Troubleshooting Agile

Dominica Degrandis is an expert on flow and helping companies get the benefits of using flow metrics to make systemic improvements. What does she find as the biggest obstacle to success? A proper investment in change. In this conversation Jeffrey and Dominica talk about the importance of a daily change budget, time you’d expect people to be working in the new way, with some advice for both leaders and practitioners. Recorded live at DevOps Enterprise Summit 2022 in Las Vegas. SHOW LINKS: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicadeg/ - Dominica Degrandis: https://ddegrandis.com - Making Work Visible, 2nd Edition: https://itrevolution.com/making-work-visible-by-dominica-degrandis/ - Dominica Degranids past episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?i=1000458010204 - Donald Reinertsen Principles of Product Development Flow: http://reinertsenassociates.com/books/ --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Audit, compliance, security, and governance: these words all carry the heavy weight of bureaucracy, the feeling of a burden to be overcome. In the recently published learning novel Investments Unlimited Bill Bensing and coauthors introduce the idea of automated governance, and in this conversation Bill and Jeffrey explore the difference between “governance theater”, automating away bullshit, and acting to get the real benefit. SHOW LINKS: - Investments Unlimited: https://itrevolution.com/investments-unlimited-book/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbensing/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillBensing - Bill Bensing: https://billbensing.com - Jon Willis part 1: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/john-willis-on-devops-past-present-and-future - Jon Willis part 2: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/john-willis-devops-past-present-future-part2 --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

If you want to create a “value flywheel” where success breeds success, you need to start with clarity of purpose. Join Jeffrey and his guest David Anderson to learn how David uses the technique of Wardley Mapping to generate shared understanding. But don’t make the mistake of thinking the map is the point! David says throwing away the map is just as important as creating it in the first place. SHOW LINKS: - The Value Flywheel Effect: https://itrevolution.com/the-value-flywheel-effect/ - David Anderson @ The Serverless Edge: https://theserverlessedge.com - Twitter: https://twitter.com/ServerlessEdge - Wardley Mapping: https://learnwardleymapping.com --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Want to know the agenda? We aren’t going to tell you! Join Jeffrey with guests Pascal Dufour & Ronald Doelen to talk about how the “tilted slider” applies to meetings just as much as other software development process. Recorded live at CITCON. SHOW LINKS: - Pascal Dufour: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascaldufournl/ - Ronald Doelen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdoelen/ - Episode: Tilted Slider: https://agileconversations.com/blog/dont-add-more-metrics/ - Open Space: https://citconf.com/openspace.php - Lean Coffee: http://leancoffee.org - Liberating Structures: TRIZ: https://www.liberatingstructures.com/6-making-space-with-triz/ --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Following last week's debate, Squirrel and Jeffrey share their different takes on the value of having estimated a tech team's planned work when it comes to a retrospective at the end of a cycle, like a sprint or a quarter: Jeffrey sees that checking what the team achieved against what they planned can lead to important lessons about dependencies, inefficiencies, and skills gaps, while Squirrel thinks the risk of the estimates "escaping" is too high, and that the team ought to be able to notice process failings as they go without the "crutch" of estimates. SHOW LINKS: - LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dsquirrel_my-friends-at-cto-craft-are-45-right-about-activity-6983761206993899522-raHE - Squirrel Tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1578315480472985602 - You’re Not So Smart : https://www.davidmcraney.com/new-page-1 --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey have different takes on the value of estimating a tech team's planned work at the beginning of a longer cycle, like a sprint or a quarter: Jeffrey says the discussion of an estimate often leads to insights and better outcomes, and Squirrel says you can get the same results without the estimates. Both agree that sharing and measuring against the estimates outside the team is counterproductive! SHOW LINKS: - LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dsquirrel_my-friends-at-cto-craft-are-45-right-about-activity-6983761206993899522-raHE - Squirrel Tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1578315480472985602 --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss various ways to make statements about the future ("this feature will take a week" or "users will buy 20% more if we cut prices in half") and disagree about exactly how valuable they are and how to use them. SHOW LINKS: - Tilted Slider: https://agileconversations.com/blog/dont-add-more-metrics/ - Toyota Kata: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Homepage.html - Thinking in Bets: https://www.annieduke.com/thinking-in-bets/ - Estimates are Lies: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/09-15-estimates.html - Superforcasting: https://www.amazon.com/Superforecasting-Science-Prediction-Philip-Tetlock/dp/0804136718 - Betting Market: https://manifold.markets Events: - Jtf at CITCON Europe Oct 14th & 15th: https://citconf.com/zwolle2022/ - Jtf at DevOps Enterprise Summit Oct 18th-20th: https://events.itrevolution.com/lasvegas/ - Squirrel live in Vienna Oct 20th: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/10-20-vienna.html - Squirrel live in Miami early November: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/11-09-miami.html --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

One of Jeffrey's clients solves their burnout problem, and then the same problem comes up in other coaching sessions: needing the freedom to disagree. Squirrel finds a related problem of burnout from being unwilling to disappoint others. Both the need to disagree and to disappoint require difficult conversations, but you can’t really say yes without being able to say no! SHOW LINKS: - The Uncanny Valley of a Functional Organization: https://stratechery.com/2013/the-uncanny-valley-of-a-functional-organization/ - Amy Edmondson (author of Teaming): https://amycedmondson.com/#books - Hard Work Not Hard Conversations: https://agileconversations.com/blog/hard-work-not-hard-coversation/ Upcoming Events: - Squirrel live in Berlin Sept 29th: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/09-29-berlin.html - Jtf at CITCON Europe Oct 14th & 15th: https://citconf.com/zwolle2022/ - Jtf at DevOps Enterprise Summit Oct 18th-20th: https://events.itrevolution.com/lasvegas/ - Squirrel live in Vienna Oct 20th: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/10-20-vienna.html - Squirrel live in Miami early November: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2022/11-09-miami.html --- Our book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel, an advocate for agile collaboration, and Jeffrey, who shares wisdom on dealing with process skeptics, engage in a lively discussion. They tackle the challenge of working with zealots clinging to strict methodologies like Scrum and SAFE, suggesting ways to turn resistance into productive conversations. Both guests encourage curiosity and empathy in discussions about agile processes, highlighting the importance of understanding diverse perspectives. They also question the relevance of traditional practices in today's fast-paced environments, calling for collaboration and open dialogue.

Squirrel describes how deals with overly vague strategy descriptions: tune them until they’re specific enough that someone could disagree with them. He and Jeffrey discuss how this applies beyond strategy, the value of asking probing questions, and the productive conflict that can arise from getting past the "motherhood and apple pie" answers. SHOW LINKS: - Podcast episode, Adversarial Analysis: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/scoring-briefing-and-back-briefing - Agile Conversations: https://agileconversations.com