Troubleshooting Agile

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. 
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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 info@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

Exploring emotional awareness in the workplace through the 'Above and Below the Line' metaphor. Discussing the pitfalls of oversimplification in consulting tools and the importance of addressing emotions in decision-making. Emphasizing the value of practice and listener engagement for future episodes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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