Troubleshooting Agile

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

A special episode - audio of our talk on "conversational transformation" at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit. Practical steps you can take today to get your team on track to a successful digital/agile/devops transformation, using effective if difficult conversations. - Video of the talk and info on the book: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/ *** 
 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

After Squirrel argued passionately in a previous episode that non-functional requirements should be eliminated, we invite medtech expert and portfolio CTO Alex Hudson to visit and describe why he finds NFRs helpful. It turns out that the two positions are closer together than we might have thought, and we get fascinating stories about medical device design and 30-second page loads along the way. SHOW LINKS: - Alex Hudson: https://twitter.com/ealexhudson and https://alexhudson.com/ - Previous rant episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/squirrels-rant - Twitter debate with Alex: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1207400245002457090 - The "ilities": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-functional_requirement *** 
 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 review our holiday reading and watching plans for listeners who might want to join us in exploring lean and agile ideas over the break. We also list our top 5 episodes from 2019 and preview a few events planned for 2020. SHOW LINKS: - Ed Catmull on conversations and other challenges at Pixar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc - Kent Beck on throughput vs latency: https://medium.com/@kentbeck_7670/inefficient-efficiency-5b3ab5294791 - Mark Schwartz, War and Peace and IT: https://itrevolution.com/war-and-peace-and-it/ https://twitter.com/schwartz_cio - Subscribed by Tien Tzuo and Gabe Weisert.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscribed_(book) - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team - Lean Thinking by Womack and Jones: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289467.Lean_Thinking - The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17255186-the-phoenix-project - The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44333183-the-unicorn-project - Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762542.The_Four_Steps_to_the_Epiphany - The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schön : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29916803-the-reflective-practitioner - The Lean Startup by Eric Ries : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean-startup - The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald Reinertsen : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6278270-the-principles-of-product-development-flow - Team Topologies by Skelton and Pais: https://itrevolution.com/team-topologies/ Top 5 episodes in 2019: 5. How to Detect Agile BS - Part 1 : https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-detect-agile-bs-part-1 4. Values of the Give Up Control Model : https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/values-of-the-give-up-control-model 3. Mutual Learning Model: Accountability and Compassion : https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/mutual-learning-model-accountability-and-compassion 2. Agile is Dead, Long Live Agile : https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/agile-is-dead-long-live-agile 1. Ryan Singer on Basecamp and Shape Up, Part I : https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/ryan-singer-on-basecamp-and-shape-up-part-i *** 
 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