcast is a fairly short one, so show notes have been omitted this week. Contacting Derek and Dave If you have follow up questions for Derek, here is his contact info: Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/derekhuether LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ Dave can be reached at: Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ Submitting Questions And if you have follow up questions for Dave, or have any Agile related question you’d like us to discuss in an upcoming podcast, please send your question to Dave at [email protected]. You can send the question in the body of an email, or you can send an mp3 of wav of you asking the question and will include the recording in a podcast on your topic. LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

MLB Advanced Media has been growing very rapidly over the past few years and even if you aren’t a fan of baseball, you’ve probably been the beneficiary of their work. Michael Daly and Matt Volpe have been managing teams and providing internal Agile coaching at MLB every step of the way. For anyone working at an organization that is struggling to get it’s legs with Agile, these guys have a story full of hope and some valuable lessons they’ve learned along the way. And while there are places where they have made conscious choices to adopt practices which may seem non-standard for an Agile organization, one of the things you will learn from the interview is how they reached those decisions through an empirical approach as they ran experiments on how to help Agile work best within their organization. Show Notes 00:08 Podcast Intro 00:30 What Matt and Michael do at MLB Advanced Media 01:56 What does MLB Advanced Media do 03:29 Some background on the MLB Advanced Media Agile Transformation and how management interacts with the work Matt and Michael are doing 10:44 What makes the MLB Agile transformation unique and how the approach they’ve taken has helped foster the transformation 13:09 How MLB Advanced Media supports good Product Ownership 15:00 The importance of coaching, training and building a good backlog 15:19 “You don’t do your kid’s homework, but with with them and help them do it” 17:05 Does it help to have all your folks trained by one individual or does that limit your organizations ability to have a diverse understanding of how Agile works 18:20 “…back when I was coding with stone knives in bear skins” 21:00 How MLB approaches governance around which practices teams will use and how much flexibility each team has to make adjustments based on their own individual needs 25:00 Mobile software development is “…a viking funeral” 26:55 The question of whether to use stable teams or move people around 28:24 How to cope with not having stable teams and still making Agile work 30:11 Stable teams when it make sense and … “THE OTHERS” 32:52 Why Matt’s use of points in Sprint Planning gives Dave a seizure and why it’s the right thing for Matt’s team to do it anyway 36:48 How Matt’s team spends time collectively grooming the backlog every day 37:37 Why Michael’s team struggles with forecasting and why Michael hates estimation meetings 39:09 How Michael’s team benefits from using story point anyway 41:02 Not trying to compare teams against one another 42:20 Why Matt maintains a bench team 42:54 The value of taking an empirical approach to develop a hybrid 43:25 Advice from Michael and Matt for those who feel like they do not have the support they need to be successful in adopting Agile 48:47 “…AND DON’T CALL THEM RESOURCES! CALL THEM PEOPLE” 49:09 Getting in touch with Michael and Matt if you have follow questions 49:31”…It’s Italian for Fox - that’s all you need to know.” You can learn more about MLB Advanced Media here: http://www.mlbam.com If you’d like to get in touch with Michale Daly, you can reach him via email at [email protected] If you’d like to get in touch with Matt Volpe you can reach him via email at [email protected] If you’d like to contact Dave Prior, you can reach him at [email protected] And if you’d like to learn about LeadingAgile’s upcoming class schedule, you can always find it here: http://leadingagile.com/training