[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”] Hosts Ryan Ripley, Aaron Griffith Discussion Aaron Griffith (@aaron_griffith) is a member of the Hunter #mobprogramming team, agile speaker, and #NoEstimates enthusiast. He joined Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) to talk about agile in a galaxy far far away, agile coach camp (#accus) experiences, and a bonus topic from the Agile Coaching Cards Lean Coffee volume 1 deck. We started with Aaron’s talk about agile and Star Wars. During this talk, Aaron compares and contrast the Republic and the Galactic Empire to an agile team. Using movie quotes and scenes he brings to life agile concepts and practices in ways that newcomers to agile can relate with and understand. He’s received great feedback on this talk and will be giving it again at Agile Testing Days in Potsdam, Germany – November 9th-12th. We then moved on to our time at Agile Coach Camp 2015. We were both able to attend some interesting sessions. Ryan shared his experiences discussing the business side of agile and telling stories with Woody Zuill. Aaron explained insights learned in #MobProgramming sessions and gave his overall thoughts on his first visit to a coach camp. Finally, we wrapped up by doing a quick Lean Coffee session using Victor Bonacci’s (@agilecoffee) new agile coaching cards deck. We pulled the “Dealing with bullies, naysayers, and other bad apples” card and shared stories and insights from past experiences with difficult agile team members. And then…we called it a night. If you would like to continue the conversation, please visit www.agileanswerman.com/ask-a-question. You can record a message that could end up on the show or send us an email with your feedback, topics, and questions. We hope to hear from you soon. Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Agile Coaching Cards – These are the Lean Coffee decks that were mentioned on the show. The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas Slack by Tom Demarco The Star Wars Saga Aaron – https://twitter.com/Aaron_Griffith Agile Testing Days – Potsdam, Germany – 11/9-11/12 Agile Open SoCal The Hunter Mob is hiring! mobprogramming.org teachingkidsprogramming.org The post AFH 014: Agile in a Galaxy Far Far Away [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Amitai Schlair Discussion It’s a miracle that this episode happened. Zach Bonaker (@zachbonaker) got lost in an English bog, Amitai Schlair (@schmonz) was wandering in Guatemala and Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) was nearly sucked in to the power fueled DC world, but the three managed to come together to ponder some questions about coaching agile teams. WHEN DOES AN AGILE TEAM NEED COACHING? We started with defining coaching, then mentoring, and finally consulting. And ultimately came upon an important insight. If the team knows how to learn together and has a high level of skill in conducting retrospectives, they likely need little coaching. However, such stars rarely align. We discussed if the team should choose when a coach is needed, and managements role in the process. We then moved on to our next question: WHEN SHOULD AN AGILE COACH LEAVE? When the checks start to bounce, of course! This is another difficult situation to handle. It takes a great amount of awareness to realize that the team can find success without you (the coach). Watching the teams behaviors, the systems they are working within, and the response they have to the coach are all important considerations. On the other hand, we did discuss that in professional sports, the coach never leaves. Even LeBron James has a coach. The conversation then pivoted in to agile transformations. At the heart our discussion was the idea of influence vs coercion and how coercion can tank an agile transformation quickly. The tendency to hold on the old practices, even harmful ones, is hard to break as teams new to agile often struggle to embrace self-organization. Trust was also a key theme throughout. Amitai was kind enough to share episode 8 (care) of his podcast: Agile in 3 Minutes. He creates art each week by focusing on one agile idea each week. Insightful and poetic, Agile in 3 Minutes is clearly a labor of love that I’m grateful to enjoy each week. I hope you give Agile in 3 Minutes a listen and subscribe via rss here. Finally, Zach told us about Victor Bonacci’s recent Kickstarter project: Agile Coaching Cards. Vic was a recent guest on Agile for Humans and taught us how to play Lean Coffee. He’s now selling a deck of cards on Kickstarter designed to help teams get up to speed quickly with Lean Coffee discussion. This is a fun tool that can help teams facilitate conversations about agile topics. And then…we called it a night. If you would like to continue the conversation, please visit www.agileanswerman.com/ask-a-question. You can record a message that could end up on the show or send us an email with your feedback, topics, and questions. We hope to hear from you soon. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Differences Between Hiring a Contractor or Consultant – Johanna Rothman Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker Agile Coaching Cards Agile Open SoCal Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Agile in 3 Minutes Agile in 3 Minutes Patreon Agile for Humans is brought to you by audible.com – get one FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/agile The post AFH 013: When Does an Agile Team Need a Coach? [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Woody Zuill Discussion Woody Zuill (@WoodyZuill) joined Zach and Ryan to talk about experimentation in Agile. Woody talked about his early experiences in the workforce and the need to investigate. These experiences taught him to never take anything for granted and to be inquisitive about all things. This lead to one of his key mantras: Question the things that you have the most faith in. We then moved on to The Pattern of Continuous No Improvement. This phenomenon occurs when teams set out to correct the same issue sprint over sprint but cannot seem to make progress. Often this pattern is caused by not addressing the root cause of the issue. We talked about 5 why’s as one means to discovering the root cause. We also talked about the team’s need to recognize this pattern and to confront it head on. #NoEstimates was born from this insight as a team tried repeatedly to improve their estimates but continued to miss that goal. Finally the team decided to work without task estimates and found some improvement and later on, success. #MobProgramming is another idea brought to the agile world by Woody. He described its origin as an impromptu presentation during Agile 2012. Fortunately, that open jam session was popular and an important conversation about how teams get their work done was born. Asking the inverse of a question was highlighted as a powerful probing technique, especially during retrospectives. We all agreed that frequent retros bring valuable insights to the team and that effective mob programming is fueled by effective retrospectives. The discussion then shifted to how teams can measure their agility and the renaissance of craftsmanship in the software development world. And then…we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com No Estimates Book by Vasco Duarte Agile for Humans EP 7 – #NoEstimates “War of Words Is Goofy” Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker The Subversion of Agile: Agile is a Cancer Woody – http://zuill.us/WoodyZuill/ Mob Programming Introduction A Day of Mob Programming – Time Lapse Video No Estimates: Let’s Explore the Possibilities Wiki Management by Rod Collins The post AFH 012: Agile Experiments with Woody Zuill [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Victor Bonacci, Jon Jorgensen Discussion This episode is a cross-over between The Agile Coffee Podcast and Agile for Humans. Victor and Jon host Agile Coffee and do a great job of cultivating interesting topics and engaging guests. Not too long ago, Victor joined me on Agile for Humans and we had so much fun that we thought we’d give this cross-over experiment a try. I have to say that it was a lot of fun having someone else do the facilitation. We managed to cover a wide range of topics that we hope you all enjoy. The HR Side of Agile – Performance Reviews, Raises, & Transparency The Business of Agile – How we justifiy the investment in agility Ken’s Complaint -Trademarking Scrum User Groups Crossing the line – Pushing and pulling hair Organisational Psychotherapist, the new coach Agile Transformation – The REST of the story Agile games, simulations, and learning activities Resources, Plugs, and More Group Picks Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, et all Holding Space by Heather Plett Bob Marshall’s “Why Me?” [reminder]What did you think of this experiment? Did you like the lean coffee format? Please let us know your thoughts below.[/reminder] The post AFH 011: Agile Lean Coffee for Humans [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Ron Quartel Discussion Ron Quartel (@AgileAgitator) is an agile coach, blogger (blog.agileagitator.com) and the creator of the FAST Agile framework. The FAST Agile (www.fast-agile.com) is a combination of Open Space Technology, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Story Mapping. After watching hundreds of participants use open space technology to organize and hold a conference, Ron decided that such self-organization practices could also be applied to software development. Rather than relying control mechanisms like SAFe and LeSS, FAST Agile is a scalable agile framework that relies and individuals and interactions along with pulling work in to teams. Utilizing a 2 day sprint, FAST Agile implicitly requires teams to break their work down in to small chunks and to swarm the work in a #MobProgramming fashion. Documentation on the FAST Agile framework can be found at (www.fast-agile.com). We then moved on to the pain points of agile coaching, including: Fixing bad scrum implementations over and over again Lack of XP usage on scrum teams Mis-understanding of what makes scrum work Especially surprising is the low adoption rates of XP on scrum teams. According to the Scrum Alliance State of Scrum Survey 2015, only 16% of scrum teams also practice XP. The Version One survey had the usage rate even lower. Ron is giving a talk at Agile 2015 about using Scrum and XP for Hyper-productivity. If you’re going to be in DC for the “big conference” this is a must see session. Finally, we wrapped up with a conversation about agile certifications. While the classes are good, Ron questions the value of “certifying” CSM’s after a 2-day course. He started the #SayNoToAgileCertifications and hopes to see improvements in this area. And then…we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Extreme Programming Explained – Kent Beck Scrum – Jeff Sutherland Ron – http://blog.agileagitator.com FAST Agile Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki The People’s Scrum by Tobias Mayer Agile 2015 Talk – Scrum and XP for Hyper-productivity The Land That Scrum Forgot – Bob Martin The post AFH 010: FAST Agile with Ron Quartel [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Victor Bonacci Discussion Victor is an independent consultant who hosts the Agile Coffee Podcast. He helped organize this years Agile Coach Camp US West in California, and participates in many local events on the west coast. We started the discussion on our involvement in the agile community and some of the conferences that we enjoy. We’re both connected by our love of the Agile Coach Camp conferences are both looking forward to this years meeting later in July in Washington DC. The topic shifted to podcasting. We both host podcasts, product podcasts, and listen to podcasts. We fielded some of the questions that we sometimes get such as: Which agile podcasts do we listen to – other than Agile Coffee and Agile for Humans? This Agile Life Meta-Cast Agile Revolution Agile in 3 Minutes Agile Toolkit Podcast Scrum Master Toolbox How do you produce and record your shows? Ryan’s Setup: Recording:  Skype & Pamela Call Recorder Post Production:  Adobe Audition Hosting:  Libsyn Victor: Live recordings with mixer and mics (see below) Post Production: Audacity Hosting:  Libsyn What kind of equipment do you use? Ryan Rode Podcaster (mic Victor Behringer X1222 mixing board Zoom H5 handy recorder Audio Technica ATR2100 (mics) We moved on to the recent Scrum Coaching Retreat in Seattle where Victor and his team worked on the concept of coaching dojo’s. Finally, we discussed pair coaching and the impact this practice can have on coaches who are mentored in this manner. The similarities to pair programming are hard to ignore, as are the immediate benefits coaches can experience. And then…we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com The Nature of Software Development – Ron Jeffries Predicting the Unpredictable – Johanna Rothman Victor – http://linkedin.com/in/vbonacci Three Pillars of Quality & Testing – Robert Galen Extreme Programming Explained – Kent Beck & Cynthia Andres Essentialism – Greg McKeown The Fifth Discipline – Peter Senge The post AFH 008: A Show Full of Hosts [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Zach Bonaker, Tim Ottinger Discussion We opened the discussion by defining the critic’s view against #NoEstimates: Estimates are natural, ubiquitous, useful, and unavoidable in practical life and in business. Estimates are an important part of the process of collaboratively setting reasonable targets, goals, and commitments within an organization. The process of estimating, in and of itself, has by-products and benefits. Given that a rational estimating process is an integral part of making decisions in the presence of uncertainty, it is hard to understand why anyone would state that a desirable goal is to push forward into limiting estimates; down to zero where possible. –Peter Kretzman From there the discussion flowed in multiple directions as we discuss the many areas of agreement that we have with some of the #NoEstimates critics: The process of estimating, in and of itself, has by-products and benefits far beyond the sheer “number” or other indicator of sizing that emerges at the end. When asking for estimates, management is acting benevolently and is looking to have a need met. Abuse of estimates is poor management and a sign of dysfunction The word “estimates”, as used in our debates, has been interpreted in a wide array of possibilities – from guesses to predictions. It’s reasonable to feel a sense of shock here. It sounds like people are saying to “just stop giving estimates” and leave managers hanging. Throughout the conversation we shared what we have learned from the interaction with the critics and worked on clarifying many of these areas: Ambiguity around the #NoEstimates tag and the lack of civility demonstrated at times by those supporting NE has damaged the discussion and limited collaboration. The connection between agile principles & values and #NoEstimates is not clear. The role of systems thinking in the approach to minimizing the role of estimates is also not clear. The field of “professional estimating” is highly complex, sophisticated, and dedicated to continuously improving the quantitative practice of estimating software development. The remaining time was spent on systems thinking, pre-conditions necessary to question estimation processes and value, and the role of excellent engineering practices in reducing the role of estimates in a software delivery system. Then, we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com An Introduction to General System Thinking by Jerry Weinberg Zach – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbonaker Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux Tim – http://agileotter.blogspot.com/ Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art by Steve McConnell The post AFH 007: Lessons from #NoEstimates Critics [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, JB Rainsberger, Amitai Schlair Discussion Amitai started our night with a recap of his experiences at the Problem Solving Leadership (PSL) course led by Esther Derby and Jerry Weinberg. The PSL course teaches leaders how to think and act clearly during a wide range of situations. Amitai and many other have recommended it highly as a valuable course for getting to the next level of leadership. We then moved on to conference recaps. Amitai presented at Agile Roots and made Ryan regret not going. Ryan presented at the Agile Development Conference West in Las Vegas and got some great feedback on his well received talk about managers in an agile environment. JB Rainsberger found some slack in his schedule and joined us for a great discussion about organizations dysfunction, the Amplify Your Effectiveness (AYE) conference, Mob Programming, and Rebooting XP. We dropped a few book recommendations along the way. Talked about the joys of living in Canada, and wrapped up with some thoughts about the next generation of developers entering the market and how they can have a strong, humane influence on the software development culture. Then, we called it a night. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change by Kent Beck JB – http://www.jbrains.ca Arlo Belshee’s Promiscuous Pairing Paper The Goal by Goldratt The Fundamental Theorem of Agile Software Development Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ Shoestring Agility in a Velcro Environment Agile Roots 2016 is June 16 – 17 Slides and other artifacts from the 2015 Agile Roots sessions Agile in 3 Minutes on Pair(ing) The post AFH 006: Rebooting XP and #MobProgramming [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, George Dinwiddie, Neil Killick, JB Rainsberger Discussion #NoEstimates means many different things to many different people. The group defined #NoEstimates as a conversation around when estimates are appropriate and to which level of precision teams should target. We noted that the hashtag can lead to more “heat than light”, but also acknowledged that a rich conversation has formed around the questions that #NoEstimates poses. We moved on to discussing estimates being useful at a portfolio level for deciding which projects to do and to forecast budgets. To some this did not go far enough and we continued to highlight other benefits of estimating such as: Conversations that occur when estimating Shared understand of programming activities Enabling decision making at the executive level Validating project/program/product assumptions Indication of possible issues when reality and the estimate do not match When discussing when estimates are needed, there are no stock answers. George highlighted the need to meet the expressed needs of those seeking estimates. Once that is understood, we can determine an appropriate level of precision and act accordingly. JB cautioned against the mindless use of estimates, but everyone agreed that estimates created with a goal of “making good decisions” are useful. We turned to real world examples where burn-up charts are used to estimate the delivery of programs. This revealed some important considerations about estimates like the need to build uncertainty in to your estimates, while removing inappropriate levels of precision. We also covered situations with mandates and fixed dates where estimates may not be as critical as focusing on delivering the software frequently. Part of improving estimates requires improving software engineering practices. If the team can deliver consistently sprint over the sprint, the creation of estimates can move be performed by the stakeholders. While this type of improvement is difficult, George reminded us that focusing on the little things can have a great impact of making delivery more predictable. To wrap up, we circled back to the idea that we should focus on meeting needs. This aligns well with “individuals and interactions over process and tools”, but is also more difficult to do. Exploring how to meet needs requires soft skills, trust, and good relationships to succeed. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com #NoEstimates Does Not Stop Agile Metric Abuse The Product Owner Says #NoEstimates. Now What? Woody Zuill’s Blog George – http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/ Estimation as Hypothesis George’s post on Estimation Neil – http://neilkillick.com/ Interview about #NoEstimates with Chris Chapman and Neil The Requestimator’s Intent Babies, Bathwater, and #NoEstimates JB – http://www.jbrains.ca/ One Practical Alternative to Estimates The Trouble with #NoEstimates Those #NoEstimate People! The post AFH 005: A Panel Discussion on #NoEstimates [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Ryan Ripley, Amitai Schlair, Bob Galen Discussion Agile isn’t simple anymore. We talked at length about the added complexity that has emerged in the agile community and the impact on transformations and projects. Amitai offered a lean start-up approach that we all agreed could be a competitive advantage to companies in years to come. We focused on organizing companies around products to limit risk and maximize value. We moved on to what’s leading edge and new in the agile world. Bob shared his finding from many informal polls and discussion – that we are not leading edge. 70-90% of people polled acknowledge “bad agile” in their organizations. This has proven consistent when other speakers and coaches pose the questions to large groups and teams. Next the team discussed meeting the needs of the people we serve and how trust, safety, empathy, compassion, kindness, and love play in to that end. Some of the questions covered include: Is it safe to say you don’t know something? Can you fail quickly in your organization? Do we trust one another to not cause harm in the workplace? These insights led us down the past of advocating for coaching at the leadership level. This practice is critical as pressure and adversity can cause people to revert to comfortable patterns and practices. Leadership, however, can limit this by “being agile” through thick and thin. Resources, Plugs, and More Ryan – http://agileanswerman.com Kindness is the missing agile value Lean Startup by Eric Ries Teaching Pointy Haired Bosses to Be Agile Enablers Amitai – http://www.schmonz.com/ 5th Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge Agile Roots Self.Conference Agile in 3 Minutes – The simplest podcast that could possibly work Bob – http://rgalen.com/ Scrum Product Ownership: Balancing Value from the Inside Out by Bob Galen Three Pillars of Agile Quality & Testing: Achieving Balanced Results in your Journey Towards Agile Quality by Bob Galen Agile Reflections: Musings Toward Becoming “Seriously Agile” in Software Development by Bob Galen The post AFH 004: Agile transformations with Bob Galen [PODCAST] appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices