Inspect and Adapt

What do we do when we are faced with "The New"?  When something is new to us, it's harder to estimate, harder to plan, and harder to execute. Some development projects involve much more that is new than others. How do we identify the new and deal with it in a constructive way? In this episode of Inspect & Adapt, Construx's Mark Griffin, Steve Tockey, Earl Beede, and Jenny Stuart dive into ways to have the best development project when dealing with 'The New."

Why can't I know—with high precision—the final cost, scope, and time frame of my work effort? One of the biggest reasons you can't know all three at once is illustrated by Steve McConnell's Cone of Uncertainty. In this episode of Inspect & Adapt, Construx's Mark Griffin, Steve Tockey, and Earl Beede talk about what the Cone is, how it impacts your ability to estimate, and how you can use it to increase your estimate predictability. 

If hindsight is 20/20—and it's good practice to look back to find ways you could do better—then why do retrospectives seem like such a waste of time? Shouldn't they be a goldmine that we're excited about rather than just another obligatory meeting? Inspect & Adapt host Mark Griffin gathers fellow Construx staff, Steve Tockey, Jenny Stuart, and Earl Beede, to discuss how we can make retrospectives something to look forward to.

There is a lot of talk and ideas about how to scale agile up from the one-team, one-product base so that multiple teams can support a product (I am looking at you SAFe). But what about the case where one team must support multiple products? That is reverse agile scaling. Join Construx’s Mark Griffin, Jenny Stuart, and Earl Beede as they share strategies and proven techniques to have one team work with multiple products and multiple product owners.

What does "value" mean on your product? How do you know you are working on the most valuable thing?  Construx's Earl Beede, Jenny Stuart, and Mark Griffin discuss how to clearly identify and articulate value on development projects. Knowing the targeted value is critical for prioritization and scope control and for knowing when to stop. It is also the key ingredient to meaningful feedback cycles. But how do you reliably identify value? Earl & Jenny will share stories of how they've helped organizations identify their value in a measurable way.

How do you lead product development teams when a company that has always been hardware focused now owes its success to both hardware and software? Construx's Mark Griffin and Earl Beede recently spoke with Inogen's Norbert Leinfellner and Horst Pichler, who have decades of experience leading this transition. We kick off 2024 with an Inspect & Adapt episode on how successful leadership requires a certain system-level mindset to help blend those hardware and software teams.

Listen to Construx's Earl Beede, Jenny Stuart, and Mark Griffin as they assess the role and duties of project managers on software intensive projects. A special focus will be on groups using agile development processes. Earl and Jenny will share stories of what they have seen work and what hasn't with their clients.

Construx's Earl Beede, Jenny Stuart, and Mark Griffin investigate ways to split user stories so they fit in a sprint. Some methods are far preferable—and even easier—than others. Sometimes it just means setting yourself up to make your user stories split-able. Earl and Jenny will share their stories from the trenches and explain how they assist teams to apply the appropriate splitting practices in their environment.

What metrics make sense for a development team? How do you talk about productivity? Construx friend John Belbute joins Construx’s Steve Tockey, Earl Beede, and Mark Griffin to talk about engineering metrics. John has been a software leader at many companies, including Intuit, WebMD, eBay and Capita CCS and is now semi-retired with his own coaching and consulting company. John shares his in-the-trenches experience trying to find the perfect metric to show the rest of the leadership team how well the development teams are doing.

It's been over two decades since we were told that Waterfall development is bad and Agile development is good. Construx's Earl Beede recently did a webinar on the subject (available on YouTube). This Inspect and Adapt looks at some of the comments and questions that came up. Earl is joined by host Mark Griffin and Jenny Stuart as they take a fresh look at Waterfall vs. Agile.