Agile Coaches' Corner

This week you’re in for a treat (or trick)! It’s the Agile Coaches’ Corner special Halloween edition episode! Joining Dan for this spooktacular episode is frequent guest host, Sam Falco. Together, they will be exploring the Scrum treehouse of horrors!   Throughout their careers, both Dan and Sam have both experienced their fair share of horrific Scrum experiences. So, what better way to spend Halloween than to share some bone-chilling Scrum horror stories? From failing your sprint goal to poor planning and beyond, come join Dan and Sam by the campfire to hear some Scrum horror stories that will leave you shaking!   Key Takeaways Bone-chilling Scrum horror stories: A team that is not allowed to plan correctly A team that doesn’t understand the concept of the sprint goal being different from the sprint scope Failing your sprint goal! Planning a sprint to 100% capacity and then getting a new request by a customer last minute (which leads to a spiral of frustration, bad morale, inability to deliver, and eventually, a huge quality problem) When a team can’t cut scope and can’t cut time so they cut corners Disrupted work which causes bugs to begin to be let through When Scrum becomes a mechanism for developer abuse instead of a tool for the team/s to manage their work and deliver a higher return on investment Hearing: “I thought Scrum was just a way of churning through requirements in two-week sprints.” A bad culture built off ego and pressure A manager that berates the team and tries to control them through power and fear A manager that disrupts the team and creates a toxic environment with poor morale A system based on fear with an emphasis on simply wanting to “look good” and not in supporting a culture of safety Waterfalling through an 18-sprint project (with this, there is no room for improvement, adaptation, and iteration; the team/s can’t experiment their way to a valuable outcome because they’re simply being given a list of tasks to accomplish rather than being able to use their imagination and creativity to solve cool problems) Not to fear about these Scrum horror stories — there’s still hope! In most cases, a project is never unrecoverable; You can start building trust with stakeholders with just a little bit of openness (and by making sure to not point fingers or cast blame) Honesty breeds more honesty — be as honest and transparent as possible!   Mentioned in this Episode: Dark Scrum — Ron Jeffries Live AgileThought Community Event: “Agile Heard Around the World” with Special Guests — Oct. 29th Challenger: The Final Flight (2020 Series, Netflix)Theranos   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

Joining Dan today is his colleague and collaborator, Sam Falco, to discuss whether or not Scrum Masters are expendable. Is it possible for things to be running so smoothly that you’re working yourself out of a job as a Scrum Master? Is there anything left for a Scrum Master to do once best practices become team culture, the team is self-sufficient, and the organization reaches a high level of performance? Why or why not should an organization keep a Scrum Master around? How does the role evolve over time? Tune in as Sam and Dan answer all of these questions and more on this week’s episode!   Key Takeaways Can or should a Scrum Master be trying to “work themselves out of a job”? The idea that they can work themselves out of a job is an inherently flawed concept as it arises from the common misconception that they’re only a team coach A Scrum Master can always serve an organization (as there is no such thing as 100% perfection; the goal post is constantly moving/evolving) Sports analogy: If a team is doing really well, you don’t fire the coach! The same goes for Scrum (you still need the Scrum Master to keep the team and organization at a high-level and help finetune their performance) Why is a Scrum Master necessary? To help the team and organization continually improve (there is no ultimate level of performance) What is perfect now, may change — there is no pinnacle; there is always room for improvement If you reach a plateau, more experiments need to be conducted and other areas need to be examined Even if everything seems perfect, it is important to stay on top of things and continue retrospectives, etc. Qualities of a high-performing Scrum Master that delivers continuous improvement and value to the team and organization: Help the entire organization embrace empiricism in what it’s doing; not just team development Make decisions based on sound data (through transparency, inspection, and adaptation) Teach about empiricism with the Product Owner, finding better ways to refine the product backlog, experiments to run, etc. Help the whole organization improve; not just the team Value outcomes rather than output Make sure that the whole organization is living the Agile values and Scrum principles Help the team and organization resolve problems themselves and remove impediments Don’t trade efficiencies for throughput (a bit of slack in efficiency is actually beneficial for higher throughput) Know that in any complex endeavor, there are many variables and you will never get everything correct; situations always change, so be sure to not be overly optimized and be willing to adjust and adapt How does a Scrum Master’s role evolve over time? Through innovation, experimentation, and creating new best practices Always have something to do, reevaluate, and ask yourself, “How can I be of service? How can I help? What can I do that’s useful?” Look at the overall system and figure out hidden/less obvious impediments Always find opportunities to further optimize within an organization Always find new ways to deliver value   Mentioned in this Episode: Live AgileThought Community Event: “Agile Heard Around the World” with Special Guests — Oct. 29th Peerfit Cynefin Framework The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done, by Stephen Denning The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt  and Jeff Cox Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds, by Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees  Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling, by Edgar Schein   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

Ed Buckley is the CEO of Peerfit, a company that creates a streamlined way for people to connect their health dollars with fitness experiences people actually want to use. When COVID-19 hit, the company underwent a large restructuring process. Because of the unknown nature of the virus, the company needed something that could provide structure but allowed for flexibility later down the road. This is why Ed decided to work with AgileThought and consultant Christy Erbeck.   In this episode, both Ed and Christy share their 90-day reflections on how agile has worked for Peerfit and what it looks like when decisions are made within teams and not from a sole leader. Ed himself shares how this restructuring has freed him up to think about the future of the company and how the 90-plus employees within the organization are managing the agile framework.   Key Takeaways How AgileThought and Agile are applied in a business setting. What gets you here doesn’t get you there. This year you were forced to take a different approach. Christy, as an outsider, had to come in and really take a top-down approach to see where there was a duplication of efforts and how to streamline Peerfit more effectively. Ed had to reduce his staff by a significant amount due to COVID-19, he was going to lose some key players and needed to adopt a more “fluid” approach in discussion making. When you empower your people, you move faster. Reflections on how Agile has helped Ed’s business Ed feels free and can choose what actions to be involved with vs. letting his team handle it. Ed now has the opportunity to look forward instead of being stuck in his business and being the central point for making all the company’s decisions. Before, the company had very cleared departments or silos. AKA, the sales team, the account management team, etc. Now, they have three North-star teams and each team is attached to one north-star goal. How Peerfit restructured their team It was a messy process trying to figure out who should be on what team. Some team members were afraid that if they weren’t put on the ‘right’ team, they didn’t feel part of the organization. It is definitely a work in progress. However, Ed set up slack channels to help address concerns and keep people within the organization informed on upcoming changes. Clear communication has been key to helping everyone feel at ease and understanding who is on what team. In the beginning, the AgileThought team gave Peerfit a couple of options that they could implement and the pros and cons of each one.   Mentioned in this Episode: Peerfit.com Ed Buckley (LinkedIn) Christy Erbeck (LinkedIn)   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

Dan is excited today to be joined by his guest, Simon Holzapfel. Simon is the founder and Executive Director of Copper Beech & Company, where they provide financial literacy for high net worth families. He is also an educator, agilist, and learning innovator. He has dedicated his entire adult life to equipping young adults with the knowledge and skills they require to work, think, and live well.   In this episode, they will be exploring the topic of the Teal movement, Agile organizations, and education during the pandemic. Simon thoroughly explains what the Teal movement is, why it is important, and what it looks like when applied to a variety of organizations. He also shares about a unique project he is a part of and what they’re doing to bring authentic agile to the world.   Key Takeaways What is the Teal movement? A reference narrative for how the world of work is, how it has evolved, and where it is going It is a navigation tool to understand how you can achieve the next level Laloux (the founder of the movement) proposes that there is a concentric circle to how organizations have developed over time Red: Command authority, division of labor, power, fear, and chaos (examples: street gangs, mafia, tribal militias) Yellow: Hierarchy, stability, control, formal roles, long-term perspective (examples: traditional churches, governments, public schools) Orange: Competition, accountability, meritocracy, objectives, profit (examples: public universities, large corporations) Green: Delight customers, shared values, engagement, stakeholder balance, culture over strategy, empower (examples: Ben & Jerry’s, Southwest Airlines) — This is where agility tends to live right now Teal: The next iteration of agility into antifragile organizations, built around higher purpose, self-management, distributed decision-making, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose Laloux is not saying other colors other than teal is bad; he is saying that all of the other colors are instrumental and getting to where we are now — but they’re cruft Laloux recommends, as a society, we shed these other colors as best as we can Recommended further reading: Reinventing Organizations, by Frédéric Laloux Where this movement connects to different organizations: Teal education: Students are encouraged to ‘pull’ information into their lives rather than be pushed into learning (Examples: eduScrum, Montessori education) Teal manufacturing: self-organization, teams pulling in work (as opposed to work being pushed on to them), and bringing your whole self to work (Examples: Morning Star, Buurtzorg) What Teal organizations look like/involve: A healthy bottom line They are incredibly efficient at generating value Employees are far more productive because they are listened to, encouraged, and engaged They foster more active engagement which, in turn, creates better results and outcomes It’s not about no rules or no structures; it is simply a different set of principles (by and large, the agile mindset) Involves intent-based leadership Trust is incredibly important — without it, everything will fall apart Everything is visible and transparent (visibility is the trust builder) The leaders or teachers create a feedback-rich environment so that the employees/students can learn quickly About the BU Agile Innovation Lab: The goal: Bring authentic agile to the world (including college students by meeting them where they are with the interests that they have) They want to complement schools and not compete with them They are striving to create a more open ‘meta’ that creates more equity Authentic agility + trying to introduce more Teal structures   Mentioned in this Episode: Simon Holzapfel’s LinkedIn Teal Model (Image) Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness, by Frédéric Laloux Boston University Agile Innovation Lab: Agile in Education Conference (Oct. 23rd–24th) Morning Star Buurtzorg Montessori Education Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by David Marquet Willy Wijnands | eduScrum   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by his co-host and collaborator, Sam Falco, to discuss the topic of professional Scrum.   What does professional Scrum refer to? What is professionalism? What does a professional Scrum Master look like? What does it look like to practice Scrum professionally through principles and values laid out in The Scrum Guide? What does professionalism look like on a Scrum team? Sam and Dan answer all of these questions and more in this episode!   Key Takeaways What does professional Scrum refer to? Ken Schwaber’s definition: “A professional is someone who works for money and follows the rules established for the profession. Professionals act and work according to standards where they exist. They also embrace and embody a set of ethical principles established by their profession.” Adhering to the rules set forth in The Scrum Guide The Scrum values fulfill the role of the “ethical principles” in the software development industry A mindset of professionalism and a commitment to a certain set of standards An emphasis on communication and empathy between business and development (so that you can ensure that you are delivering what the customer actually wants and can use) Professionalism includes really understanding why you’re doing the things that you are doing Examples of professionalism: If you are shooting to release a product to end customers by a certain date, how do you use the Scrum events, the sprint planning, the daily Scrum, and the sprint review within the sprint timebox to make sure that you’re on track? In the sprint review, identify which adjustments and decisions are needed, and iterate Important notes about doing Scrum professionally through The Scrum Guide: It’s not just about having the roles, artifacts, and events in place; you also need to be cognizant of the rules that bind these three things together Commit each sprint (as a team) to a goal, not a scope When a sprint goal is a laundry list of things to do it can become overwhelming — it is much better to commit to a goal and negotiate your scope as you go throughout the sprint Focus on delivering on the goal; delivering on the value It is important that the organization gives the Scrum team(s) space to be professional “Professionalism is not just for the Scrum team, just as the Scrum values are not just for the Scrum team; they’re for the organization to live and make space for.” The responsibilities of a professional Scrum Master: They are responsible for coaching the Product Owner, the team, and the organization on how to use Scrum in an effective way The Scrum Master should not be a glorified administrator The Scrum Master should be working with the entire organization to help it achieve business agility and valuable outcomes rather than just lots and lots of output Look for ways in which the organization is inhibiting your team’s further growth and success Look for the areas and opportunities in the organization for further agility Aspects of professionalism on a Scrum team: Strong collaboration (i.e. the Product Owner and the team need to collaborate, and the Scrum Master needs to collaborate with the team, the Product Owner, and the organization) “What does it mean to be a professional Scrum developer?” It’s more than “I’ve got my work done” The team should not be working siloed At the daily Scrum, the team should be collaborating on the most effective thing to do that day to get closer to the sprint goal, figure out who needs help, and understand who’s doing what Toward the end of the sprint when development work is winding down, it is important that developers are helping the test activities happen “The development team is not just the people that are writing the code; it’s all of the people on the Scrum team that are needed to deliver that increment, aside from the Product Owner and the Scrum Master.” It is important to find the balance between being a “busybody” and being a “T-shaped person” A healthy team spirit is vital Reduncies in skill sets of team members are incredibly valuable Being open to learning new things beyond your expertise and having the intellectual curiosity to step outside of your role makes for a healthy, well-rounded team   Mentioned in this Episode: The lawsuit between Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. Scrum Alliance Scrum Inc. Ken Schwaber Mastering Professional Scrum: A Practitioner’s Guide to Overcoming Challenges and Maximizing the Benefits of Agility, by Stephanie Ockerman and Simon Reindl The Scrum Guide Arcade Perfect: How Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat, and Other Coin-Op Classics Invaded the Living Room, by David L. Craddock and Milan Jaram Eric Landes   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

We have a special repeat guest on this week’s episode! It’s Barry Matheney. He is a Senior DevOps Consultant and one of Dan’s colleagues at AgileThought. Get our Download Would you benefit from a DevOps Coach?  So often, teams operate on a “get it done” model and try to push their code out the door as quickly as possible, but that is not sustainable and not the markings of a high-class professional team. Barry understands the Scrum Teams’ main mission and purpose is often very wrong; it’s to appease the product owner, not create purposeful and meaningful end-results. In this week’s episode, Barry shares his thoughts on when it’s time to hire a DevOps coach for an organization, some of the troubles organizations run into (problems with easy fixes!) when it comes to their Scrum Teams, and when you know when your team is on the right track in their DevOps journey. Key Takeaways What’s the working definition of DevOps? It’s about delivering better value, sooner, safer, and happier. The difference between Agile and DevOps’s motto is the definition of what “done” truly means. True North for DevOps means there are a continuous delivery and a continuous deployment. If you have some DevOps influence in what you’re doing, you’re on the right track. What are the best ways a Scrum Team can get started? Typically, when a Scrum Team gets started, the sole focus tends to be delivery of stories. AKA, making the product owner happy. Most product owners don’t care about dashboards or reliability. However, they should. The scope of a product owner should include the production world, as well. When do you need a DevOps coach? It’s a tough answer. It depends on the team composition. If you have a junior team, they won’t have the experience to know the consequences of bad code. The journey begins as soon as you begin production. You build resiliency by delivering something that cannot fail, something that was built to last. That takes planning and continuous development. Junior teams might not be thinking in these terms just yet. How do you know when you should be leveraging DevOps? What times do your deployments occur? If you deploy them during off-hours, then something is wrong. Deployments should be normal working events and not interruptions to your life. Do your organization’s security teams always seem to be diving into your business? You can provide compliance and proof to your security teams you’re on the right track and have thought about all the possible security risks. Anything that happens should be logged. You don’t need to manually tinker in production. Software teams want to get things out the door, but that’s not operating at a professional level. The transformation is not about your scrum team. It is an organizational transformation. What’s the distinction between an Agile coach vs. a DevOps coach? Agile coaches plant the ideas. DevOps coaches can help build the prototypes together and experiment with different theories. DevOps coaches give a continuous approach and re-examine practices that were put into place 10 years ago that may not be relevant now. DevOps is an organizational challenge, not necessarily a team challenge. Waste is bad, so you need to either scrap the project or get it into production.  Remember, DevOps is a journey. Mentioned in this Episode: Would you benefit from a DevOps Coach? free download AgileThought Event: “Virtual Community: Building an Agile Mindset During COVID-19” Barry Matheney (LinkedIn) Podcast Ep. 17: “Embedding DevOps in Large Organizations, with Barry Matheney” Podcast Ep. 12: “The Importance of Embedding a DevOps Skill Set into Your Team” Greenfield Project Podcast Ep. 4: “Setting Up Working Agreements with Christy Erbeck”Strangler Pattern Podcast Ep. 2: “What is a Full-Cycle Developer?”   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

In today’s episode, Dan Neumann is joined by AgileThought’s Managing Director of the Run Practice, Daniel Novelo! In his role, Daniel is in charge of defining the vision and strategic direction of the Cloud & Managed Services Portfolio at AgileThought, by understanding the market trends, designing the Digital Products & Services that our customers require, and by delivering the revenue and profit that AgileThought budgets. He also designs, coordinates, and executes business plans with AgileThought’s Partners, Sales, and Delivery Teams to achieve its yearly objectives.   In their conversation today, Daniel speaks about his role as Managing Director of the Run Practice at AgileThought, explains what the Run Practice is, and shares about the different ways that organizations have started down their path to Cloud adoption. He also addresses some of the possible risks associated with migrating to the Cloud, how to mitigate these risks, the benefits and opportunities the Cloud opens up, and how AgileThought works with companies in migrating to the Cloud or optimizing their Cloud usage.   Key Takeaways What is the Run Practice? What does it do? It delivers value to customers by providing Cloud & Managed Services and outsourcing the IT operations of its customers (with a modern approach and a mission-critical mindset) They complement the portfolio of AgileThought’s transform, build, and run by operating and maintaining software, applications, and the underlying infrastructure in production environments There are dedicated teams to review the cost and complexity of their customers to operate their systems They accelerate the adoption of the Cloud with a set of services that go from the strategic aspects (like Cloud design, Cloud foundation, & assessments) to building strategies and performing the migrations to the Cloud for their customers Once their customers are in the Cloud, they help modernize their business applications for optimal Cloud performance Why Cloud adoption is becoming increasingly popular and why companies want to migrate to it: It’s important to understand the reasons behind why some companies are adopting Clouds as well as the challenges and implications companies can face dependent on the type of workload they want to bring to the Cloud It’s nearly impossible to find an organization that doesn’t at least partially rely on Cloud services (especially now, during the pandemic, is it becoming more popular than ever) Modern workplace platforms are really encouraging the use their Cloud versions The adoption of Cloud services has been key in accelerating the migration of enterprise workloads to the Cloud Enterprise workloads show that Cloud Storage is the most widely adopted You can easily scale up the Cloud Storage within minutes and then scale it down when needed A Cloud Database setup empowers distributed teams because the team members working remotely can conveniently access data through the internet to perform their tasks Publishing your dev and test environments to the Cloud is also becoming increasingly popular Bringing environments to the Cloud gives the ability to use only what you need when you need it Cloud technology can be a massive enabler for Agile teams (as you are able to spin up an environment, do the deploy, do the validation, and tear it all down once it’s done) Analytics and big data are huge drivers for the Cloud (because when the data resides in the Cloud it’s easier to locate it, consume it, and to embed it into analytic solutions) Daniel on Cloud risks and security: Having partners who can walk organizations through an adoption/sticking their toes into the waters of the Cloud is very helpful in showing how secure it is More than 90% of Cloud breaches are at the user’s fault Possible security risks: loss of data (passwords, banking information, intellectual property, and other sensitive data), exposing confidential information (that leads to regulatory or legal actions against an enterprise), malware and ransom attacks, an employee who has left the company still having access to files and information (however, there are tools to mitigate and control this access) Many risks can be mitigated through tools that can secure confidential documents in real-time Tools and systems that are lagging behind in Cloud adoption: A lot of companies that still rely on legacy systems (but there are strategies to migrate these companies to the Cloud [though additional scaffolding may be necessary]) Implementing APIs (and securing them) can be a way to bring a legacy system to the Cloud How AgileThought works with companies that are new to the Cloud: Customers should first perform a Cloud readiness assessment for their application and infrastructure It is helpful to make an inventory of all of the assets within the company and identify which of them are supported in the Cloud and which need an upgrade The assessment will also help map dependencies to understand the interfaces between all of the customer’s systems, which is key for developing a Cloud strategy Time and effort should be invested into designing a desired state/a landing zone in applying the architecture best practices AgileThought helps their customer establish their Cloud foundation and makes sure to include all of the security and compliance requirements After this, AgileThought helps the customer build their rational decision map (figuring out the path forward, “bucket by bucket”) AgileThought helps the customer identify which applications they want to modernize or refactor so that they really capture the benefits of the Cloud   Mentioned in this Episode: AgileThought Event: “Virtual Community: Building an Agile Mindset During COVID-19” Daniel Novelo’s LinkedIn Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Cloud Dropbox iCloud   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

Joining Dan Neumann once again is Dr. Jerry Smith who you may remember from a bonus episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner a few weeks back!   Dr. Jerry Smith is AgileThought’s Managing Director of Analytics and Data Science. As a practicing AI & Data Scientist, thought leader, innovator, speaker, author, and philanthropist, Dr.Jerry Smith is dedicated to advancing and transforming businesses through evolutionary computing, enterprise AI and data sciences, machine learning, and causality.   In this episode, Dan and Dr. Jerry Smith explore the topic of digital transformations. Jerry takes listeners through what the process of a six-step AI-driven digital transformation process looks like, the challenges of the process, as well as the key benefits.   Key Takeaways What is a digital transformation? Changing the behavior of the organization in relation to their customers Changing their journey map so that they can achieve the business outcomes they want Looks at changing the behaviors to create new opportunities It is not ‘transforming digitally’ (i.e. moving to the Cloud, etc.) — the order of words is important to note AgileThought’s AI-driven digital transformation: It is a six-step process that gets a business to actually bend their business curve It is implemented in a set of capabilities; there are over 67 capabilities that transition an enterprise’s data and transform it into insights and actions and is a systematic process This process puts a customer into the position of changing their business The six-step AI-driven digital transformation process: (1) ‘Data is the debris of human activity. We collect it all, but all is not important.’ The first thing that is done is data collection The most important question to ask when you begin is: “What is data?” Data is because of us; not in spite of us (2) ‘We determine what data is causal to the business problem. This allows us to only focus on those areas we can control.’ You need to ask: “Of all this data we collect, what is causal to my business problem? What should I be focusing on?” (3) ‘Using causal data, we build digital twins — surrogates — of the problem. We create an artificial model of the real world.’ They build high-quality, predictive algorithms (from step two’s causal data/input) Changing this data changes the business outcome (4) ‘Within the artificial world, we organically grow perspective solutions designed to optimize the business outcome.’ Now that you have the model it is important to optimize the digital surrogate (5) ‘We implement the prescriptive solutions, wait for change, and collect new data.’ In this step, you are running through optimization, changing those inputs, and looking for a combination that results in that output achieving the business goal (6) ‘The cycle repeats, bending the business curve.’ When you have the behavior of the people that marketing, sales, and product development will have to change, you can then wash, rinse, and repeat When you go through the six-step process in cycles you need to give enough time to see the ripples go through to see the changes and continue to iterate and refine “This is why this six-step process is important for customers; because for the first time we’ve actually connected business and IT together.” — Dr. Jerry Smith   Mentioned in this Episode: Agile Coaches’ Corner Bonus Podcast: “How to Make AI Work in Your Enterprise with Dr. Jerry Smith” AgileThought Event: “Virtual Community: Building an Agile Mindset During COVID-19” Six-Step AI-Driven Digital Transformation (Image)   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

On this week’s ‘solocast’ of the Agile Coaches’ Corner, Dan Neumann wants to talk a little bit about words and phrases! If you had a magic wand and could change any word or phrase in relation to Scrum and agility, what would it be?   In this episode, Dan shares the four words and phrases that he would change for all Scrum teams — and, if it were possible, why he would like to see them go away, altogether!   Key Takeaways Resources vs. People Don’t confuse the people on your team with resources If you mean ‘people,’ say ‘people’; don’t say ‘resources’ You consume resources (i.e. time is a resource that you can use to achieve goals) Commitment vs. Forecast Commitments are something you keep, come hell or high water When we’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty, a more appropriate term to use would be ‘forecast’ rather than a commitment When you’re dealing with your Scrum teams, make sure that ‘commit’ is a term that is held back; think more in terms of forecasts (and especially forecasts with a probability of when you will be able to deliver, such as: ‘We forecast with 90% confidence’) Grooming vs. Refining Grooming is something you do to a dog; a more appropriate term for what you want to do to your product backlog in the Scrum world would be to ‘refine’ it Think of ‘refining’ as the removal of things that are impure or low value “Your product backlog [is] not a dog; don’t groom it!” Deadlines vs. Goals & Targets Deadlines traditionally refer to drawing a line in the sand (and if you cross said line, you’re dead) — which isn’t a very motivating term nowadays! More appropriate terms would be: goals and targets “We have a target of releasing the new product on January 1st.” With targets, you can introduce the concept of a ‘cost of delay,’ when you miss a target date Having goals and targets with specific dates coupled with a ‘cost of delay’ will allow you to make much more informed decisions about how to prioritize work   Mentioned in this Episode: Top 30 Agile Leadership Podcasts To Follow in 2020 Agile Coaches’ Corner Bonus Podcast: “How to Make AI Work in Your Enterprise with Dr. Jerry Smith”   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

In this bonus episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast, Christy Erbeck, Chief People Officer at AgileThought, is serving as your guest host for today’s conversation with Steven Granese and Quincy Jordan. Steven Granese is the Managing Director of AgileThought’s Transform Practice and Quincy Jordan serves as the Agile Competency Lead and Principal Transformation Consultant at AgileThought.   In their conversation today, they discuss scaling and transformations and how to effectively lead organizations towards business agility. They speak about the role of scaling in transformations, the challenges of scaling, opportunities that arise as an organization begins to scale, how to know when it is appropriate to help a client scale, and how to know when you’re on the right path with a transformation.   Key Takeaways Transformation & scaling: Part of a transformation is in transforming how people think There are a number of ways to scale Though it is called “scaling,” oftentimes it is about breaking down the problem into smaller pieces (especially in organizations that are already large) A real transformation is an organizational transformation throughout all departments The long term goal is to achieve business agility Tips for getting clients started on their scaling or transformation journey: Break down the problem into more manageable pieces in order to be able to take action on them and deliver faster (by delivering faster in these smaller increments you are setting expectations with stakeholders, which increases transparency and creates an outcome of more trust) Buy-in is needed from leaders Make sure to employ roadmaps with clients which can help with expectations Clarity and guidance alleviate stress during the scaling process Leaders need to address problems upfront when it comes to adopting agile Asking the question “why” is critical for transformations; it has to be answered first (especially if you’re looking at a true transformation) “Why are you doing this?” “What is it that you’re trying to change?” “Why are you trying to change?” “Are you confronting real organizational challenges and problems that you have?” Knowing what your client wants to focus on fundamentally changes how you work with them Note: A true transformation will take time (sometimes years) and oftentimes, things will get worse before they get better Differences between the two modes of adopting agile: Delivery and Transformation: Ask: If you’re interested in adopting an agile way of working, are you focused on improving your delivery OR do you want a transformation (i.e. change the way your business fundamentally operates)? Knowing which your client wants to do is critical If your client just wants to improve their process and doesn’t believe anything is broken, they just want to improve their delivery There is no right or wrong answer, but it is important to clarify what outcome they’re looking for as it will greatly impact how you help them If a client wants 10–20% better output for their teams they’re looking at improving delivery If a client wants to fundamentally look at the way their business operates, the types of customers they’re going after, the way their teams are structured, their financial incentives, etc. they are looking at a transformation It’s important to determine when a client wants to achieve certain outcomes so you know whether to focus on improving delivery first vs. long-term transformation (that will lead to better delivery down the line) Benefits of an agile transformation/achieving true business agility: Being nimble, adaptable, and being able to react quickly to changes and demands from customers or the business With the right culture and infrastructure in place, an organization is able to move very quickly when an unknown market shift happens (such as with COVID-19) A true agile transformation allows an organization to be in a position that can weather any storm Allows for better reactions to the unknown True business agility helps the business be adaptable Tips for leaders during a transformation: Encourage the ability to learn, relearn, and unlearn — this is critical because companies may get stuck in their past successes, which limits their ability to learn new things and/or do things in a new way Be courageous and vulnerable Be a learner, not a knower Continuously adapt and learn Have a growth mindset in order to be able to help your people Leaders need to ask themselves: “Am I clear as to where I’m going in the future?”, “Do I know why I’m trying to get there?”, and “Can I deliver in small increments and learn from the feedback?” Have humility in understanding that everything can change in a second — so the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is critical (if you don’t, your business will become vulnerable to competitors)   Mentioned in this Episode: Christy Erbeck’s LinkedIn Quincy Jordan’s LinkedIn Steven Granese’s LinkedIn What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results, by Barry O’Reilly Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek The Agile of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done. by Stephen Denning   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!