Troubleshooting Agile
454 episodes — Page 7 of 10
The Impossible Question
Squirrel tells the story of a client who was asked an impossible question about agile team productivity, and we explore why such impossible questions are actually valuable and worth investigating with curiosity. SHOW LINKS: - Kobayashi Maru: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru - Mu: http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/m/mu.html https://wiki.c2.com/?MuAnswer --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Fear and Normalization of Deviance
A listener asks us to explain the link between "normalisation of deviance" and fear. Using examples like an agile team dropping its retrospectives, or NASA launching the Space Shuttle in too-cold conditions, we illustrate how being afraid can drive a group away from its espoused norms and toward dangerous alternatives, and conversely how you can use examples of "normalised deviance" to find and mitigate hidden fears. SHOW LINKS: - Idealcast with Gene Kim: https://itrevolution.com/the-idealcast-episode-14/ - Mitigating fears through expressing emotion on an oil rig: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/17/482203447/invisibilia-how-learning-to-be-vulnerable-can-make-life-safer - The Fear Conversation chapter discussion: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/fear-the-original-sin-of-unproductive-conversations/ - Previous episode on normalisation of deviance: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/overcoming-normalisation-of-deviance --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
"Yes, And..."
Squirrel tells the story of an agile team faced with seemingly irresistible demands, and describes how switching to the "Yes, And" stance (originating from improvisational theatre) helped them find a solution that worked for everyone. SHOW LINKS: - "Yes, And" in improv and brainstorming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_and… - CTO Craft: How to Talk with Your CEO and Other Mysteries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwg-x5X3450 - Dr. Burns's Disarming Technique: https://feelinggood.com/tag/disarming-technique/ - Our MIT Sloan Management Review article on the Walled Garden: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/solving-the-problem-of-siloed-it-in-organizations/ - Nonviolent communication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication - Six thinking hats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Alistair Cockburn: Motherhood, Apple Pie, and Collaboration Cards
We look at two elements - Collaboration and Reflection - of the Heart of Agile approach developed by our friend Alistair Cockburn, and illustrate how conscious and attentive listening and reflection on emotions make a big difference for agile teams. SHOW LINKS: - Motherhood and Apple Pie: https://hotidioms.com/2012/02/21/motherhood-and-apple-pie/ - Collaboration Cards: https://www.collaborationcards.com , https://web.archive.org/web/20170621140230/http://alistair.cockburn.us/Collaboration+Cards - Collaboration Cards article: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/702523/26767147/1451886700677/201601-Cockburn.pdf?token=oTGZ9syVsnh4d%2BtW8ggVolCglEM%3D - Collaboration Cards course: https://www.heartofagile.academy/courses/using-collaboration-cards - Shu Ha Ri: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html - Thanks for the Feedback: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114120-thanks-for-the-feedback - Previous episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/alistair-cockburn-heart-of-the-heart-of-agile --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Alistair Cockburn: Heart of the Heart of Agile?
We look at two elements - Collaboration and Reflection - of the Heart of Agile approach developed by our friend Alistair Cockburn, and illustrate how conscious and attentive listening and reflection on emotions make a big difference for agile teams. SHOW LINKS: - Heart of Agile tweet: https://twitter.com/TotherAlistair/status/1312407646364991489 - Alistair Cockburn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Cockburn - Conversational Dojo kit: https://itrevolution.com/build-agile-conversations-with-conversational-dojo-webinar/ - Active Listening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening - London NVC Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Nonviolent-Communication-NVC-London/ - London Organisational Learning Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Ladder of Inference: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/a-sense-of-security-gained-lost - Above the Line: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/walking-the-line-emotional-unawareness --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Internet Cocktail Parties And Other Human Interactions - Misha Glouberman
We are joined by the wise and thoughtful Misha Glouberman, who organises Internet cocktail parties and better, more human-friendly meetings for organisations and teams—and the two turn out to have a lot in common. SHOW LINKS: - Misha: http://www.mishaglouberman.com - Trampoline Hall: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/trampoline-hall/id1190668782?mt=2 - Internet Cocktail Party Instructions: https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-run-a-zoom-cocktail-party-and-have-better-classes-conferences-and-meetings-too-dc2c5b58f8be - Gather.town: https://gather.town/ - CITCON: https://citconf.com --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Customers From Pluto
Squirrel is gobsmacked by user stories that appear to be about aliens, who want "intuitive interfaces" and "modern technology", where customers from Earth want "fun with my kids" or "relief from boredom". Jeffrey reminds us that such stories can lead to conversations that tease out the emotions and the human stories behind the words. Both agree that once we revise our stories to create empathy, we also allow the team to discover amazing new ways to solve problems. SHOW LINKS: - Personas: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them - User stories as conversation promises: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story - Feature factory: https://medium.com/hackernoon/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2 - User Stories Gone Wrong: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/user-stories-gone-wrong/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
The Liberated Elephant with Jessica Katz
Jessica Katz is an agile coach who uses curiosity and conversational skills to help agile teams perform better. She explains why you need to liberate the elephant in the room, how you can do that through nonviolent communication, and how one person saying "good morning" unlocked better performance for a whole team. SHOW LINKS: - Jessica Katz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeskatz/ https://liberatedelephant.com/events/2020/10 - Agile Ireland talk: https://www.agileleanireland.org - “Creating Boundaries, Practicing Curiosity, and Making Requests” - Gallup poll: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/284180/factors-driving-record-high-employee-engagement.aspx - B Corporation: https://bcorporation.net/ - Dare to Lead: https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/ - Nonviolent Communication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Changing Behaviour
Jeffrey is inspired by Jon Smart and the DOES Virtual conference to discuss homeostasis as a source of resistance to change, and Squirrel tells a client story about curiosity as a way to help a complex system adapt. SHOW LINKS: - DOES Virtual "Las Vegas": https://events.itrevolution.com/virtual/ - Jon Smart: https://itrevolution.com/sooner-safer-happier/ - Complex Adaptive Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system - Paradoxical Agenda-Setting: https://feelinggood.com/tag/paradoxical-agenda-setting/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
From Taylor to Toyota
Following last week's praise of Taylorism, a suitable approach for making complicated problems simple, this week we look at a similar revolution in democratising innovation and creating a learning organisation—by uncovering hidden complexity and removing status as a barrier to discovery of error. SHOW LINKS: Team of Teams: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22529127-team-of-teams - Cynefin framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Art of Action: https://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink - High Velocity Edge: http://www.thehighvelocityedge.com/ - Don’t be a Zombie Organisation: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dont-be-a-zombie-organiza_b_3306513 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6kqnQZuIHg - Normalization of Deviance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance - Status as obstacle to learning: https://pedestrianobservations.com/2020/09/19/learning-worst-industry-practices/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
In Praise of Taylor
Frederick Taylor gets a bad rap - even from us, as we had a lot to say in Agile Conversations about how his methods have been misapplied in "software factories". But in the right circumstances, his ideas about repeatable, simple processes have a lot of value, and can lead directly to valuable automation opportunities. We describe examples including how continuous integration developed from an arcane art to a routine process along Taylorist lines. SHOW LINKS: - Taylorism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Team of Teams: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22529127-team-of-teams - IdealCast: https://itrevolution.com/the-idealcast-episode-11/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Conversational Dojos
Both of us learned to improve our conversations through regular practise with others - and today we describe how you can do that too, by organising a Conversational Dojo using our (free!) kits and videos. SHOW LINKS: - Free Dojo kit: https://itrevolution.com/conversational-dojo-kit-free-download/ - Conference talk on conversational dojos: https://events.itrevolution.com/virtual-programming/ - London Organizational Learning meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Action Design: https://actiondesign.com/ - Shu Ha Ri: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
How to Stop "Harping"
One of Squirrel's clients finds herself "harping on" a particular point in her technical team, and is frustrated that behaviour doesn't change. Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss how this and other "tells" indicate that you're stuck and how to come up with a pre-planned action to address these that will help you be curious and get to improved performance. SHOW LINKS: - Self-sealing: https://pages.uoregon.edu/mgall/designmemo%233.htm - Bozo bit: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-bozo-bit-and-duelling-ladders --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Your Team is Bigger Than You Think
Reacting to an insightful comment from Elisabeth Hendrickson, Squirrel and Jeffrey have a minor tussle over how to interpret the idea of "reflecting and adapting". They eventually agree that adapting works, but only if your definition of "team" is broad enough. SHOW LINKS: Idealcast with Gene Kim and Elisabeth Hendrickson: https://itrevolution.com/idealcast/idealcast-episode-3/ Elisabeth Hendrickson: https://twitter.com/testobsessed Single Loop vs Double Loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-loop_learning CITCON: https://citconf.com/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
A Horrible Story
A client tells Squirrel about a "horrible" meeting where his team accused him of pushing them to overwork and take shortcuts, but we discover it was actually a great breakthrough. Learning is the detection and correction of error, and in this case, Squirrel's client discovered a major cultural problem that he's now able to correct. We reflect on why feeling horrible can be a great indicator of valuable learning. SHOW LINKS: Burn up chart: https://www.modernanalyst.com/Careers/InterviewQuestions/tabid/128/ID/3433/What-is-a-Burn-Up-Chart-and-how-does-it-differ-from-a-Burn-Down-Chart.aspx Kathryn Schulz on being wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QleRgTBMX88 Theory X and Theory Y: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-cannot-learn-damn-thing-from-semco-toyota-niels-pflaeging/ Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Agile Marie Kondo: The Shoe Principle
The Shoe Principle says that if you buy a pair of shoes, you have to get rid of one. We hadn't heard of it until a client brought it up as a way to introduce a new process without overloading the team. We see lots of places where agile teams could apply the Shoe Principle, including alerting systems that no one looks at or standups that have become rote and useless. Like Marie Kondo, we suggest asking whether each team activity "sparks joy", and if not, try parking it for a week to see if you really need it. SHOW LINKS: Marie Kondo: https://konmari.com Normalization of deviance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance Agile Retrospectives book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/721338.Agile_Retrospectives --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
The Two-Shirt Solution For Agile Chaos
Squirrel describes two shirts he makes for clients, the How Shirt and the What Shirt, that provide a brief and memorable description of the roles of a technical leader and a product leader respectively, reducing chaos and confusion in agile teams. You may not need job descriptions if four words on a shirt suffice, and as a bonus, the shirts can help your team define what they are doing and how they are working toward business goals—and importantly, what they are *not* doing. SHOW LINKS: - Negative space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Chris Parsons: The Trouble with Training
We welcome agile thinker and experienced CTO Chris Parsons, whose blog Delivery Doubled makes the case that cookie-cutter agile approaches don't work. We discuss why out-of-the-box agile training doesn't work, whether we'll have figured out the "right" way to agile a few hundreds of years hence, and how one client discovered that everything Chris was teaching wouldn't work for them and what he and they did about it. Free webinar upcoming with Squirrel and Jeffrey on Monday 17th August - see https://itrevolution.com/conversational-dojo-webinar-sign-up/ SHOW LINKS: Chris Parsons, Delivery Doubled: https://deliverydoubled.com The Mundanity of Excellence: https://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-mundanity-of-excellence-an-ethnographic-report-on-stratification-and-olympic-swimmers Dan North, Accelerated Agile: https://dannorth.net/courses/accelerated-agile/ Martin Fowler State of Agile podcast episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/fowlers-state-of-agile-2018-part-one Squirrel/Jeffrey article on agile training: https://trainingindustry.com/blog/it-and-technical-training/agile-training-isnt-enough-the-key-is-conversations-not-rituals/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Thrashing vs Focus
Squirrel describes a client of his that is "thrashing"—trying to do so many different things that they aren't getting anything finished. We reflect on why this happens, including the idea that being busy feels good while increasing focus can mean disrupting comfortable routines. We suggest asking "why can't we finish this today?" as a forcing mechanism for discovering bottlenecks and alternative approaches. SHOW LINKS: - Theory of Constraints: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints - Domenica DeGrandis, Making Work Visible: https://itrevolution.com/book/making-work-visible/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Fun as the Key Agile Metric, with Steve Berez
We're joined by Steve Berez, partner at Bain and co-author of Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos. Steve tells us some stories from his 30-year consulting career, illustrating missteps he's seen in digital transformations like "You Folks Do Agile" and "Agile as a Quick Fix". He advocates the metric of "team fun" as the best way to determine whether you're doing agile right. SHOW LINKS: - Steve's book and other material: https://www.bain.com/agile - Article on the Agile C-Suite: https://hbr.org/2020/05/the-agile-c-suite - Previous podcast episode mentioning Cargo Cult Agile: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/software-factory-to-feature-factory/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Handling Negative Emotions Safely
A reader points out that our example conversations often show people masking emotions, but we don't say as much about what to do when someone is being rude or when you yourself feel your emotions are out of control. We suggest ways to increase your sense of safety with an escape plan, but also demonstrate methods for staying in the conversation and learning from it even if it's challenging to do so. SHOW LINKS: - Stratechery 2x2 chart: https://stratechery.com/2013/the-uncanny-valley-of-a-functional-organization/ - Brene Brown: https://brenebrown.com/ - LOL meetup on working with emotions: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/events/xbtmspybcfbgc/ - Nonviolent Communication and receiving empathetically: http://laurelandassociates.com/tip-319-nonviolent-communication-10-receiving-with-empathy/ - Dr. David Burns talking with your EAR: https://daviddburnsmd.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/the-five-secrets-v-1.pdf - Emotions in decision-making: https://hbr.org/2006/01/decisions-and-desire --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
User Stories Gone Wrong
We respond to an article on user stories that has some good points (user stories are prompts for conversations) and, in our view, misses the mark on others (claiming that tasks are better than user stories for technical work). This leads us to propose "human stories" which may not involve traditional users but do involve humans who are affected by the software we're building in some way (partners, investors, regulators, and more). Finally, we apply these ideas to answer a question from a listener on handling complex technical changes with user stories. SHOW LINKS: User stories article: https://www.lullabot.com/articles/not-everything-is-a-user-story Rant on non-functional requirements: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/squirrels-rant Agile Manifesto episode on face-to-face interaction: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/efficiency-effectiveness-through-face-to-face-conversation --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Clarke the Bottleneck Guy
Clarke Ching has been studying bottlenecks and constraints for thirty years, and has lots of stories and insights for us. He explains why bottlenecks are important, why your developers should always be your bottleneck, and how to explain the theory of constraints using a herd of buffalo. SHOW LINKS: Our Sloan Management Review article: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/solving-the-problem-of-siloed-it-in-organizations/ Clarke online: https://www.clarkeching.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarkeching/ Free book from Clarke: https://share.toc.guide Theory of Constraints: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints Sixth Sense movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Sense Cheers TV show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Lessons for Remote Work from DevOps Enterprise Summit London Virtual
Jeffrey and Squirrel had very different experiences at recent tech conferences including DOES London/Virtual. We describe what worked and what didn't for us, and how listeners can apply the lessons to their own remote attendance at conferences and meetings. SHOW LINKS: Audiobook Companion at IT Revolution site: https://itrevolution.com/agile-conversations Podcasts on remote working and affordances: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/active-listening-for-remote-working/ https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/missingaffordances/ Alistair Cockburn's People and Methodologies in Software Development: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253582591_People_and_Methodologies_in_Software_Development Links from DOES London Virtual: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FsWkeoweWDPYjDDbukCnH4Hj3LLRV3RobIUKa2qWdwk/edit DOES London Virtual Slack archive: https://devopsenterprise-archive.itrevolution.com/ask-the-speaker-keynote/2020-06-25 Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/lessons-for-remote-work-from-does-london-virtual/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Accountability: Leaders are Accountable Too
Coming to the final chapter of Agile Conversations, we look at how leaders can not only provide accountability for others, but be accountable themselves, including stories from the early days of agile and from today's clients. SHOW LINKS: - XP Explained book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67833.Extreme_Programming_Explained - Rapid Development book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93892.Rapid_Development - Dynamics of Software Development ("don't flip the bozo bit"): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1416996.Dynamics_of_Software_Development - Nurtureshock: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6496815-nurtureshock - Greenshifting: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/greenshifting - Kent Beck Ease at Work: https://www.infoq.com/news/2007/04/beck-ease-at-work/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeA4CBInqKo - The Art of Action: https://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink - Radiating Intent: https://medium.com/@ElizAyer/dont-ask-forgiveness-radiate-intent-d36fd22393a3 - Accountability and Compassion: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/mutual-learning-model-accountability-and-compassion Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/accountability-leaders-are-accountable-too/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Commitment: Engagement is Not Enough
Moving on to Chapter 6 of Agile Conversations, it's time to talk about commitment. Not engagement, which we argue is insufficient to produce effective results, only enthusiasm that is far too often misdirected out of confusion about what important words mean and how to measure progress. We offer specific tools for effective commitments and hear a story about a company that created a pile of bones instead of a Walking Skeleton. SHOW LINKS: - Events we're speaking at soon, including IT Pro Live and DOES London: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/events/ - Domain-Driven Design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-driven_design - Big Book of Concepts: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/big-book-concepts - Specification by Example: https://gojko.net/books/specification-by-example/ - Walking Skeleton: https://wiki.c2.com/?WalkingSkeleton Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/commitment-is-not-enough/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Why: Finding the Balance for Joint Design
Although we talk about joint design a lot, we haven't managed to do an episode on it. As we get to chapter 4 in our tour through Agile Conversations, it's time to rectify that! We focus on a common error that we didn't cover in depth in the book: how trying to "convince" someone through advocacy fails. Using the Four Rs, we roleplay an ineffective advocacy-heavy conversation about tech team execution, and then revise it to increase curiosity, reduce defensiveness and achieve greater internal commitment. SHOW LINKS: - Getting to Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes - David Burns on (not) trying to help: https://feelinggood.com/2019/10/28/164-how-to-help-and-how-not-to-help/ - Previous episodes and blog posts on joint design: - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/mutual-learning-model-part-one - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-i - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-ii - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-iii - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-iv - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-v Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/why-finding-the-balance-for-joining/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Fear: The Original Sin of Unproductive Conversations
We're up to chapter 4 of Agile Conversations: "Fear: The Default Feeling". We look at why defaulting to fear was a successful adaptation for our ancestors and why it serves us poorly now, for example leading to the phenomenon of "greenshifting" that can lead to catastrophic misunderstandings. We explain why starting sentences with the phrase "I'm afraid that..." can help you expose and reduce fear in your team. SHOW LINKS: - Previous episodes and blog posts on fear and related techniques: - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/overcoming-normalisation-of-deviance - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/removing-the-blame-frame - https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2016/04/08/coherence-busting-explained/ - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/greenshifting - Greenshifting: https://www.drdobbs.com/dr-dobbs-agile-newsletter/191600661 Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/fear-the-original-sin-of-unproductive-conversations/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
A Sense of Security, Gained & Lost
We reflect on chapter 3 of Agile Conversations, all about building trust as the first step to a successful agile team. We respond to a reader who had an interesting understanding of the "Test-Driven Development for People" technique and relate the Trust Conversation to vulnerability, exploratory testing, and the painful process of learning. SHOW LINKS: - Previous episodes on trust: - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-first-thing-to-build-is-trust - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/be-predictable-to-build-trust - https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/test-driven-development-for-people - Squirrel's video on TDD for people: https://www.douglassquirrel.com/how-i-work.html - Kristine Casas blog post: - https://testkeis.wordpress.com/2020/05/17/read-agile-conversations/ - https://medium.com/@rocketkeis/on-the-ladder-of-inference-64493f7f8e00 - via https://softwaretestingweekly.com/issues/20 Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/a-sense-of0security-gained-and-lost/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
How To Improve and Why You Won't
Continuing our tour of our new book Agile Conversations, we come to our chapter on the foundational method for conversational analysis, the Four Rs. We briefly explain the value of conversational analysis, and share our observation that even highly motivated people who know how much it can help their agile teams find it hard to actually pull out a piece of paper and do an analysis. The reasons for this are very similar to the reasons we need the analysis in the first place—our cognitive biases fool us into thinking we don't need the help, others do. SHOW LINKS: - Extract of Agile Conversations: https://itrevolution.com/conversations-humanitys-secret-weapon/ - Thinking, Fast and Slow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow - Previous episode on the Four Rs: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs - James Clear, Atomic Habits: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits - London Organisational Learning meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Slack for Conversational Transformation: https://join.slack.com/t/agile-conversations/shared_invite/zt-e7j2fbet-jIjExF5HpWqMWpTJ1RfEfw Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/how-to-improve-and-why-you-wont/ Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Software Factory to Feature Factory
The first chapter of Agile Conversations is all about people-centred development, and we tell the story of our own journey from over-determined software factory to today's feature factories, with similar Taylorist theories of management in both. In today's episode, we go into more depth on the causes of this tragic journey, touching on old and new topics like Theories X and Y, the Cynefin framework, and why there isn't a JIRA plugin for conversational quality. SHOW LINKS: - Taylorism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management - Theories X and Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - 12 Signs You're Working in a Feature Factory by John Cutler: https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory - Cargo cults: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult and https://www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Cargo-Cult-Agile.html - Cockburn on people: https://web.archive.org/web/20140329203655/http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-linear,+first-order+components+in+software+development - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/software-factory-to-feature-factory/ Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
Project to Product with Mik Kersten
Once again we speak with a fellow author - Mik Kersten. His book Project to Product explains, among many other things, why you shouldn't assign developers to more than one value stream—and what a value stream is, anyway! SHOW LINKS: - Mik Kersten: https://projecttoproduct.org - Project to Product: https://projecttoproduct.org/about-the-book/ - IT Revolution discount on 11 May 2020: https://twitter.com/ITRevBooks *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out 12th May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
The Road to Agile Conversations
Our book Agile Conversations is nearly out (publication date is 12 May 2020)! We reflect on how we struggled with agile adoption and accountability in our teams and how we learnt to study and improve our conversations to get dramatically better results and internal commitment, eventually leading to us writing Agile Conversations to help spread the word about these techniques. Transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/road-to-agile-conversations/ SHOW LINKS: - Twitter debate with Benjamin Mitchell: https://twitter.com/benjaminm/status/494397820 - Schwarz, Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - London Organisational Learning Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Weinberg on Writing: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/302021.Weinberg_on_Writing Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/road-to-agile-conversations/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Team Topologies
We reach into the archives for an interview with Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, authors of the definitive guide to optimizing software team structures: Team Topologies. SHOW LINKS: - Team Topologies book: https://teamtopologies.com/ - Webinar: https://itrevolution.com/webinar-sign-up/ - One-day discount info on the IT Revolution Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/ITRevBooks/status/1252854902214340608 Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/team-topologies/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
The Cultural Negotiator
We welcome a guest today - Mark Davis, the Cultural Negotiator. He uses a "cultural intelligence framework" to suggest how one might approach difficult negotiations with customers and team members, in a way that is sensitive to their values and capabilities. SHOW LINKS: - Mark Davis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theculturalnegotiator/ and https://culturalq.com - Cultural intelligence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_intelligence and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercultural_competence - The OODA loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/cultural-negotiator/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Pandemic Productivity
What we're doing these days is not "remote working"—we have people ill, kids at home, and no option to work from a cafe. But even more than this, most of us haven't put in place alignment and accountability mechanisms, and we're operating on shared understanding from March that is going to expire very soon if it hasn't already. We discuss these and other challenges and briefly point to solutions that we've seen work, like briefing and back briefing from Bungay's Art of Action. Transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/pandemicproductivity/ SHOW LINKS: - TBD blog post on remote working: https://www.tbd.community/en/a/what-you-are-doing-not-remote-work-it-coping-global-emergency - Tweets on remote working: https://twitter.com/neilmwebb/status/1245012958415073282 https://twitter.com/techgirl1908/status/1246459512069820418 - Art of Action summary covering briefing and back briefing: https://portal.netobjectives.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Bungay_ArtOfAction_ChapterRecaps_Article.pdf - Sinek, Start With Why: https://simonsinek.com/product/start-with-why/ Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/pandemicproductivity/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]
Missing Affordances for Remote Working
Switching to remote working means big shifts in the communication patterns of our teams, and the tools we use to do that make some things harder and others easier—they have different "affordances". We explore these differences and suggest strategies for better effective collaboration. SHOW LINKS: - Classic book on affordances: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things - Concept Board: https://app.conceptboard.com - Sococo: https://www.sococo.com/ Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/missingaffordances/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Active Listening for Remote Working
Active Listening is very useful for normal conversations and meetings, but even more valuable when everyone's remote. We describe the technique, give listeners a chance to practise it, and give refinements like the Active Listening Relay for group discussions. SHOW LINKS: - Xavier Amador and LEAP: http://dramador.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnbOizw_zS0 - Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the-difference - Six Thinking Hats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/active-listening-for-remote-working/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected] Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Cynefin: Sense-Making in a Time of Turmoil
With a pandemic raging around the world, how can you and your agile team make sense of the world around you and adjust accordingly? The Cynefin framework gives you a way to categorise known and unknown information and figure out how to approach and change your work appropriately. We describe the framework (including how to pronounce Cynefin!) and explain how you might use it to help your agile team cope and even thrive in a challenging environment. SHOW LINKS: - The Cynefin framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Detailed Cynefin drawing by Edwin Stoop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework#/media/File:Cynefin_framework_by_Edwin_Stoop.jpg - James Gleick Chaos book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos:_Making_a_New_Science Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/cynefinsensemaking/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected] Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troub…d1327456890?mt=2
Do Release On Fridays
When a client tells Squirrel "of course there are no releases on Fridays", it's a red rag to a bull. After Squirrel rants for a bit, he calms down and we argue strongly for releasing often, even when it hurts—in fact particularly when it's difficult!—to "bring the pain forward" (Jez Humble). SHOW LINKS: - Jez Humble on doing painful things more often: https://continuousdelivery.com/ - Dr. David Burns on anxiety and exposure: https://feelinggood.com/tag/exposure/ Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/doreleaseonfridays/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected] Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troub…d1327456890?mt=2
Gaining Emotional Awareness
Following up from last week, we propose some ways to become emotionally aware, which we argue again is a key skill for success in an agile team. We suggest enriching your feeling vocabulary, self-distancing through disciplined recording of your conversations, and using check-in methods to spread the practise across your team. SHOW LINKS: - Center for Nonviolent Communication Feelings Inventory: https://www.cnvc.org/training/resource/feelings-inventory - David Burns Feeling Chart: https://feelinggood.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Feeling-Words-Chart-with-Five-Secrets-v-2.pdf - The Four Rs: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs - Check In from the Core Protocols: https://liveingreatness.com/files/core-protocols-3.03.html#check-in Episode transcript: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/emotionalawareness/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected] Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Walking the Line: Emotional Unawareness
Prompted by a listener, we look at a tool from Jim Dethmer called The Line. This leads us to discuss the value of being emotionally self-aware with a variety of examples from our recent consulting practise and bringing in several tools for increasing this awareness, including Six Thinking Hats, the Ladder of Inference, and the Core Protocols. SHOW LINKS: - Jim Dethmer on "Leading Above the Line": https://fs.blog/jim-dethmer/ - Naive realism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_realism - Feeling Good podcast on "Hidden Emotion": https://feelinggood.com/2020/02/24/181-live-therapy-with-sarah-shrinks-have-feelings-too/ - London Organisational Learning meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Ladder of Inference: https://www.foresightdesign.org/blog/2017/12/21/what-does-the-ladder-of-inference-even-mean - Six Thinking Hats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats - Core Protocols check-in: https://liveingreatness.com/files/core-protocols-3.03.html#check-in - Past episode on transparency and curiosity: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/mutual-learning-model-transparency-and-curiosity - Past episode on the 4 Rs: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected] Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Measuring Teams
How do you know if a software team is any good? How can you compare teams and the commercial value they are producing? And what are metrics good for anyway? We discuss these, especially the latter, concluding that metrics are triggers for questions not answers in themselves. We look at burn-up and burn-down charts and cycle time, though none of these are fully satisfying. SHOW LINKS: - Phases of team activity: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/2015-150507130312-lva1-app6891/95/agile-is-for-wimps-toplevel-software-development-in-the-21st-century-19-638.jpg?cb=1431003851 - Burn-up and burn-down charts: https://stayrelevant.globant.com/en/why-you-should-use-burn-up-chart-in-agile-instead/ - Cycle time: https://codeclimate.com/blog/software-engineering-cycle-time/ - Momentum vs urgency: http://testobsessed.com/2020/02/momentum-urgency/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on conversationaltransformation.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Multi-Sprint Stories
A listener asks us what to do when a story takes longer than one sprint. Our suggestions involve turpentine, slicing elephants and walking skeletons. SHOW LINKS: - Story splitting: https://agileforall.com/new-story-splitting-resource/ - Elephant carpaccio: https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Elephant-Carpaccio-exercise-instructions.pdf - Walking Skeleton: https://gojko.net/2014/06/09/forget-the-walking-skeleton-put-it-on-crutches/ - Feature thinning: http://www.agilekiwi.com/other/agile/feature-thinning/ - Unmade: http://unmade.com - Releasing 50x/day: http://timothyfitz.com/2009/02/10/continuous-deployment-at-imvu-doing-the-impossible-fifty-times-a-day/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Big Bang Badness
We tell the story of a company demanding that developers finish a huge project "so they can test it just once", and then explain why this is only a good idea if you intend to shield yourself from all learning. SHOW LINKS: - The Goal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel) - Externalities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Escaping the Room of Pain
Squirrel tells the story of the most painful manual testing experience he's ever been part of, and we discuss the value of manual testing, how humans differ from machines, and approaches to application verification that don't involve torture. SHOW LINKS: - Cockburn's "Characterizing people as non-linear 1st order components in software development": https://ameyakarve.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/characterizing-people-as-non-linear-1st-order-components-in-software-development-cockburn-us/ - The Unicorn Project: https://itrevolution.com/the-unicorn-project/ - Testing vs Checking: https://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/856 - Exploratory testing: https://www.satisfice.com/exploratory-testing - Explore It!: https://pragprog.com/book/ehxta/explore-it - CITCON: https://citconf.com/ - CruiseControl: http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Handling Constraints
Squirrel's client is struggling to deliver because product managers are a bottleneck. The Theory of Constraints gives us a framework for addressing these problems - and typing faster or adding developers are not part of the solution! SHOW LINKS: - The Goal: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113934.The_Goal - Theory of Constraints; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints - Subordinating to the constraint: http://www.sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com/six-sigma-tools/3rd-step-subordinate-all-other-tasks-to-the-constraint/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
Withholding Information
No matter how safe you make your retrospectives and other discussions, if your team don't have the skills to share information, you're running a substantial risk that someone will withhold information and you'll make a less than informed decision. We discuss ways to acquire and use information-sharing skills yourself and with your team. SHOW LINKS: - Blog post on withholding information: https://softwarelifecycle.wordpress.com/2020/01/16/withholding-information/ - Google on psychological safety: https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/foster-psychological-safety/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2
DevOps for the Modern Enterprise
We talk to Mirco Hering about agile dogmatism, the value of diversity, how to experiment with your processes, using stories to drive change, and his book Devops for the Modern Enterprise. SHOW LINKS: - Crossing the Chasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm - Devops for the Modern Enterprise: https://itrevolution.com/book/devops_modern_enterprise/ - Mirco: https://twitter.com/mircohering *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troub…d1327456890?mt=2
Conversational Transformations - Las Vegas
A special episode - audio of our talk on "conversational transformation" at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit. Practical steps you can take today to get your team on track to a successful digital/agile/devops transformation, using effective if difficult conversations. - Video of the talk and info on the book: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2