Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

In this episode of the podcast Sustained Agility’s Eric Tucker, CST, joins Dave to talk about common sense and Agile. When it comes to adopting Agile practices and frameworks like Scrum, there are missteps people and organizations make that could be easily avoided if they would just use common sense. Eric has put together a talk highlighting some of the common sense mistakes that frequently occur and during the interview, he and Dave unpack a few of the more common, common sense mistakes. They explore why they occur in the first place, and how two avoid them. To check out a video of Eric’s Common Sense talk: https://bit.ly/3duxvqw If you’d like to contact Eric: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericptucker/ Web: https://sustainedagility.com/ Email: etucker@sustainedagility.com

Assumptions are often the Achilles heel of any development effort. These are the things we’ve unintentionally decided are true and unfortunately, far too often, our assumptions are wrong. If you’ve based the success of the work you are doing on incorrect assumptions… VERYBADTHINGS. But, if they are things we’ve unintentionally decided are true? How do we find them in the first place? And if we can find them, what do we do about them? This episode is all about understanding the assumptions we are making when we develop new products and services. Precoil Founder David Bland has joined me to talk about why we need to pay attention to assumptions and how to use Assumptions Mapping to determine which of our assumptions present the biggest threat and need to be addressed first. During the interview, we review how to use the Assumptions Mapping approach that is included in Testing Business Ideas, the book David co-wrote with Alexander Osterwalder. Links from the Podcast Testing Business Ideas By David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder: https://amzn.to/3I1liYh Strategyzer Virtual Masterclass in May: https://bit.ly/3FXjz4j Contacting David Precoil: https://www.precoil.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidjbland LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjbland/

In this episode of the podcast, Agile Coach Dan Eberle is back to help me respond to a student question that is complicated, confusing, and more common than it should be… Ivan (not the person’s real name) explained the situation like this… Six Product Owners/Developers oversee 20 reports within the org. Each of the reports has a specialized role. They are broken up into teams that range in size from 1-5 people, and the team size tends to fluctuate. Some of the Product Owners/Developers oversee teams and are also the people managers of the individuals on the team. Some of the team members report to people managers who are Product Owner/Developers of other teams, team members of other teams, or people completely outside the grouping of 6 + 20. There is competition for the attention/efforts of team members who are allocated to more than one project and/or reporting to a people manager who has different priorities than the PO/Dev they are assigned to work with. Basically, everyone is over-allocated and the people on your team, who you need to do the work you are responsible for, are being pulled in other directions either by the person they report to, or the other projects they are assigned to. I tried to draw a picture of this. Ivan confirmed this was pretty accurate. https://bit.ly/30doyyk During the conversation, Dan and I discuss the challenges this situation creates, potential responses, what the root cause of this problem might be and how to pursue solving that, rather than simply finding a coping strategy To Learn More about the Lean Agile Visual Management course Dan and I are taking with Modus Cooperandi -> https://bit.ly/3HbZ6u6 Contacting Dan LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3wGScbC Twitter: https://bit.ly/3F6dkec

In June of 2020, I posted an interview with Karim Harbott about his Business Agility Canvas. During the interview, he mentioned that he was working on a book, The 6 Enablers of Business Agility: How to Thrive in an Uncertain World. The book was released earlier this year and I recently started reading it. Karim does an excellent job of breaking down the 6 different areas he has identified as being critical to successfully adopt the practices necessary to achieve business agility. I am truly enjoying the book and I highly recommend it. Even if you are a seasoned transformation coach, you are going to find value in this book. I came across one passage in particular recently that stuck out to me so I reached out to Karim to ask if we could do another podcast on it. The passage is below and it identifies a conversation that I wish more organizations would have. All too often senior leadership declares that Agile is “the way”, they train teams, and then completely fail to provide them with an environment in which they can be successful. The question is, why does that keep happening? Here is the passage: "What I do find surprising is that many organizations that embark on an “agile transformation” have strong Control and Compete cultures as their current profile, and seem to have no desire to change. What this says to me is that the things they value most are stability and control. Why, then, try to adopt a model designed for the exact opposite, adaptability? Is it any wonder, in such cases, that there is friction, resistance, and an unwillingness to make the necessary structural changes? These places do not make the necessary changes because they do not truly value the outcome those changes will deliver. By moving toward flexibility and adaptability, they are moving away from stability and control, the things they value most. This is not an acceptable trade-off to them, and that is when the organizational antibodies, as I think of them, move in to destroy the change agents. This is why so many transformations fail. Agile transformation without corresponding cultural transformations will create nothing but frustration." (Harbott, Karim. The 6 Enablers of Business Agility (pp. 102-103). Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Kindle Edition. ) During the interview, Karim and I dig into why this occurs, why it is such a big deal, and steps you can take to try and protect yourself and your organization from falling into this trap. LINKS FROM THE PODCAST - The 6 Enablers of Business Agility: How to Thrive in an Uncertain World https://amzn.to/2Zn4aLh - Interview on Business Agility Canvas with Karim Harbott https://bit.ly/3CeDk60 Contacting Karim - Web: https://www.karimharbott.com - Email: karim.harbott@agilecentre.com - Karim's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMe5Wmii9YBtw1FD0De1fQ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarimHarbott - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimharbott/

When all the testers have joined self-organizing, cross-functional Scrum Teams, do we actually still need a QA Manager? Joel Norman joins Dave for this episode of the Reluctant Agilist.

Adam Weisbart is back and this time we’re taking on a tragically common problem. Teams who do not have clarity on how the organization defines value. This can happen for a variety of reasons. In some organizations it is simply an oversight… management has achieved clarity and alignment around what is valuable to the organization, but they have not communicated it to the team. In other organizations, there may be an individual or a small group of the leadership team who likes to “go with their gut”, or maybe there are just a lot of assumptions and no one has checked to see if there is agreement across different levels of the org. Whatever the reason, if you have teams that do not have clarity around how leadership defines value for the company, how can they be expected to make choices that align with that definition of value? In this episode of the podcast Adam Weisbart and I take on the topic of how you can get clarity on value, how can you make sure your backlog reflects that understanding of value and how can you ensure the team has awareness of what “value” means to the organization. During the interview, Adam also shares some details about his upcoming Agile Virtual Summit (Bite Size) which is taking place on October 14, 2021. The event is free and there are going to be some great speakers, including people like Jim Benson, Richard Cheng, and Melissa Boggs who have all been guests on the podcast. You can learn more about the Agile Virtual Summit (Bite-Size!) and sign up using the link below. Agile Virtual Summit (Bite-Size) https://agilevirtualsummit.com If you’d like to contact Adam: Web: https://weisbart.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weisbart/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Weisbart

Before the pandemic hit, one of my favorite parts of the summer was going to the Agile Conference and doing podcast interviews with the speakers and thought leaders who were there. Each year, one of the very best moments of each Agile Conference was when I would get to sit down and talk with Troy Magennis. It’s been two summers. I miss talking to Troy. So I reached out and he was kind enough to spare some time for an interview. During the conversation, we cover a number of topics, including: Is it actually possible for a team to become predictable? What gets in the way of predictability? What is BlockedApp and why did he create it? Which constraints are the most important ones to start with? Who is responsible for acting as the scientist of flow? Why are we still so focused on utilization and output instead of results? Why do we all need to know CPR? There is more, but you get the idea. Even if those aren’t questions that keep you up at night, I promise that you are going to learn something valuable by listening to this podcast and that it will keep you engaged the whole way through because Troy is brilliant. Links: Focused Objective: https://www.focusedobjective.com/w/ BlockedApp: https://blockedapp.com This is Lean by Nicklas Modig and Par Pär Åhlström https://amzn.to/2Y3tUeD Contacting Troy: Focused Objective: https://www.focusedobjective.com/contact-us LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troymagennis/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/t_magennis

In a class recently, a student asked a question that caught me by surprise. He asked if Scrum Master was a necessary role. If the team was fully engaged in approaching the work with an Agile mindset, inspecting, and adapting from one Sprint to the next both with respect to the deliverable AND the way they work together, AND they were self-organizing, then why would they need a Scrum Master? And, if management was imposing a Scrum Master on a team that was functioning this way, wouldn’t that indicate a lack to trust in the team? These are good questions, and while we discussed the topic during class, I found myself returning to it over and over. What I love about this question is that even though I have an answer to it in my head, the asking the question challenged that. In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by the person who asked the question, Kyle Macey, who works as a Senior Backend Engineer at Chow Now. And, because I wanted to do my best to keep my bias in check during the conversation, I asked a friend, Bjorn Jensen, if he’d be willing to lead the discussion. Bjorn and I volunteer for the Scrum Alliance TAC together. He’s not only a CST with a background in development, Bjorn has a level of openness and calmness that I only wish I could achieve. Contacting Kyle Macey Twitter: https://twitter.com/itskylemacey Web: https://kylemacey.com/ Contacting Bjorn Jensen Twitter: https://twitter.com/mirouhh Web: https://jensen-und-komplizen.de/ Email: mail@jensen.coach

This podcast is also available in video form. You can find it here: https://youtu.be/0-Mha3nv6G4 The Responsibility Process is a system that provides you with tools that enable you to develop leadership skills by leading yourself first. Christopher Avery is now offering a 20-week Responsibility Immersion program where a small group of individuals will work together to learn, and deepen their understanding and practice of The Responsibility Process. This interview features the creator of The Responsibility Process, Christopher Avery, Henning Wolf who is an Accredited Responsibility Mentor and a Certified Responsibility Workshop Leader who leads Responsibility Immersions in Germany, and Patricia Sappenfield, who has recently been through Responsibility Immersion. During the conversation, we discuss what the Responsibility Process is, how Immersion works and how you can learn more about it in advance of the workshop to make sure it is right for you. This interview is being posted in advance of the September 2021 Responsibility Immersion which begins on September 8. For more information please go to: https://responsibility.com/immersion Contact Info: Christopher Avery: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopheravery/ Henning Wolf: https://www.selbstfuehren.de Patricia Sappenfield: patricia_sappenfield@baylor.edu Dave Prior: https://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/

In preparation for transforming the organization to Agile (or implementing some other significant organizational change), many companies will engage a third party to first assess how they are currently working, what the change would entail, and then they make recommendations on how to go about it. This can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. Once the recommendation on how to implement the change is delivered, it is often up to a separate outside company to come in and actually implement the change. George Schlitz is someone who has spent a lot of time leading those implementation efforts. Along the way, he’s learned a lot about what a company can do to set itself up for success when they engage with the third party figuring out the “how” and also what a company can do to set itself up for the opposite of success. If you are working in an organization that has engaged a big consulting company to help you figure out the “how”, there is stuff in this interview that will be helpful. And if you work for people who are considering bringing in one of those big companies to help you figure out the “how”, it might be a good idea to ask them to check this out as well. Contacting George LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gschlitz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gschlitz Email: george.schlitz@gmail.com