Azure & DevOps Podcast

Richard Hundhausen: Product Ownership - Episode 292

Apr 8, 2024

40:34

Richard Hundhausen helps software organizations and teams deliver better products by understanding and leveraging Azure DevOps and Scrum. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer, Professional Scrum Developer, author of Professional Scrum with Azure DevOps (MS Press), and co-creator of the Nexus Scaled Scrum framework. As a software developer and consultant with over 30 years of experience, he understands that software is built and delivered by people and not by processes or tools.

Topics of Discussion:

[3:03] Is it really that easy to teach developers?

[3:34] Scrum implementation and best practices for developers and managers.

[5:11] What is a Scrum trainer and developer?

[6:40] Reminding teams to talk to each other and deliver value earlier.

[6:47] Remembering not just the nouns, but the verbs: improve, collaborate, share, love the values, commit, have courage, be open, have focus, and be respectful.

[8:39] The importance of having the right teams.

[12:04] Improving software development efficiency through cross-functional teams.

[13:47] The importance of being a self-managing team.

[15:04] When we outsource everything to HR to find a good culture, that can perpetuate the “it’s someone else’s job” mentality.

[15:24] Bigger companies vs. smaller companies.

[17:44] Giving creatives the space to create.

[21:09] HDD (Hypothesis-driven development) can help us learn early and adapt.

[29:27] The importance of focusing on outcomes and impacts, rather than just measuring resources, activities, and outputs.

[31:08] Outcomes and impacts are where we should be focused.

[32:40] One percent of product owners using Scrum as intended?

[33:27] Even if you don’t have a product owner, have someone who orders the work.

Mentioned in this Episode: