The Agile Pubcast

The Argyll Arms, London, UKSummer is here! Geoff & Paul cool off over a pint in the west end of London and discuss how the summer months can affect a scrum team's capacity and maybe even their velocity. Given the hot weather, the topic of dress code comes up, and also how teams should be prepared to give and receive feedback. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Air Balloon, Crickley Hill, UKGeoff's has started planning his survival experience in deepest darkest Scotland! In this episode, the guys discuss what teams can learn from sharing a common purpose and how behaviours can be amplified in such a basic rural desert island setting! There is also some talk of agile animals. Which animal do you think is the most agile? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hatchet Inn, Bristol, UKGeoff and Paul find Nigel in a Bristol pub and wax lyrical about Geoff's question, "Is Agile the new 'alternative'?" and delve into the history of the waterfall approach. In part two, the guys get more reflective on their own choices during their school years and how that may have formed who they are now. A little philosophical compared to the usual! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bag O' Nails, Victoria, London, UKA real meandering episode this one, from a pub with a great name! Geoff and Paul start off with the value in sat nav systems, journey through intrinsic motivation, belief, pragmatism and venture into dedicated scrum masters and ritual dissent! A real mixed bag! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Knights Templar, Bristol, UKWe welcome Geoff after the San Diego gathering, and the guys discuss the new Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) pathway announced by the Scrum Alliance recently. Of course, with Nigel in attendance the conversation so wanders into Star Wars and many other children's television programmes from the 1980s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quinn's Ale House, San Diego, USAPaul made the long trip to the Global Scrum Gathering 2017 in San Diego, with Nigel providing some colour commentary in Geoff's absence. During the trip, Paul and Nigel caught up with fellow scrum trainer Adam Weisbart, and give us an overview of what the gathering itself had to offer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The White Horse, Milton, Cambridge, UKGeoff and Paul discuss the "art of the possible" and how being positive can affect a ScrumMaster's ability to lead a Scrum team. The guys also give their thoughts on the merits of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and how Geoff has developed a tendency to feel "hangry"! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fountains Abbey, Paddington, UKThe boys enjoy a pint in a pub with a historical connection to Sir Alexander Fleming - the chemist who discovered penicillin. This leads to a discussion around discovery by making "good mistakes" and the courage required by us to learn or start something without all the information we think we need. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Phoenix, Victoria, London, UKThe guys are back in London and share a pint after a full day of training. Reflecting on their day, they consider the question of how to deal with a team who doesn't want to change - and talk a lot about someone called "Ian". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Maiden's Head, Maidenhead, UKA new location for this pubcast and Geoff & Paul discuss the merits of longer Sprint lengths, how scrum mechanics have changed over time and how companies still try and standardise sprint structures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Viaduct Inn, St. Pauls, LondonA trip to the big smoke of London today, and a visit to one of London's only remaining "Gin Palaces". Intriguing! Geoff and Paul dedicate this pubcast to the question of how an agile coach can operate in a fixed price, fixed scope contract situation - one which many companies still operate within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Corner House, Cardiff, UKHappy New Year! We start 2017 in Cardiff with Nigel Baker and take some time to answer one of the questions we got asked on Twitter: “What is the difference between DOING agile and BEING agile?”. The boys reflect on the intent of the agile manifesto, “Shu Ha Ri” as a learning metaphor and discuss how long does it actually take to “become” agile. Should we judge the company being agile or the attitudes and the diversity of the people they employ? We hope you enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Flight Club, London, UKFor our Christmas special, we travelled to London and met up with our old friend Nigel Baker for an end-of-year episode. Actually recorded in two parts, the first conversation, in Flight Club, ebbed and flowed around topics as diverse as the American election, the changing shape of chocolate bars, Geoff's extreme survival skills course and how board games can be helpful to agile teams. More serious discussions focussed around how trust can be accelerated in crisis situations, how we might all be hard-wired to be a little prejudiced but how fluid and changeable these prejudices can be.After a few rounds of darts we moved on to The Globe and, after discussing the untimely demise of both the poet Keats and the souls singer Otis Redding, we spent a bit of time comparing different part time professions to the role of the ScrumMaster. We then debated the growth of roles such as "senior agile coach" and other "red flags" or signs that Scrum is unlikely to work in an organisation. Nigel also shares his typically forthright views on things like SAFe and too down agile implementations before we talked about the weight required to be an effective ScrumMaster and question socratically. As we wrapped things up for the year Geoff shared his attempt at agile Christmas humour, and was roundly mocked! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Dog & Fox Inn, Bradford on Avon, UKThis week the lads visit a traditional English country pub in Paul’s hometown of Bradford on Avon. A truly meandering conversation starts with Paul’s Improv Webinar he ran for the Scrum Alliance and ends up with grumpy old men arguing on a rugby pitch! We hope you enjoy it! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Urban Reef, Boscombe, UKThis morning in a break from the norm, we had a cafe cast rather than a pub cast and had coffee instead of beer and cider. Back on the glorious south coast again (albeit in the wind and rain) we ended up talking about the situation where one key person is spread across multiple teams and the challenges (and maybe benefits) of multi-tasking. We then moved on to discuss how easy it is to be distracted and how we might reduce distractions to help us focus more which naturally led into a discussion about mindfulness and giving yourself some quiet, reflective, non-productive time before exploring the analogy of fishing in an agile context. Great stuff! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wild Beer Company, Cheltenham, UKToday we discussed how important teamwork is to the success of an agile project, and the different reasons behind someone's desire to put themselves above the team. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part two (of two) of our special bonus includes our conference chats with regular guest and gathering veteran Nigel Baker, the conference co-chair Sohrab Salimi, and facilitator of the coaching clinic Andrea Tomasini. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special bonus edition of the pubcast following our trip to Germany for the Global Scrum Alliance Gathering in Munich! Part one (of two) includes a catch up with Benjamin Cooke, an agile coach from London and our long-time friend and all-around good guy Howard Sublett, of SolutionsIQ. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Old Fish Market, Bristol, UKWe are joined again by Nigel Baker and got talking about Product Ownership - the rise of the Proxy Product Owner, business analysis and whether organisations are taking the role seriously enough. We also diverted briefly onto Pokemon Go! for reasons that only Nigel can explain! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Urban Reef, Boscombe, UKToday we followed the sunshine and found ourselves on the south coast in Boscombe. Our topic started with a recent news story about a sports coach who was kicked out of the dressing match after his team lost a game, but that moved more into team accountability, Scrum families and how the ScrumMaster needs to be there for the "unplanned" coaching opportunities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Urban Tap House, Cardiff, UKToday we were joined by our good friend Nigel Baker in sunny Cardiff (we are beginning to think he is stalking us!) and ended up talking about whether Scrum was a methodology or a framework, whether it's possible to be a product owner and a ScrumMaster at the same time and how to avoid becoming cynical during the transition to a more agile organisation. During the meandering conversations we also touched on how to bring people along with you and help maintain their engagement and enthusiasm while sipping some craft ale and ciders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wheatsheaf, Thornbury, UKThis time Geoff and Paul discuss a recent training course for a company largely being led by a project management office. How does the inclusion of a project manager inside a Scrum team affect results? What is a proxy Product Owner? Can a project manager and a Product Owner exist in the same team? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Brunel Bar, Bristol, UKAn estimation-themed Pubcast! Topics include: Estimating * Specialists in the Team * Software vs Hardware * Development vs Test * Story Points * Planning Poker * #NoEstimates * Safety in Estimation * Estimation Inflation * Parkinson's Law Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Knight's Templar, Bristol, UKGeoff and Paul welcome back Nigel Baker, and try to get a word in edgeways for a bumper 45-minute episode of the Agile Pubcast!! Topics include: A Debrief of Agile Cymru 2016 * A short tirade on Agile Tools * Recent Changes to the Scrum Guide * Changes in the Scrum Alliance Board * Scrum Alliance UK Chapters * And an EXCLUSIVE from Geoff Watts for our Pubcast listeners!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Winford Arms, Bristol, UKIn this episode we respond to a few questions from the twittersphere around these topics: Metrics * Velocity * Partially delivered stories * Consultants * Coaching * The Inner Game * Product Owners in Daily Scrums * Scrum Dogma Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Ox, Cheltenham, UKFrom The Ox, Cheltenham, UK. Topics include: ICF Annual Conference * Coaching outside software * Consulting vs Coaching * Technical ScrumMasters * ScrumMaster vs. Agile Coach * Coaching Styles * The Standard BT Retrospective * ScrumMasters From Non-Software Industries Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sandeman, Porto, PortugalWe've gone international! This pubcast comes from the banks of the Rio Douro, Porto, Portugal. Topics include** Agile Portugal 2016 * The results of our Scrum survey * The RAM(en) Model * Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Knights Templar, Bristol, UKOur second pubcast comes from The Knights Templar in Bristol, UK where we are joined by Nigel Baker, the Agile Bear ** Topics include: Global Scrum Alliance Gathering Orlando 2016 * Re-inventing organisations * Enterprise Coaching * Cynefin * Scaling Scrum * Theme Parks * SAFe * Joining The Dots * Masterclasses for Agile Practitioners * Training Beyond CSM * Safe To Fail Experiments * Theory Of Constraints Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Royal Well Tavern, Cheltenham, UKOur first pubcast comes from The Royal Well Tavern in Cheltenham, UK. Topics include: How a recent Scrum user group that Paul attended was inspiring and nourishing * Why organisations seem to find it difficult to bring themselves to pay for coaching * What success might be for an organisation transitioning to agile * Whether doubling productivity at the expense of team happiness would be deemed success * Whether Product Owners should or could be a motivating force for agile teamsIs it possible to motivate a Scrum team without a product owner? * How do you motivate a team doing a boring project like a database re-write? * How children’s cricket and rugby coaching apply to agile teams * How parents encouragement may undermine teamwork and how this might be analogous to senior management influences * How important and/or dangerous is charisma in a product owner? * Does the scrum team have to like the product owner? * If you have a great product owner, do you need a ScrumMaster? * Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.