Information Radiators in Leadership with Gerardo DeLaFuente and Eric Lindgren

This week, Dan Neumann is handing his role as a host to Buyi Kalala and Mike Guiler, who are leading today’s episode. Gerardo DeLaFuente and Eric Lindgren join them to discuss information radiators for leadership.

 

In this episode, they explore how information radiators influence a Team’s performance and the delivery of value when going from one engagement to the next. They also dive deep into the benefits and challenges of using these tools and list which tools are best, to begin with.

 

Key Takeaways

• What are some of the best Agile engagement tools?

• • These tools provide excellent visibility of the work in different stages, from conception to delivery. This information will give us a good way of understanding how the Team is performing.

  • Value Generator: Some metrics can be used internally or when you are delivering a system to customers.

  • Sierra and Jira are great tools for the Team to update their work and show different types of progress (a feature, a sprint, a release). These tools require less time to manipulate the data.

  • DevOps.

• How much value are we creating and delivering?

• • One of Agile’s advantages is that all the work can be shown. Using radiator information tools is a great way to obtain feedback and ensure the Team is on the correct path, make a turnover, and apply the necessary changes to adapt.

• Leaders benefit from using engagement tools in several ways.

• • Leaders can decompose the work associated with features epics and highlight when the Team is expected to deliver the value related to the product goal by communicating that through a big information board to communicate with Leaders and Executives; this way, delivery dates can be anticipated.

• How can a Leader explain the facts behind the metrics?

• • First, explain how the tool works (How many sprints at a given velocity?).

  • The number of sprints will increase while more unexpected situations arise in the process.

• What type of information radiators are good to start with?

• • Burn Down chart shows what you have planned for the sprint and the progress towards that goal.

  • Burn Ups Charts can be used at the feature level because it shows the total backlog and the progress toward meeting it (and how much the backlog is growing).

  • Flow Diagrams are used to manage flow stability.

  • DevOps provide the ability to build dashboards that help identify velocity, lead, and cycle time.

• Is there anything that prevents Teams from capturing information within a tool?

• • First, the Team needs to know how to update the information.

  • The Team needs to work with the parameters and make adjustments while advancing the work.

  • The Team has to be self-accountable to make all the necessary changes.

  • Without the complete set of data, you won’t get an accurate anticipation of the upcoming process.

• Explain to the Team why these tools are beneficial.

• • Team members focus on delivering products, which is why they feel administrative work is a burden and a waste of time.

  • Scrum Masters need to be great communicators, explaining to the Team members the reasons to use these tools and also the benefits resulting from using them.

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Check articles in Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org.

 

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