Troubleshooting Agile

Troubleshooting Checklists Checklists are a great way to capture learning in any organisation, but sometimes they don't work - why not? A recent study of hospitals with varying levels of success in adopting checklists helps us reflect on similar adoption challenges for agile methods. SHOW LINKS: - Checklist article from Nature: https://www.nature.com/news/hospital-checklists-are-meant-to-save-lives-so-why-do-they-often-fail-1.18057 - Agile principle 12 on reflection and improvement: https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/12-principles-behind-the-agile-manifesto/ - Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ - Ignaz Semmelweis, promoter of hand-washing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis *** 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

Our first interview ever! We welcome to the studio Chris Clearfield, co-author of Meltdown, a book all about system failure and the reasons for it. Chris explains ideas like tight coupling (not the OO kind!) and system complexity, and we explore how they apply to technical debt and bug prioritisation. We get to hear some of the best stories from the book as well, including the hedge fund that lost £500m in 45 minutes, and we learn about failcake and pre-mortem analysis. GUEST LINKS: - Chris's site: https://www.chrisclearfield.com - Chris's twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisClearfield - Book site: http://meltdownbook.net - Take the quiz: http://quiz.rethinkrisk.net/quiz/ - Book video preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wi8KA4I34s&feature=youtu.be SHOW LINKS: - Psychohistory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) - Normal Accidents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents - John Allspaw: https://www.kitchensoap.com/about-me/ - Just Culture book: https://sidneydekker.com/just-culture/ - Dunbar’s number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number - Amy Edmondson, Teaming: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaming-Organizations-Innovate-Compete-Knowledge/dp/078797093X - Jon Ronson So You've Been Publicly Shamed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You%27ve_Been_Publicly_Shamed - Gary Klein, Pre-Mortem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-mortem

Our first interview ever! We welcome to the studio Chris Clearfield, co-author of Meltdown, a book all about system failure and the reasons for it. Chris explains ideas like tight coupling (not the OO kind!) and system complexity, and we explore how they apply to technical debt and bug prioritisation. We get to hear some of the best stories from the book as well, including the hedge fund that lost £500m in 45 minutes, and we learn about failcake and pre-mortem analysis. GUEST LINKS: - Chris's site: https://www.chrisclearfield.com - Chris's twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisClearfield - Book site: http://meltdownbook.net - Take the quiz: http://quiz.rethinkrisk.net/quiz/ - Book video preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wi8KA4I34s&feature=youtu.be SHOW LINKS: - Psychohistory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) - Normal Accidents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents - John Allspaw: https://www.kitchensoap.com/about-me/ - Just Culture book: https://sidneydekker.com/just-culture/ - Dunbar’s number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number - Amy Edmondson, Teaming: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaming-Organizations-Innovate-Compete-Knowledge/dp/078797093X - Jon Ronson So You've Been Publicly Shamed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You%27ve_Been_Publicly_Shamed - Gary Klein, Pre-Mortem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-mortem *** 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

Our first interview ever! We welcome to the studio Chris Clearfield, co-author of Meltdown, a book all about system failure and the reasons for it. Chris explains ideas like tight coupling (not the OO kind!) and system complexity, and we explore how they apply to technical debt and bug prioritisation. We get to hear some of the best stories from the book as well, including the hedge fund that lost £500m in 45 minutes, and we learn about failcake and pre-mortem analysis. GUEST LINKS: - Chris's site: https://www.chrisclearfield.com - Chris's twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisClearfield - Book site: http://meltdownbook.net - Take the quiz: http://quiz.rethinkrisk.net/quiz/ - Book video preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wi8KA4I34s&feature=youtu.be SHOW LINKS: - Psychohistory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) - Normal Accidents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents - John Allspaw: https://www.kitchensoap.com/about-me/ - Just Culture book: https://sidneydekker.com/just-culture/ - Dunbar’s number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number - Amy Edmondson, Teaming: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaming-Organizations-Innovate-Compete-Knowledge/dp/078797093X - Jon Ronson So You've Been Publicly Shamed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You%27ve_Been_Publicly_Shamed - Gary Klein, Pre-Mortem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-mortem *** 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

Our first interview ever! We welcome to the studio Chris Clearfield, co-author of Meltdown, a book all about system failure and the reasons for it. Chris explains ideas like tight coupling (not the OO kind!) and system complexity, and we explore how they apply to technical debt and bug prioritisation. We get to hear some of the best stories from the book as well, including the hedge fund that lost £500m in 45 minutes, and we learn about failcake and pre-mortem analysis. GUEST LINKS: - Chris's site: https://www.chrisclearfield.com - Chris's twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisClearfield - Book site: http://meltdownbook.net - Take the quiz: http://quiz.rethinkrisk.net/quiz/ - Book video preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wi8KA4I34s&feature=youtu.be SHOW LINKS: - Psychohistory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) - Normal Accidents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents - John Allspaw: https://www.kitchensoap.com/about-me/ - Just Culture book: https://sidneydekker.com/just-culture/ - Dunbar’s number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number - Amy Edmondson, Teaming: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaming-Organizations-Innovate-Compete-Knowledge/dp/078797093X - Jon Ronson So You've Been Publicly Shamed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You%27ve_Been_Publicly_Shamed - Gary Klein, Pre-Mortem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-mortem *** 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

This week, Jeffrey and Squirrel discuss the history of “software for humans”, the agile, lean, and devops movements. No links this week as the book deadline looms, but feel free to ask us if you can’t find a reference. Normal service will resume shortly! *** 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

A listener question about running a Troubleshooting Agile study group inspires advice on keeping your learning from becoming lunchtime entertainment, as well as surprisingly relevant stories about a pottery class, a management seminar, and the Israeli military. SHOW LINKS: - Joel's tweet requesting advice on his study group: https://twitter.com/joelchippindale/status/1143137854278840321 - Our series on the twelve agile principles: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-importance-of-the-agile-principles - Pottery story from Art & Fear: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0961454733/ via https://stratechery.com/2015/buzzfeed-important-news-organization-world/ - Joel Spolsky on Fire and Motion: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/ - Reg Revans on action and learning: http://actionlearning.academy/benefits.html *** 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

The engineers know the project is in terrible trouble, but the executives think it's going great. This "greenshifting" anti-pattern occurs at NASA, software companies, and everywhere in between. We tell a few related stories, including a fable, and suggest methods that might work to counteract the greenshifting tendency in your organisation. SHOW LINKS: - "The Mushroom Song" by Steve Savitsky: http://steve.savitzky.net/Songs/mushroom/ - The SNAFU Principle (communication fable) from the Jargon File: http://skeptictank.org/files//cowtext/jargn10.htm - Appendix F on the Challenger disaster, by Richard Feynman: https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/Appendix-F.txt - Scott Ambler on Greenshifting: https://www.drdobbs.com/dr-dobbs-agile-newsletter/191600661 - Alistair Cockburn on information radiators: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=24486&ranMID=24808 - Brian Marick on lava lamps as build status indicators: https://gist.github.com/marick/3ec112bc38b2af267e15 *** 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

You can invest a lot of your time in making your software delivery predictable (a la NASA) or in making your team productive (a la early stage startups). Which is best? We introduce the idea of a "tilted slider" to explain this tradeoff, and the "gravity" that pulls you toward predictability even when it may not be the best emphasis. And as usual, we have stories of effective and ineffective action from our own experiences. SHOW LINKS: - Cowboy coding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_coding *** 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

How are you briefing your team? What measurements are you using to help them learn? Today, we discuss cases where giving the team incentives to make more mistakes produces positive results, and others where urging them to make fewer is catastrophic. SHOW LINKS: - Andon cord: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andon_(manufacturing) - Toyota Kata: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Homepage.html - NTSB immunity for pilots: https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/overview/immunity.html *** 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

Today we describe a technique for avoiding micromanagement and promoting autonomy - first pioneered by the Prussian military! We describe how briefing and back briefing help Boeing build airplanes and how the method increases efficiency and reduces drama in the agile teams we work with. SHOW LINKS: - Art of Action by Bungay: http://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink - Boeing weight economy: in https://www.amazon.co.uk/Serious-Play-Companies-Simulate-Innovate/dp/0875848141 *** 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

Today we relate three great stories we heard or told at CITCON in Ghent, all starting with different answers to Jeffrey's question, "Why can't we ship that today?" The answers lead us to different suggestions for helping teams to move faster and get customer feedback. SHOW LINKS: - Value stream mapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-stream_mapping - CITCON notes: https://citconf.com/wiki/index.php?title=WarStoriesAndSuccesses - Poppendieck and Poppendieck, Lean Software Development: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lean-Software-Development-Agile-Toolkit/dp/0321150783 *** 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

After the Mutual Learning and Unilateral Control models, this week we examine one more model for working with your team, perhaps the easiest: giving up! This one feels the best, since everyone is involved and gets to express his or her feelings. But unsurprisingly, giving up control means you give up valuable information that could help you make a better decision. SHOW LINKS: - Giving Up Control article: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/hr/moving-away-control - Adding Your Own Egg (Weinberg): http://stevenjackson.github.io/notebook/weinberg - Briefing and Back Briefing (Bungay): https://www.amazon.com/Art-Action-Leaders-between-Actions/dp/1857885597 *** 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

After our series on mutual learning values, we look at those of an alternative, the Unilateral Control Model, which match our default behaviour but don't normally lead to the type of learning your team is probably looking for. We look at why convincing others usually doesn't work and welcome Al Pacino for a brief cameo. SHOW LINKS: - Unilateral Control article by Roger Schwarz: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - "One More Inch" speech from Al Pacino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myyWXKeBsNk - previous series on unilateral control: 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 - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

Third in our series on using the Mutual Learning Model to improve your agile team. We look at accountability as a frightening prospect and as a route to ease at work (thanks Kent Beck). Then we consider how you might benefit from compassion - not only for your team and stakeholders, but also for leaders and for yourself. SHOW LINKS: - 8 Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - Accountability for sheriffs in the time of Henry II: http://historyoflaw.co.uk/exchequer-time-of-henry-ii/ - Ease at Work from Kent Beck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeA4CBInqKo and https://www.infoq.com/news/2007/04/beck-ease-at-work - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

Agile teams do better, we find, when they are transparent ("here's what I did last sprint") and curious ("what business problem are you trying to solve?"). Most people we meet claim they are both transparent and curious in their conversations and processes - but usually their actual behaviour when there's something at stake is very different. We introduce a 2x2 matrix that can help you measure whether you are managing to be transparent and curious, and help you improve if you're not. SHOW LINKS: - Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - Dr. David Burns and the relationship journal: https://feelinggood.com/tag/relationship-journal/ - Previous episode on learning with the "four Rs": https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

First of a series on using the Mutual Learning Model to get better results in your agile team. Today, why informed choice can help us avoid mistakes as minor as missing a requirement or as major as launching a rocket with a fatal flaw. SHOW LINKS: - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team - 8 Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - Feynman on Challenger disaster: https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/Appendix-F.txt - Actions Science blog posts: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/tag/action-science/ - Previous episodes on How to Fail by Acting Unilaterally and the 4 Rs: 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 https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

When your team talks about "what the business wants", do they know who they mean? Do they have evidence for the wishes of this amorphous group? It's impossible to negotiate with an undefined entity, but we offer some not-too-surprising ideas for making progress and discovering the real needs of "the business". SHOW LINKS: - XP Explained: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Programming-Explained-Embrace-Change/dp/0321278658 - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

Triggers and Tells We explain how to use observations of your own and others' behaviour to understand how to improve your conversations and get better agile results! SHOW LINKS: - Previous episode on learning from observations: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs - Previous episode on "why" as a trigger: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/why-is-a-trigger-not-a-question - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

In response to Michael Bolton's comment on last week's episode, we discuss genuine questions, reminding yourself to be curious, and converting your internal "why" to a more constructive question. SHOW LINKS: - Tweets from Michael Bolton and Brian Deyo: https://twitter.com/michaelbolton/status/1111083757971345413 and https://twitter.com/briandeyo/status/1111252749658869760 - Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805/ - CITCON conference: https://citconf.com/ghent2019/ *** 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

What Happens After Why Last week we explained how asking the simple question “why?” can help you make big improvements in your agile team - and this week we prove it, with two examples from Jeffrey. In one case his company landed a big client, and in the other an angry person actually listened to him! Hear more in this week’s episode! SHOW LINKS: - David Burns, the disarming technique: https://daviddburnsmd.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/the-five-secrets-v-1.pdf - Chris Voss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guZa7mQV1l0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llctqNJr2IU - Previous podcasts on coherent stories: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/why-you-shouldnt-listen-to-your-brain and on the 4 Rs of learning: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs - 7 habits of highly effective people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People - Squirrel and Jeffrey talk on leadership techniques: https://skillsmatter.com/meetups/11800-leadership-matters *** 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

In which we meet Squirrel's client Mr. Why, who wants to know the reasoning behind requests he gets but never actually asks, and we describe how this pattern holds back agile teams and how to break out of it. Surprisingly, lawyers feature prominently in this episode, as both positive and negative examples of effective "why" communication! SHOW LINKS: - Lawyers don't ask "why?": https://aqrlaw.ca/blog/five-questions-you-should-never-ask-on-cross-examination *** 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

Last week we emphasised the importance of practise to help you have better agile conversations and negotiations, and this week we describe two ways to practise - Argyris's two-column case studies and Dr. Burns's relationship journal - and a framework to use with both: record, reflect, revise, and roleplay. Join us in London on 19 March for our talk on "Sprinting In Place: The Cost of Missing Leadership Conversations"! SHOW LINKS: - Argyris's two column case study: https://blog.benjaminm.net/2011/02/16/argyriscasestudylearningmodelii/ https://hbr.org/1986/09/skilled-incompetence - Dr. David Burns's Interpersonal model & relationship journal https://feelinggood.com/2017/10/16/057-interpersonal-model-and-its-all-your-fault-part-4/ https://feelinggood.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/rj-revised-v-1c-dvl-v-1.pdf - Our SkillsMatter talk on 19 March: https://skillsmatter.com/meetups/11800-leadership-matters *** 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

Today, we explain that when you learn a new skill - whether it's playing the piano, kitesurfing across a lake, or negotiating with others inside and outside your agile team - it's vital to practise to develop your abilities. Don't jump onto the double black diamond run the first time you hit the slopes; instead, find a coach and watch her carefully as she goes down the mountain first. You'll learn to act in unintuitive ways and discover new possibilities you wouldn't have thought of. The same is true of learning to have the difficult conversations you need to improve your agile team - you can listen to us all you want, but you'll need to try (and fail!) to really master the methods. We get started on some methods for effective practise, including the use of a feeling chart, with more to follow in the next episode. Join us in London on 19 March for our talk on "Sprinting In Place: The Cost of Missing Leadership Conversations"! SHOW LINKS: - Jeffrey's blog post on the piano analogy: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2015/06/07/the-piano-analogy-some-practice-required/ - London Organisational Learning meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - NVC 4-part process: https://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/aboutnvc/4partprocess.htm - NVC feelings inventory: https://www.cnvc.org/training/resource/feelings-inventory - Our SkillsMatter talk on 19 March: https://skillsmatter.com/meetups/11800-leadership-matters *** 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

Your brain has two halves - not called left and right, but System 1 and System 2. Today we explain how these two halves of your own brain wind up fooling you and your team into believing things like "New York decided to do this", "customers don't want that feature", and "the business won't let us write tests" - and what you can do to keep your brain from tricking you into believing suspiciously coherent stories. Join us in London on 19 March for our talk on "Sprinting In Place: The Cost of Missing Leadership Conversations"! SHOW LINKS: - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0141033576 - Our SkillsMatter talk on 19 March: https://skillsmatter.com/meetups/11800-leadership-matters *** 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

The agile principles talk about empowerment and autonomy, but do we have to make a complete switch from our current centralised-decision culture to a fully autonomous one? The Satir curve, six thinking hats, and a theory of Tic Tac change (really!) from Jeffrey and Alistair Cockburn, shows us a way to make a series of small changes rather than one big shift. SHOW LINKS: - Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - The Uncanny Valley of A Functional Organization: https://stratechery.com/2013/the-uncanny-valley-of-a-functional-organization/ - Satir curve (J-curve): http://dhemery.com/articles/managing_yourself_through_change/ - Tic Tac presentation (Fredrick/Cockburn): http://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/sdbp06tictactalk.pdf - Six Thinking Hats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats *** 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

Theory X organisations don't trust their people - or do they? To be agile we have to move our organisations to a Theory Y model with empowerment and autonomy - or do we? Organisational change has to be painful - or does it? And what does all this have to do with creepy robots? SHOW LINKS: - Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - J Jonah Jameson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhDBWiTfNCU - The Uncanny Valley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley - The Uncanny Valley of A Functional Organization: https://stratechery.com/2013/the-uncanny-valley-of-a-functional-organization/ *** 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

Due to illness and travel, Jeffrey and Squirrel present one of their greatest hits of the past! *** Squirrel and Jeffrey look at a recent article by Luke Tomas on the "employee engagement industry" (we didn't even know it *was* an industry!) Jeffrey rapidly links this to Brian Marick's idea of Ease and Joy at work and we all agree that engagement, happiness, and joy are all useful, but lagging, indicators of team success - so you can't improve them directly with bigger bonuses or tougher objectives. Instead alignment, focus, and autonomy work to create these results by creating the conditions for happiness and good performance. SHOW LINKS: - Luke Tomas, The Employee Engagement Myth: medium.com/@lukethomas14/the-e…t-myth-3885526782d7 - Brian Marick, Ease and Joy at Work: exampler.com/ease-and-joy/ - Previous episode on technical excellence: Troubleshootingagile – Fowlers-state-of-agile-part-two - Reinventing Organisations (Teal and other colours): www.reinventingorganizations.com/ - Theory X and Theory Y: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - Daniel Pink, Drive (video): www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc - Niko Niko: www.agilealliance.org/glossary/nikoniko/ - Small Improvements: www.small-improvements.com/ - Joy, Inc : www.menloinnovations.com/joyinc/ - Joy At Work: www.dennisbakke.com/joy-at-work *** 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

The US Defense Department (yes, the huge bureaucratic government body) recently released a brief and readable guide to troubleshooting your agile team. We have a look at three more of its key recommendations for figuring out whether you're agile team is really agile - which leads us to discuss when software developers should wield soldering irons and how continuous integration is better with a rubber chicken. SHOW LINKS: - Detecting Agile BS: https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/09/2002049591/-1/-1/0/DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.PDF - The Defense Innovation Board: https://innovation.defense.gov - Continuous Integration on a Dollar a Day (aka the Rubber Chicken): https://www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Continuous-Integration-on-a-Dollar-a-Day.html - IMVU continuous deployment: http://timothyfitz.com/2009/02/10/continuous-deployment-at-imvu-doing-the-impossible-fifty-times-a-day/ - CITCON (Continuous Integration and Testing Conference): https://citconf.com/ *** 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

The US Defense Department (yes, the huge bureaucratic government body) recently released a brief and readable guide to troubleshooting your agile team. We have a look at three of its six key recommendations for figuring out whether you're agile team isn't really agile - which leads us to discuss what end-users really are and why financial traders are so insane. SHOW LINKS: - Detecting Agile BS: https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/09/2002049591/-1/-1/0/DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.PDF - The Defense Innovation Board: https://innovation.defense.gov *** 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

Once you've been vocally critical and identified areas to improve in your agile team, what next? "We should" too often turns into "We won't", so good intentions aren't enough. Jeffrey tells the story of teaching TDD and the tools he learnt and developed to foster internal commitment to change - paradoxically, this involves questioning whether the change is actually worth doing! SHOW LINKS: - SPIN selling book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/0566076896 - Previous episode on earning trust through vocal self-criticism: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/earning-trust-at-amazon - Previous series on unilateral control: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-i *** 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

Inspired by a listener comment, we look at one of Amazon's leadership principles, which describes how leaders are expected to earn trust in that organisation. It seems to us that the principle lays the foundation for effective psychological safety for the avoidance of error, but there are some traps to watch out for on the way to that end. SHOW LINKS: - Amazon leadership principles: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles - Ladder of inference annotated diagram: http://troubleshootingagile.com/docs/TheLadderOfInference.pdf *** 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

In our one-year anniversary episode, we start with a story about "flickering" tests and generalise to look at the idea of normalisation of deviance. We suggest that psychological safety lets you hear from those who see the deviance but aren't speaking up, with examples from oil rigs, and tie to pair programming as a way to create a safe environment for reiterating agreed non-deviant behaviour. SHOW LINKS: - Diane Vaughan and links to normalisation of deviance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Vaughan - Bystander effect and smoke experiment; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect#Social_psychology_research - Psychological safety: https://www.businessinsider.com/amy-edmondson-on-psychological-safety-2015-11?r=UK&IR=T - Oil rig creating psychological safety: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/17/482203447/invisibilia-how-learning-to-be-vulnerable-can-make-life-safer and https://hbr.org/2008/07/unmasking-manly-men *** 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

We've been talking about building trust in agile teams by aligning your stories; an important ingredient for this is being predictable, so others can believe you actually have a story they can align with. We tell an extended story about a developer with a severely misaligned story and how Squirrel's route to trust with him included crawling around on the floor reconfiguring cables. SHOW LINKS: - Argyris, Espoused Theory vs Theory in Use: http://infed.org/mobi/chris-argyris-theories-of-action-double-loop-learning-and-organizational-learning/#_Theories_of_action - Previous podcast on acting unilaterally: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-iv - Annotated Ladder of Inference diagram: http://troubleshootingagile.com/docs/TheLadderOfInference.pdf - Schwarz, Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf *** 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

We answer a listener question about standups for feature teams, but we think the problem is actually a larger one of disengagement. A common symptom is people sitting down for their standup (oxymoron alert!) We recommend some ways to overcome disengagement using Coherence Busting and the Ladder of Inference, tools we've been discussing on recent podcasts. SHOW LINKS: - Feature teams: http://featureteams.org - Ladder of Inference episodes: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/test-driven-development-for-people and https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/introspection-with-the-ladder-of-inference - Coherence busting: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2016/04/08/coherence-busting-explained/ and https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/removing-the-blame-frame *** 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

Last time we talked about sharing reasoning and building trust in your agile team using TDD for People, one way to use the Ladder of Inference. Today we look at how the Ladder can help you discover your own reasoning as well, to discover ways to promote mutual learning with your own behaviour. SHOW LINKS: - Top Business Podcasts for CEOs, from Fiona Anderson: https://www.rocktime.co.uk/insights/listen-and-learn-the-art-of-podcasting-for-ceos/ - The Ladder of Inference (annotated by Jeffrey): http://troubleshootingagile.com/docs/TheLadderOfInference.pdf - The London Organisational Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow *** 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

As promised, we start describing our favourite trust-building technique: the Ladder of Inference. Our take this week is on using the Ladder to understand someone else's reasoning and align your stories, creating trust as a foundation for further improvement in your agile team. Surprisingly, the experience of using the Ladder in this way is similar to Test-Driven Development: careful, understandable, small steps with confidence, and meaningful signals from both success and failure. SHOW LINKS: - Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003ELY7OW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 - The Ladder of Inference (annotated by Jeffrey): http://troubleshootingagile.com/docs/TheLadderOfInference.pdf - Cognitive biases book and more: https://youarenotsosmart.com/ - Schwarz on unilateral control (again!): http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - TDD for people video: https://www.douglassquirrel.com/how-i-work.html - Schwarz 8 behaviours (Paula/Ted are on page 4): https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf *** 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

We start previewing the ideas in our forthcoming book on using conversations to improve your agile results. First up: why you need trust before you do anything else (including hold a standup, write unit tests, or move your desks together). Next week, a step-by-step technique to build trust. SHOW LINKS: - The first thing to build is trust, Brad Appleton: http://bradapp.blogspot.com/2005/02/first-thing-to-build-is-trust.html - Psychological safety: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2666999?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents - The story I'm telling myself: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2015/08/31/the-story-im-making-up/ - Naive realism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_realism_%28psychology%29 and previous TA episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-i *** 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

We cap our five-part series on undermining your agile team with the pinnacle of ineffective behaviour: the belief that you are not contributing to the problem. Inaccurate estimates, useless meetings, directionless standups - so long as you're sure all these are entirely someone else's fault, you'll be sure never to fix them, and thus leave your team high and dry. Master this technique and never worry about having an effective team again! Bonus at the end on what's next for the podcast... SHOW LINKS: - Roger Schwarz on unilateral control: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - Belief bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief_bias - Emotional reasoning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_reasoning *** 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

Why listen to team members and peers when your feelings and behaviours are obviously justified? We continue our how-to series on undermining your agile team with two stories about people who, believing they are clearly correct about how to improve their agile teams, move to shut down communication and manipulate the environment to ensure their approaches are adopted - with, predictably, zero internal commitment from the rest of the team. SHOW LINKS: - Roger Schwarz on unilateral control: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - Jeffrey's "Frustrated? It's Probably Your Fault" session: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2015/07/18/video-frustrated-it-is-probably-your-fault/ - Model I characteristics: http://infed.org/mobi/chris-argyris-theories-of-action-double-loop-learning-and-organizational-learning/#_Model_I_and *** 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

Another in our top tips for ensuring your agile team does not achieve its goals - assume you have pure motives and others are actively malicious. We describe several helpful biases that, if adopted, can help you take up this mindset, and describe a founder duo with negative beliefs about each other who had mastered the art of "Getting to No" - until they read Fisher/Ury and discovered they actually had a common interest and positive motives. SHOW LINKS: - Roger Schwarz on unilateral control: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - Geoff Watts Top Ten Agile Podcasts: https://twitter.com/geoffcwatts/status/1057310923218698241 - Biases: Bias blind spot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_blind_spot , Negativity bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias , and naïve cynicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_cynicism - Getting To Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes *** 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

More this week on ways to fail with agile by making unilateral assumptions - this week's tip is to believe you are right and everyone else is wrong. In fact, even the underlying assumption that there is a single right answer should get you a long way to fracturing your team and ensuring discord. Squirrel tells a story of someone particularly skilled at explaining why he knows the One True Agile Way and Jeffrey recalls that Mark Twain quote about the problem being what you know that ain't so (and one thing that ain't so is that the quote is from Mark Twain!) SHOW LINKS: - Roger Schwarz on unilateral control: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - Dan North: https://dannorth.net/ - Jon Allspaw on the root cause fallacy: https://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/02/10/each-necessary-but-only-jointly-sufficient/ - Twain's quote (or not): http://marktwainstudies.com/the-apocryphal-twain-things-we-know-that-just-aint-so/ *** 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

Turning our usual subject on its head, this week we start a short series on how to make sure your team does NOT improve. The first assumption to this end: the belief that you understand the situation while others don't. The change that's needed is obvious; all you have to do is convince others to adopt it. Easily adaptable to kanban, scrum, SAFe, or any other method that seems (to you!) to be the solution to your problems. Try it today, and tune in to further episodes for more ways to ensure you don't succeed in making effective changes! SHOW LINKS: - How Unilateral Control Undermines Team Results and Relationships, Schwarz: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/ - Naive realism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_realism *** 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

Squirrel and Jeffrey look at a recent article by Luke Tomas on the "employee engagement industry" (we didn't even know it *was* an industry!) Jeffrey rapidly links this to Brian Marick's idea of Ease and Joy at work and we all agree that engagement, happiness, and joy are all useful, but lagging, indicators of team success - so you can't improve them directly with bigger bonuses or tougher objectives. Instead alignment, focus, and autonomy work to create these results by creating the conditions for happiness and good performance. SHOW LINKS: - Luke Tomas, The Employee Engagement Myth: https://medium.com/@lukethomas14/the-employee-engagement-myth-3885526782d7 - Brian Marick, Ease and Joy at Work: http://exampler.com/ease-and-joy/ - Previous episode on technical excellence: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/fowlers-state-of-agile-part-two - Reinventing Organisations (Teal and other colours): http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/ - Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - Daniel Pink, Drive (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc - Niko Niko: https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/nikoniko/ - Small Improvements: https://www.small-improvements.com/ - Joy, Inc : https://www.menloinnovations.com/joyinc/ - Joy At Work: http://www.dennisbakke.com/joy-at-work *** 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

A Squirrel-only show since Jeffrey's away. Squirrel described the Post-It Factory Game which illustrates both work-in-progress limits and the more general notion of "Throughput over Utilisation" - as well as making your colleagues fall over themselves trying to produce blue squares at top speed. SHOW LINKS: Kanban by David Anderson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402 Similar games to illustrate agile and kanban ideas: https://availagility.co.uk/resources/games/lego-flow-game/ https://www.agile42.com/en/training/kanban-pizza-game/ *** 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

Last (for now) in our series responding to Martin Fowler's State of Agile 2018 speech. This week we look at Fowler's third claim - that software projects should be replaced by software products - and go further, arguing that organising around user conversations is the key to a successful business outcome. SHOW LINKS: - Fowler on the State of Agile 2018: https://martinfowler.com/articles/agile-aus-2018.html - Commandos, Infantry, Police: https://devblog.timgroup.com/2013/07/24/invading-the-product-landscape-a-metaphor/ - Wardley mapping: https://medium.com/wardleymaps/doctrine-8bb0015688e5 *** 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

We continue our series responding to Martin Fowler's State of Agile 2018 speech. This week we look at Fowler's second claim - that agile software development has forgotten that it's about software, and that technical excellence in practises like refactoring, testing, and architecting should be (but isn't) central to discussions of good agile practise. We agree with Fowler and go even further, arguing that we should be making the (strong) case for technical excellence as a source of business value - to make our products more flexible, easier to use, and more satisfying to users. SHOW LINKS: - Fowler on the State of Agile 2018: https://martinfowler.com/articles/agile-aus-2018.html - Marick on forgotten agile ideas: http://www.exampler.com/discipline-and-skill.html and http://www.exampler.com/blog/2007/05/16/six-years-later-what-the-agile-manifesto-left-out/ - Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow (cost of delay): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-Generation/dp/1935401009 - Accelerate book: https://itrevolution.com/book/accelerate/ - Our previous episode on technical excellence and the agile principles: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/enhancing-agility-through-technical-excellence-and-good-design *** 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

Martin Fowler gives us lots to chew on in the form of a speech on the state of agile software development in 2018. We start a series responding to Fowler by examining the Agile Industrial Complex - proponents of the "one true way" of agile development and out-of-the-box methodologies - and why Squirrel thinks the buyers and sellers of these "solutions" are doomed to failure by their "Theory X" cultures. SHOW LINKS: - Fowler on the State of Agile 2018: https://martinfowler.com/articles/agile-aus-2018.html - Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - The Military-Industrial Complex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex - Crossing the Chasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm - Cynefin Framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Community of Solutions and Community of Needs: https://theitriskmanager.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/communities-of-need-community-of-solutions/ - CITCON: http://citconf.com/

A listener asks us how we reconcile the perceived conflict between learning and design - if you're iterating fast, how can you also build solid, scalable architecture? With examples from OO and Domain-Driven Design, we describe how early agile adopters addressed this issue (and how the meaning of "design" has evolved), and then make suggestions for modern teams. SHOW LINKS: - Elephant Carpaccio: https://dzone.com/articles/elephant-carpaccio-user - OO design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_design - DDD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-driven_design *** 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

Once you have a bunch of great ideas from your reflection, how can you make sure you and your team actually use what you've learnt? We illustrate several variations on one of our favourite learning-capture methods, the humble checklist - including self-improving lists and an idea that survived ten years by migrating among multiple checklist formats, from wiki page to slackbot. SHOW LINKS: - The Checklist Manifesto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Checklist_Manifesto - Jeffrey's Glider Training Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6QcOQ3olbE - Elizabeth Hendrickson's Testing Cheat Sheet: http://testobsessed.com/2007/02/test-heuristics-cheat-sheet/ - Making Software Like Intensive Care or Bombing Missions: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2008/09/10/making-software-like-intensive-care-or-bombing-missions/ - Exploratory Testing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_testing - Human in the Loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-in-the-loop *** 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