Software Process and Measurement Cast

SPaMCAST 542 features our interview with Kevin Rush. Mr. Rush has developed an innovative approach to facilitate sprint/iteration planning.  Kittens, exploding kittens, and fat cats are used to help teams probe whether the team understands the story and if the story is broken down well enough for the team to reduce the risk of failure.  All change agents talk about making changes at the team level but many fail to change how they work, Kevin suggests that experimenting with different approaches is eating our dog food. Way too many pet metaphors, but a great discussion. Kevin’s Bio Kevin is a certified Scrum Master and Agility Enablement leader at Hyland Software. Before coming to Hyland he worked as an innovation consultant and coach with for-profit and nonprofit organizations throughout Northeast Ohio. A graduate from DeVry University he spent time as Technology Coordinator for several local school districts before transitioning to ministry then back to tech! When he's not working with teams and organizations he spends his time with his beautiful wife, Sondra, and their three beautiful daughters. LinkedIn: Email: Twitter: Re-Read Saturday News I am declaring the poll for the next book in the Re-read Saturday over. The results are: - Daniel Kahneman 64.29% The Power of Habit - Charles Duhig 21.43% The Stuff of Thought - Steven Pinker 14.28%   High Output Management - Andrew S. Grove 0% I am very surprised at the results; I added Thinking, Fast and Slow to round out the poll.  My copy of the book is 500 pages and 38 chapters long and has a copyright of 2013. Next week we will discuss our approach to the re-read and dispense with the front matter (15-page introduction).  I reference the book all of the time. My memory is that the book is crammed with ideas, I will need your help calling out the parts of the book that resonates with you. If you do not have a favorite, dog-eared copy of please buy a copy.  Using the links in this blog entry helps support the blog and its alter-ego, The Software Process and Measurement Cast.  ,  Its time to get reading!   Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 543 will feature our essay on value chains.  We will tackle, Value Chains, Streams and Maps - What a Mess!  I am doing a workshop on value chains at QAI Quest 2019 (May 13 - 19 in Chicago).  Do you need a discount? Register at using the code Speaker10.  Let me know and we will do a hangout with Jeremy and myself! SPAMCAST 543 will include Gene Hughson’s Form Follows Function column.  Gene and I begin a three column set on solution architects. We start by discussing just what the heck is a solution architect is and does!

In SPaMCAST 541 we discuss using guardrails in decision making. Guardrails are a tool to ensure alignment with the organization’s goals and objectives and to keep people on the right path. Well-formed guardrails conform to that help teams and individuals make decisions. Our second segment features Jon M Quigley and his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column. Jon discusses reciprocal agreements and their impact of on teams and products. Re-Read Saturday News We continue our poll to decide on the next book in the Re-read Saturday Series. We will announce the next book on Saturday 13 April 2019.  Make your opinion known! What are you reading during our interregnum? Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 542 will feature our interview with Kevin Rush. Mr. Rush has developed an innovative approach for facilitating sprint planning.  Kittens, exploding kittens, and fat cats are used to help teams probe whether the team understands the story and if it is broken down well enough for the team.  Kevin is a Scrum Master at Hyland Software.

SPaMCAST 540 features our interview Mark Kilby and Johanna Rothman. Johanna, Mark, and I discussed their new book, (Buy your copy here: https). Distributed agile teams are a fact of life; Johanna and Mark provide an extraordinary amount of wisdom for making distributed teams exceptional.    Johanna’s Bio Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” provides frank advice for your tough problems. She helps leaders and teams see problems, resolve risks, and manage their product development. Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair and was the co-chair of the first edition of the Agile Practice Guide. Johanna is the author of 14 books that range from hiring, to project management, program management, project portfolio management, and management. Her most recent books are From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams (with Mark Kilby) and Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver. Read her blogs, email newsletter, and more information about her books at Mark Kilby Bio With over two decades of experience in agile principles and practices, Mark Kilby has cultivated more distributed and dispersed teams than collocated teams.  He has consulted with organizations across many industries and coached teams, leaders, and organizations internally. Mark also co-founded a number of professional learning organizations such as Agile Orlando, Agile Florida, Virtual Team Talk, and the Agile Alliance Community Group Support Initiative among others.  His easy-going style helps teams learn to collaborate and discover their path to success and sustainability. Mark shares his insights on distributed and agile teams in dozens of articles in multiple publications. Most of his latest ideas and developments can be found on Re-Read Saturday News We have been re-reading Malcolm Gladwell’s over the past 10 weeks.  When considering how I would wrap up the re-read I had to fight the urge to parrot back the findings Gladwell identified in the conclusion: a few people are critical and that people’s biases matter. Real life intervened and I applied the ideas in the book! We need to choose the next book in the Re-read Saturday Series. Steven Adams has requested a referendum on the next book.  Mr. Adams has always provided sage advice, therefore, a poll we will have! The poll will be open for two weeks. Vote for your two favorites. Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 541 will feature our essay on guardrails.  We will discuss using guardrails in decision making.  Guardrails are a tool to ensure alignment with the organization’s goals and objectives and to keep people on the right path.  Well-formed guardrails conform to that help teams and individuals make decisions. We will also have a visit from John M Quigley who brings his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column to the podcast.

SPaMCAST 539 features our essay titled, Assessment and Continuous Process Improvement. Assessments and continuous process improvement are intertwined. Assessments being both a source of ideas and a tool to validate change and other experiments.  Other essays that have appeared on the SPaMCAST blog on agile assessments include: Assessment and Continuous Process Improvement - Components Of A Solid Assessment Plan Assessments: Being or DOing An Assessment: A Mall Map For Change We will also have part 2 of Susan Parente’s discussions on distributed agile.  This week we will focus on tools. Susan reminds us that unless you spend time building trust and learning how to communicate, a tool won’t solve a communication problem. Re-Read Saturday News This week we conclude the re-read portion our tour through Malcolm Gladwell’s by tackling both the conclusion and the afterword. The Tipping Point is a theory that viral change—epidemics, in Gladwell’s word—can be caused and shaped by few actions and people. The Law of the Few tells us that connectors, mavens and salespeople can affect whether or not a concept, idea or movement moves across the tipping point and becomes an epidemic. Check out the current entry of Re-Read Saturday at I have had several excellent suggestions for what to read next, right now the leader in the clubhouse is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  Thoughts? Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 540 will be a TREAT.  My interview with Mark Kilby and Johanna Rothman will be featured!   We discussed their new book, (Buy your copy ). Distributed agile teams are a fact of life, Johanna and Mark provide an extraordinary amount of wisdom for making distributed teams exceptional.

SPaMCAST 538 features our interview with Ben Linders.  Ben and I talk about his new agile assessment game. Ben’s game and the book that supports the game provide teams and individuals with a tool for introspection and process improvement.  This is not Ben’s first visit to the podcast. Ben’s last visit was in November 2017 () to discuss what drives quality in software development. Ben Linders is an Independent Consultant in Agile, Lean, Quality, and Continuous Improvement, based in The Netherlands. Author of , , and . Ben is the creator of the . The book supporting the Self-assessment Game can be found at   As an adviser, coach, and trainer he helps organizations with . He focuses on continuous improvement, collaboration and communication, and professional development, to deliver business value to customers. Ben is an active member of networks on Agile, Lean, and Quality, and a well-known speaker and author. He shares his experiences in a, as an , and as an expert in communities like ,, , and . Follow him on Twitter: . Re-Read Saturday NewsWe continue our re-read of by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter 7 of Malcolm Gladwell’s (remember to stop borrowing your best friend’s copy and of the book for yourself!), is another case study. This time we explore the ideas of how tipping points happen by considering teen suicides and smoking.  We have two more weeks in this re-read. I would like your suggestions to help guide the next book. Check out the current entry of Re-Read Saturday at Next SPaMCASTSPaMCAST 539 will feature our essay titled, Assessment and Continuous Process Improvement. Assessments and continuous process improvement are intertwined. Assessments being both a source of ideas and a tool to validate change and other experiments.   We will also have a visit from Susan Parente who brings her Not A Scrumdamentalist column to the podcast!

SPaMCAST 537 features our essay on the use of assessments for agile efforts.  Assessments come under a wide variety of names: appraisals, health checks, audits or even assessments. These terms are commonly conflated.  Assessments are a tool to prove a point. The essay in the cast explores the myriad types and reasons for assessments. Rounding out the cast is the Software Sensei, Kim Pries.  Kim tackles physical security, including the wall (no politics included)! Re-Read Saturday News We continue our re-read of by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter Seven of Malcolm Gladwell’s is a case study.  Stop borrowing your best friends copy and of the book for yourself!   Check out the current entry of Re-Read Saturday at Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 538 features the return of Ben Linders.  Ben and I talk about his new agile assessment game.  Fitting based on this week’s essay!

SPaMCAST 536 features our interview with Dave Sohmer. Dave is an executive that has led two separate major agile transformations.  Mr. Sohmer provides an executive's perspective on the impact of adopting agile in two major financial institutions. The two very different companies took to two very different approaches to agile. Bio: Dave Sohmer is a technology and operations executive with over 25 years of experience.  He has spent many years in the code but has come to enjoy the people and process side of software almost as much.  Dave has built and led many development teams at scale at Northern Trust and Bank of America Merrill Lynch over the last 20 years. Over that time he has come to believe in the power of the team as the fundamental unit that unlocks business agility.  He has championed two large scale Lean Scrum transformations within the financial services sector and has come to appreciate that a healthy mix of Lean principles, Agile values, Scrum by the book, XP practices and common sense will radically change your business's view of technology from misunderstood adversary to trusted partner. LinkedIn: Email: david@sohmer.net Re-Read Saturday News We continue our re-read of by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter Six of Malcolm Gladwell’s continues the discussion of the role of context in approaching a tipping point.  Stop borrowing your best friends copy and of the book for yourself!   Check out the current entry of Re-Read Saturday at Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 537 will feature an essay on the use of assessments for agile efforts.  Assessments come under a wide variety of names: appraisals, health checks, audit or even assessments. These terms are commonly conflated.  Assessments are a tool to prove a point. The essay in the cast explores the myriad types and reasons for assessments. We will also have a new column from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries.

SPaMCAST 535 features our essay spawned when I was asked to help a Scrum Master who said:  There is not a straightforward answer because regardless of the path forward there are people issues that need to be dealt with first. Also in this podcast, we have a visit from Susan Parente and her ‘I am not a Scrumdamentalist’ column.  In this installment, Susan discusses distributed Agile. Agile on distributed teams is often discussed in hushed tones.  Susan brings the topic out into the open and provides excellent advice. Re-Read Saturday News We continue our re-read of by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter Four of Malcolm Gladwell’s begins the discussion of the role of context in approaching a tipping point.  Stop borrowing your best friends copy and of the book for yourself!   Check out the current entry of Re-Read Saturday at Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 536 will feature our interview with Dave Sohmer.   Dave is an executive that has led two separate major agile transformations.  Mr. Sohmer provides an executive’s perspective on the impact of adopting agile in two major financial institutions.  The two very different companies led to two very different approaches to adopting agile.

SPaMCAST 534 features our interview with Al Shalloway.   Al returns to the SPaMCAST after far too long. This week we discuss the trials and tribulations of scaling agile, and his passion about getting knowledge transfer right! I hope you have as good of a time listening to this interview as I had creating it. Bio Al Shalloway is the founder and CEO of Net Objectives. With 45 years of experience, Al is an industry thought leader in Lean, Kanban, product portfolio management, Scrum and agile design. He helps companies transition to Lean and Agile methods enterprise-wide as well teaches courses in these areas. Al is a former SAFe Program Consultant Trainer. Al has developed training and coaching methods for Lean-Agile that have helped Net Objectives' clients achieve long-term, sustainable productivity gains. He is a popular speaker at prestigious conferences worldwide. Website:   Email:   LinkedIn: Re-Read Saturday News This week we continue our re-read of by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter Three of Malcolm Gladwell’s is a reminder of why this book continues to be important and useful. The density of ideas in this chapter is amazing. Stop borrowing your best friends copy and of the book for yourself!   Current entry: Week 4 - - Previous entries Week 3 - - Week 2 - - Week 1 – - Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 535 will feature an essay spawned when I was asked to help a Scrum Master who said: “I messed up a scrum team should I do kanban?”  There is not a straightforward answer because regardless of the path forward there are people issues that need to be dealt with first. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente who brings her ‘I am not a Scrumdamentalist’ column to the cast!

SPaMCAST 533 features our essay titled, Can Agile (SAFe) Be Interfaced With Waterfall? The long answer is yes, but the short answer is yes, but try to find a way to avoid the self-inflicted complexity. If you can’t avoid mixing and matching frameworks, there are paths to success you can leverage. Other essays in our series on interfacing SAFe and waterfall efforts include: Can Agile (SAFe) Be Interfaced With Waterfall? - Interfacing Agile (SAFe) With Waterfall? – Transparency - Interfacing Agile (SAFe) With Waterfall? –  Synchronization - Interfacing Agile (SAFe) With Waterfall? –  Code - This week we also have a quick visit from Tom Henricksen.  Tom created the popular Online Agile Summit. Today he announces the DevOps Online Summit that will be held on April 8th through 11th.  After you listen, check out the website! https://www.devopsonlinesummit.com/2019 Jeremy Berriault brings a new installment of the QA Corner (https://qacorner.blog/) to the cast this week.  Jeremy leverages work by Simon Sinek and tackles the “why” of testing. Re-Read Saturday News This week we continue our re-read of by Malcolm Gladwell. In chapter two, Gladwell dives into the law of the few.  There are three types of people that are important to pushing an idea up to and over a tipping point: connectors, mavens, and salespeople.  All three are required. Remember to dust off your copy or and read along! Current entry: Week 3 - - Previous entries Week 2 - - Week 1 – - Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 534 will feature our interview with Al Shalloway.  Al returns to the SPaMCAST to discuss the trials and tribulations of scaling agile and his passion about getting knowledge transfer right!