Agile Coaches' Corner

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by co-collaborator, Sam Falco! Sam is an agile coach and Certified Scrum Professional with an extensive background in leading agile development teams.   Today, they’re going to be talking all about games and why they are an important part of agile. Sam illustrates why games are not just time-wasters, but are actually powerful learning tools that help teams come together and solve problems.   Sam and Dan discuss what constitutes a game, why they’re important to agile, the difference between games and simulations, and the importance of doing a debrief with simulations to ensure the learning objective is achieved. Sam also gives some examples of different games, how to use them in training, and some sources of resistance to games that may show up in the workplace and how to solve them.   Key Takeaways Why are games important to Agile? They help build relationships They have goals, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation (very similar to Scrum — which is why it can be so powerful to leverage) Cooperative games build team rapport They allow time for a break on difficult work-related problems while still building problem-solving skills Games that Sam recommends: Hanabi, the card game The Penny Game The Ball Point Game The Rope Game Escape: The Curse of the Temple, the board game Rory Story Cubes, the dice game Apples to Apples, the card game How games can be used in training: Hold retrospectives to discuss how to get better within these games Tie these games back to how to work better together as a team over time Use them as a learning tool to learn about individual team players and how they function within a team Bring games into the retrospectives to shake things up Debrief after the game to reflect on key lessons Sources of resistance to games that may show up in an organization and how to solve them: Someone senior in the organization may not understand and consider it a waste of money (Solution: explain the value that both the company and the teams will be gaining) An internal barrier within the group where someone may perceive an activity or game as weird or uncomfortable (Solution: you can adjust the game or allow people to opt out)   Mentioned in this Episode: Sam Falco (LinkedIn) Global Game Jam Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, by Jane McGonigal The Grasshopper — Games, Life and Utopia, by Bernard Suits and Frank Newfeld Hanabi (Card Game) Penny Game Ball Point Game The Rope Game Escape: The Curse of the Temple (Board Game) Rory Story Cubes Apples to Apples (Card Game) Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson Agile Coaches’ Corner, Ep. 20: “Dr. Jeff Thompson on Values-Based Leadership”   Sam Falco’s Book Pick She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, by Carl Zimmer   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 Dr. Jeff Thompson. Jeff is the Executive Advisor and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus at Gundersen Health System as well as a pediatrician, author, and speaker on values-based leadership. His experience in leadership is extensive — with his role as CEO at Gundersen Health System for 14 years being especially remarkable. During his tenure at Gundersen Health System, they had been recognized across the country for their high-quality patient care.   In his book, Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, Jeff illustrates how a true leader puts their people, organization, and community first. In it, he has compiled stories from a diverse group of leaders who have employed values-based leadership and succeeded. These values greatly align with those of Dan’s in the Agile space.   In today’s episode, Jeff and Dan discuss values-based leadership and how important it is to incorporate in an organization. Jeff gives several deep lessons on excellence and how everyone within the organization can live and benefit through an organization’s values.   Key Takeaways How to implement values-based leadership in an organization: Make the values explicit and have the courage to speak them Give staff clarity on what the organization is about, what you’re going to stand for, and what the purpose is Use the value set as a means to show them how to get there Make the purpose known (especially a purpose beyond the money) Build a steady drumbeat of serving this purpose in a disciplined way Jeff’s tips and strategies for achieving better alignment around an organization’s purpose and values: Be really clear and consistent about the organization’s message (write it down and post it; make it very public) Have the courage to say what the purpose is, what the mission is, and what the values are Implement a code of conduct that applies to everyone in the organization Follow through Use a covenant (or “compact”) with staff and teams to help with alignment Follow the principle: if it’s not O.K. for everybody, then it’s not O.K. for one Manage influential people’s bad behavior to improve overall creativity, engagement, and decrease turnover Benefits of a values-based leadership: Once it gets going, this model can sustain itself Improves the wellbeing of the community Unleashes the talents and creativity of your organization Encourages innovation by providing a structure that allows staff to act on their own Encourages creativity, momentum, and excellence by providing a set of principles on how to treat each other   Mentioned in this Episode: Dr. Jeff Thompson (LinkedIn) Gundersen Health System Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson   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 on today’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast is return guest and fellow AgileThought colleague, Eric Landes.   Eric comes from a DevOps background, originally starting out as a developer. Currently, he serves as a Senior DevOps Consultant, ALM Director and Solutions Architect. In his roles, he helps clients deliver value to customers in their software delivery pipeline, and has tons of experience leading organizations in adopting agile and Lean frameworks, like Scrum and Kanban. His specialties are in agile project management, Lean software development, enterprise project management implementation, and many more.   In this week’s episode, Dan and Eric are exploring the topic of Kanban metrics and the Scrum framework, how to use the two together, and finding the best place to start.   Key Takeaways How using Kanban with Scrum helps teams: Gives predictability with data Gives even more metrics than Scrum to help teams communicate to the customer about what they can expect Gives confidence levels (though, not a commitment) Brings in metrics and data to drive a team’s high-probability plan Gives data and metrics for continuous improvement Helps to adapt a team’s delivery process Key Kanban metrics within a Scrum framework: Throughput as a measure of predictability Work item aging as a leading indicator for your team Service level expectations to forecast within Scrum Key practices in using Kanban: Working with WIP limits to boost predictability and improve cycle times and throughputs Using work item aging and WIP limits together Little’s Law The less work-in-progress, the better your team can keep a steady pace and achieve good workflow Replacing ‘agreement’ with ‘expectations’ through the service level expectation Issues that can arise within teams and things to avoid: Increasing WIP Limits Not meeting forecasts How Eric recommends getting started: Track Cycle Time and use the Cumulative Flow Diagram template Collect data daily Mentioned in this Episode: Professional Scrum with Kanban Training Kanban WIP Limits Little’s Law getKanban (Game) “Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults,” — Ken Schwaber Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson Eric Landes’ Book Pick Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability: An Introduction, by Daniel Vacanti 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 of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast, your host, Dan Neumann, is joined by repeat guest, Chris Spagnuolo. Chris is a product specialist at AgileThought, serving as the Principal Consultant of Product Management and Innovation. He has a deep background in product strategy and development, and is incredibly passionate about all things related to design thinking, Lean Startup and agile.   Today, Dan and Chris will be looking at some of the challenges around alignment and autonomy within organizations.   It’s not unusual to go into an organization and see that things are are out of sync from top to bottom—and usually, the root cause of most of these problems is a lack of alignment. Lack of alignment within an organization manifests in many ways, from a lack of discretionary effort from employees to ample activity that’s not meeting the market needs or advancing the strategy of the organization. In this episode, Chris helps identify these failure patterns, along with the success patterns. He also gives a thorough 101 on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)—a powerful strategy to better align an organization.   Key Takeaways The ways that a lack of alignment manifests in an organization (AKA failure patterns): Strategies that are not meeting their goals from lack of implementation Ample activity that’s not meeting the market needs or advancing the strategy of the organization Interruptions and a high volume of requests Focusing on the emergent work that’s truly not important or urgent A lot of autonomy with no alignment Really high alignment with no autonomy Low autonomy and low alignment A lack of discretionary effort from employees How to better align your organization (AKA success patterns): High autonomy and high alignment Focus on the emergent work that is important Join autonomy and alignment together Commit to the organization’s culture with high engagement Maximize the creative potential of employees, allowing them to consistently achieve goals Make sure everyone is aligned with the overall decisions Internalize the mission statement and live the vision of the organization OKR (Objectives and Key Results) 101: Created by John Doerr It’s a stated objective and two or three key results that are used to measure how an organization is moving towards that objective Helps with alignment within an organization because they are cascaded throughout the organization (and every level that is cascaded down builds their own OKR set that has to directly align with the level above them) They give lots of autonomy, allowing the people within the organization to decide how they’re going to execute and what strategy they’re going to build to meet the organization’s top-level goal They’re very adaptable It’s important to set difficult, audacious goals (that, even if you hit 75% of them, would still have a great outcome)   Mentioned in this Episode: Chris Spagnuolo (LinkedIn) Agile Manifesto Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal Cynefin & Sense-Making Framework Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work, by Robert Austin and Lee Devin   Chris Spagnuolo’s Book Pick How Music Works, by David Byrne   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!

Repeat guest Barry Matheney joins Dan Neumann for this week’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast!   Barry is an agile thinker, an expert in the DevOps space, and a colleague of Dan’s at AgileThought — serving as a Senior DevOps Consultant. Prior to his role at AgileThought, he was the Director of Enterprise Applications at Kforce Inc.   Last time Barry was on the podcast, they discussed embedding DevOps into Scrum teams with Eric Landes. This week, they’re taking it up a notch and discussing even bigger projects: They talk about what everyone on an agile team should do; how teams can practice agility even in a non-agile company; how teams can plan with a legacy system in mind when going about new development efforts; and many more concepts around embedding DevOps in large organizations.   Key Takeaways What everyone on an agile team should do: Challenge each other to make the product the best it can be (and not just worry about the individual components) Look at team formation and set standards to adhere to Practice personal accountability Challenge all of the technical resources to make sure they’re protecting the team Consult team and make sure rules and policies still apply Take a grassroots approach How teams can be agile in a non-agile company: Punch holes in the silos rather than tear down the silos (AKA create a conduit between the teams and learn how to integrate their thoughts and processes) Have a team/working agreement in place (especially to challenge each other with new ideas) Diversify the teams so you do not repeat limiting patterns Build some of the software and test it instead of arguing over a whiteboard How to create safety around new development efforts (especially when integrating with a legacy system): Plan with the legacy system in mind (while looking for ways to eliminate parts of it gradually) Migrate a legacy system incrementally by using the strangler pattern Remember that it’s not just a technology challenge; it’s a business challenge (engage with the business side about the value of taking a different approach vs. a big-bang replacement effort of the old system) Other concepts for embedding DevOps in large organizations: Minimize interdependencies on any upstream or downstream system Ensure teams are challenging the technical resources (through the working agreement) Include the development team in the entire lifecycle Have empathy for all involved Continuously improve and learn over time (instead of delving into a much larger, riskier change)   Mentioned in this Episode: Barry Matheney (LinkedIn) 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?”   Barry Matheney’s Book Picks QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life, by John G. Miller American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, by Bryce G. Hoffman   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 week’s episode of Agile Coaches’ Corner, Dan Neumann is joined by two of his colleagues at AgileThought — the Vice President of Build Practice, Taylor Howard; and the Vice President of Transform Practice, Steven Granese.   Taylor’s work with Build Practice involves supporting the absolute best practitioners in the business — including Data Scientists, Architects, Delivery Leaders, Engineers, and Analysts with multiple technical competencies and domain experience. Taylor and his team translate business strategy into a technical roadmap, delivering cloud-first and hybrid solutions at a global scale. Steven’s work with Transform Practice is focused on organizational consulting. They help their clients figure out the right way to work, the right product to build, how to implement Agile ways of working, and DevOps (i.e., how to get that software that the teams have created to the production environment and make sure it’s stable, scalable, and secure).   Today, Taylor and Steven will be discussing the challenges with large-scale software delivery and how to overcome them. With scaling comes a whole different set of challenges so Taylor and Steven not only outline many of the challenges their clients are facing today but some of the challenges they’re facing internally, at AgileThought, as they scale themselves.   Key Takeaways Challenges with scaling: Understanding what the business outcomes are that the client is looking for Aligning the stakeholders to make sure that they truly understand each other’s vision and are speaking the same language Making sure that the teams are coordinated (i.e. everyone is headed towards the same goal and they’re being measured in the same way) The danger of issues getting buried The ways teams interact (or don’t interact) with each other Getting connected to your customer Making sure there’s alignment with the objective that’s to be achieved How to address these challenges: Implement Agile ways of working Look at areas that need improvement and have active feedback cycles Use data to support all the teams (to either replicate the good or improve the not-so-good), bringing them to the same level with more predictable outcomes Be transparent, inspect, and adapt Embrace a culture of curiosity and ask questions about the data Blame the system; not the person Leaders need to make sure the system is healthy so the teams have what they need and can be freed up to do what they do best — build software More time needs to be spent communicating the dependencies Lots of feedback loops and channels for communication Be pragmatic in delivery Align to the larger vision Moving from an “us/them” mentality to a “we” mentality (amongst the teams) Mentioned in this Episode: Taylor Howard (LinkedIn) Steven Granese (LinkedIn) Agile Manifesto Podcast Ep. 12: “The Importance of Embedding a DevOps Skill Set into Your Team” Podcast Ep. 02: “What is a Full-Cycle Developer?” Taylor and Steven’s Book Picks The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done, by Stephen Denning Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership, by Geoff Watts 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 week’s episode of Agile Coaches’ Corner, Dan Neumann welcomes back a return guest — Quincy Jordan! Quincy is a Principal Transformation Consultant and has been with AgileThought for about one year now. Previous to that, he has served as a Principal Consultant and Agile Coach at SCRUMstudy.com for over six years. Quincy’s mission is to help companies and people who are ineffective in their own mission by assisting them in transforming from what they are to what they desire to be.   Today, they’re going to be exploring the topic of cultural debt — which, much like financial debt, comes with the cost that it has to be paid back over time. Quincy explains, in detail, what cultural debt is, and what needs to happen to avoid it. He also gives some examples from organizations who have experienced cultural debt so you don’t have to make the same mistakes too!   Key Takeaways What is cultural debt? If you don’t modify the culture as you roll out changes, bad habits and behaviors within the organization begin to build over time Eventually, these bad behaviors that occur can ultimately negatively affect business outcomes It can become a severe problem that can become difficult to unravel down the line Some examples of cultural debt: If leaders take something away from middle management without giving a replacement, communication begins to deteriorate If a leader isolates themselves and does not support a collaborative culture, you won’t achieve the needed level of transparency within your team and the culture starts breaking down An organization focused more on “burning hours” rather than delivering value can cause the culture to suffer and less productivity to be had What needs to happen to avoid cultural debt: The cultural change that happens at the leadership level also needs to happen at the team level The leaders need to empower the teams and the teams need to take risks to be more self-directed Leaders need to make sure they do not become siloed Leaders need to support a collaborative culture and be a part of it also Strategically build trust and transparency A change Quincy sees at the leadership level that really helps to address cultural debt: Making the shift from annual budgets to iterative investments   Mentioned in this Episode: Quincy Jordan Agile Manifesto HiPPO Culture Gantt Chart The Reengineering Alternative, by William E. Schneider   Quincy Jordan’s Book Pick The Age 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!

In this week’s episode of Agile Coaches’ Corner, Dan Neumann brings on a colleague of his at AgileThought to explore the topic of design thinking — Chris Spagnuolo. Chris is one of the Product Specialists at AgileThought, serving as Principal Consultant of Product Management and Innovation. He has a deep background in a lot of things from a products standpoint and is incredibly passionate about all things related to design thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile.   Dan and Chris give their insight on what design thinking is, where it came from, its core elements, and how to incorporate it into overall delivery. Chris also gives his advice around design thinking and where he sees it developing in the future.   Key Takeaways What design thinking is: Designing products with people in mind Focusing on understanding the problem that you’re solving and understanding the person that you’re solving it for, and then building a solution A fluid process with a loose methodology Building a product, having the real end user test it, and incorporating their feedback The five core elements of design thinking: Empathize: get to know your customer on a personal level (who they are, what they do, and what they’re trying to do) Define: looking at how you can start to frame the problem that your customer has Ideate: coming up with as many ideas as possible that can solve that problem Prototype: create lots of low-fi prototypes to see if these solutions solve the problem Test: give the customer the solution, test it with them, and collect the feedback without bringing your own biases or opinions in And remember: you don’t have to go through these core elements in this order; you can go back to any of them at any time to get it right Chris’ advice around design thinking: Small batch things and solve small parts at a time Support continuous discovery The more feedback the better; don’t make false assumptions about how to go forward How to incorporate design thinking into the overall delivery: Getting feedback from real end users to incorporate Start up an input committee and get real customers that well-represent the end users to sit on the team Get feedback on each iteration Make sure there’s somebody holding the vision and focusing the feedback back into the iterative process Where Chris sees design thinking being applied in the future: Escaping the realm of product development and instead permeating business in general Being brought into the organizational level for better engagement All decisions within the business   Mentioned in this Episode: Chris Spagnuolo (LinkedIn) Stanford Design School The Five Core Elements of Design Thinking (Visual + Definition) “What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” Podcast Ep. 12: “The Importance of Embedding a DevOps Skill Set into Your Team”   Chris’s Book Pick The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock ’n’ Roll, by Ian S. Port   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 Neumann is excited to bring you another fantastic colleague of his on today’s show — Mike Cooper! Mike has an extensive background in negotiation and experience with restructuring bank deals, brokerages, negotiating property sales, and managing a bunch of sales folks. After a long and successful career leading software organizations, Mike now focuses entirely on technology consulting and is a Senior Cloud Technical Architect at AgileThought.   In this episode, Mike takes Dan through the foundational elements to ethical negotiating and gives his tips and techniques on how to generate positive, win/win outcomes. He explains what ethical negotiating is and how it is different from the regular, political negotiating, as well as general problems that may arise during ethical negotiation.   Key Takeaways What is ethical negotiating? Based upon the concept that if an organization is going to do a deal, it’s going to be a win/win deal or there’s going to be no deal at all Structured around mutual problem solving and long-term relationship building Meant to solve problems when there’s a conflict and often is fun and involves a lot of creativity Foundational elements to successful ethical negotiating: Start by focusing on the people; not the problem You want to work together; on the same side of the table with your “adversary” Slow down and spend time talking and understanding the people Remove the time pressure and think of things in the long-term Generate a lot of options (usually the first option is not the best) True collaboration leads to a win/win solution for the shared problem Reschedule and take personal time if you feel you are freezing under pressure Walk away from a deal where you’re not set up for a win/win Plan before your negotiation session, do your homework, and bring some options to the table initially Problems that can arise in negotiating: If you feel rushed you may skip generating a lot of options Freezing under pressure from conflict or time strains You can’t feel like a winner unless you’ve put your issues on the table, too You will get pushed around if you keep caving in negotiating (which also leads to a poor long-term relationship, too)   Mentioned in this Episode: Mike Cooper (LinkedIn)   Mike Cooper’s Book Picks Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by William L. Ury, Roger Fisher, and Bruce M. Patton The Laws of Human Nature, by Robert Greene   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!

Your host, Dan Neumann, is excited to bring you two guests for this week’s episode — repeat guest, Eric Landes, and Barry Matheney. Eric and Barry are both Agile thinkers, experts in the DevOps space, and colleagues of Dan at AgileThought.   Eric Landes is a Scrum.org certified professional Scrum trainer and currently serves as a Senior DevOps Consultant, ALM Director, and Solutions Architect. Barry also is a Senior DevOps Consultant. Previously to his role at AgileThought, he served as Director Enterprise Applications at Kforce Inc.   Today, they’re talking about DevOps and the importance of having it on Scrum teams. They cover whether it is good or bad that there are barriers between Agile, Scrum, and DevOps; what well-functioning Scrum teams look like when they have a DevOps skillset embedded into them; how to incorporate DevOps into organizations; what a DevOps skillset could bring to a team; and how DevOps can fit into even the most traditional of companies.   Key Takeaways Is it good or bad that there are barriers between Agile or Scrum and DevOps? It is disadvantageous to separate DevOps from Agile or Scrum because it is important that your team has all the skills they need to deliver software You need the DevOps skillset on your team and it should be a goal to incorporate it What do well-functioning Scrum teams look like when they have DevOps skillsets embedded into them? Self-sufficient Not limited by dependence on other teams or organizations Eliminates walls and allows for continuous delivery How to incorporate DevOps into organizations: Use baby steps Use it to inform the beginning of the development cycle and product decisions down the line What the DevOps skillset brings to a team: Experimentation or hypothesis-driven development Rapid deployment and continuous delivery Tons of not-so-visible benefits (such as auditing, compliance, security, deployability, and testability) How DevOps can fit into traditional companies: Remove constraints (such as specific deployment dates) Automate the value the compliance brings   Mentioned in this Episode: Eric Landes (LinkedIn) Barry Matheney (LinkedIn) The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations, by Gene Kim, Patrick Debois, John Willis, and Jez Humble Podcast Ep. 9: “Exploring Expert Facilitation Tips with Adam Ulery” SRE — Site Reliability Engineering Cowboy coding   Eric Landes and Barry Matheney’s Book Picks The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done, by Stephen Denning Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale, by Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, and Barry O’Reilly Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations, by Nicole Forsgren PhD, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell   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!