Software Process and Measurement Cast

SPaMCAST 455 features our interview with Michael King. We talked about Michael's approach to Agile, process improvement and the CMMI at Halfaker and Associates. Michael provides a glimpse into making a change in the real world. Mr. King delivers more than just theory. One word describes the interview - insightful. Michael's Bio: Michael King serves as Chief Technology Officer at Halfaker and Associates (www.halfaker.com), leading customer solution architecture, internal IT operations, business process architecture, and quality management activities. Michael has 14 years of systems engineering, project management, and process design experience within the Federal contracting industry. He has previously served as Halfaker's Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Halfaker, Michael worked within Lockheed Martin's Critical Infrastructure Protection group, providing system engineering support related to identity management, physical security, and cyber security. Michael holds a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia, a Masters in Information Systems and Technology from Johns Hopkins, and several professional certifications (PMP, PMI-ACP, SAFe SA). Michael King writes about organization design, Agile, and process management at https://designinggreatorganizations.com. Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikehking LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehking/D Re-Read Saturday News This week Steven dives into Chapter 3 of Paul Gibbons' book The Science of Successful Organizational Change. This chapter has provided me several sleepless nights considering the difference between complicated and complex systems. Understanding the difference is important making change happen, work, and stick! Remember to use the link in the essay to buy a copy of the book to support the author, the podcast, and the blog! This week and previous installments: Week 1: Game Plan Week 2: Introduction Week 3: Failed Change Week 4: Introduction to Part 1 and Fragility to Change-Agility Week 5: Governance and the Psychology of Risk Week 6: Decision Making in Complex and Ambiguous Environments A Call To Action You can help bring more listeners to the Software Process and Measurement Cast! If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review somewhere, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com we will call you out on the show! Reviews help guide people to the cast and blog! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 456 will feature our interview with Jeff Dalton. We are going back to the even episode paradigm (even number episodes will be interviews) beginning next week. Jeff discussed leadership and whether leaderships more or less important in the Agile, dynamic world we find ourselves inhabiting. Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 454 features three columns! The first is our essay and checklists on iteration planning. Aristotle stated that "well begun is half done." While we might argue the half part, planning is required to be well begun and that is important on any measurement scale. Jeremy Berriault delivers a new entry in the QA Corner. In this installment of the QA Corner, we discuss the function of a QA Lead. Check out Jeremy's blog at the QA Corner! Gene Hughson anchors the cast with his Form Follows Function blog to the SPaMCAST to discuss the entry, Trash or Treasure – What's Your Legacy? Gene begins with the contentious topic of legacy systems. Re-Read Saturday News We continue re-reading The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Steven Adams is leading this re-read. In this week's entry, we cover the introduction to Part 2 and chapter 3. Gibbon's takes us down the path of strategy and uncertainty. Remember to buy your copy. This week and previous installments: Week 1: Game Plan Week 2: Introduction Week 3: Failed Change Week 4: Introduction to Part 1 and Fragility to Change-Agility Week 5: Governance and the Psychology of Risk A Call To Action You can help bring more listeners to the Software Process and Measurement Cast! If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review somewhere, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 455 will feature our interview with Michael King. We talked about his approach to Agile, process improvement and the CMMI at Halfaker and Associates. When you deliver contracting and consulting, effectiveness for your clients it is the bottom line that matters. Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 453 features our interview with James Shore. We began with a discussion of the Agile Fluency Model, including the concepts and ideas that led to the model and then got into topics such as whether Agile can ever be method agnostic. James's bio: James Shore teaches, writes, and consults on Agile development processes. He is a recipient of the Agile Alliance's Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile Practice, co-creator of the Agile Fluency™ Model, co-author of /The Art of Agile Development/, and host of "Let's Code: Test-Driven JavaScript." InfoQ has named him one of the "most influential people in Agile." You can find his screencasts at letscodejavascript.com, essays at jamesshore.com, and more about the Agile Fluency Project at agilefluency.org. Re-Read Saturday News Today we continue re-reading The Science of Successful Organizational Change led by Steven Adams. This week Steven addresses the introduction to Part 1 and Chapter 2. In the introduction to Part 1 Gibbon's tells us that we live in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) and in Chapter 2 that we have to transition from change fragility to change-agility. Remember to buy your copy. Previous installments: Week 1: Game Plan Week 2: Introduction Week 3: Failed Change Week 4: Introduction to Part 1 and Fragility to Change-Agility A Call To Action We are often asked how listeners can help the Software Process and Measurement Cast. The simplest and effective way you can help is to give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 454 will feature our essay and checklists for iteration planning. Starting well and ending well are highly related! We will also have columns from Gene Hughson (Form Follows Function) and Jeremy Berriault (QA Corner). Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 452 features our essay on personal process improvement. We are responsible for our own path in life. Stepping back and reviewing where we are today and where we want to be tomorrow is a form of a retrospective. Just like any other retrospective, the goal is to change the trajectory of the path you are on. Kim Pries, the Software Sensei, discusses ethics in software. Ethics guide (or they don't) practitioners of all types. Many certification organizations include ethics statements but rarely have the teeth to enforce those ethics. Kim asks whether this approach makes sense. Anchoring the cast is Jon M Quigley with his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column. Jon is beginning a three column theme on the impact of people and learning on product development. One of the places you can find Jon is at Value Transformation LLC. Re-Read Saturday News Today we continue re-reading The Science of Successful Organizational Change led by Steven Adams. THis week we dive into Chapter One titled Failed Change: The Greatest Preventable Cost to Business? The frightening part of this chapter is how intimately it resonates based on personal observation. Remember to buy your copy. Previous installments: Week 1: Game Plan Week 2: Introduction Week 3: Failed Change A Call To Action You can help share the Software Process and Measurement Cast! If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review somewhere, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 453 will feature our interview with James Shore. We began with a discussion of the Agile Fluency Model, the concepts, and ideas that led to the model and then got into topics such as whether Agile can ever be method agnostic. Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 451 features our interview with Askhat Urazbaev. Askhat brings a very pragmatic view of Agile in all of its many forms to the Software Process and Measurement Cast. This interview covers a lot of ground, ranging from defining Agile to the impact of corporate and national cultures on what works and what doesn't work. We dove directly into the interview with very little preamble! Askhat's bio: Askhat Urazbaev made a typical career moving from junior developer to project manager in different software companies. Later on, in Luxoft, Askhat as a process architect was he was engaged in adopting "heavyweight" methodologies in different departments of the company. Happily, thanks to one of the customers, Askhatwas exposed to some knowledge of Agile. The new way of development looked very effective. Askhat has participated in several Agile projects in different roles. In 2006 Askhat started to help teams and departments to adopt Agile methodologies in Luxoft. In March, he has started Russian Agile Community (AgileRussia.ru). In 2008 Askhat founded company ScrumTrek which consults, trains and helps companies in their transition to Agile. Among the customers of ScrumTrek such companies as Skype, Yandex, Rambler, Alfa-Bank, Sberbank and many others. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/urazbaev Twitter: zibsun Web: https://scrumtrek.ru/ Re-Read Saturday News Today we continue re-reading The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Steven Adams (SPaMCAST 437, SPaMCAST 412 and nearly every entry in the Re-read Saturday series) is doing a great job leading this re-read. Remember to use the link to buy a copy to support the podcast and blog. This week, Steven discusses the introduction to "The Science of Successful Organizational Change" (get your copy). Gibbons dives directly into the meat of the book in the introduction. If you typically jump over the introduction to get to chapter one I would urge you to change your pattern at least for this book! Previous installments: Week 1: Game Plan Week 2: Introduction A Call To Action You can help share the Software Process and Measurement Cast! If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review somewhere, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST THe Software Process and Measurement Cast 452 will feature our essay on personal process improvement along with columns from Jon M Quigley (The Alpha and Omega of Product Development) and Kim Pries (The Software Sensei).

SPaMCAST 450 features our essay on Product Roadmaps. Roadmaps link an organization's strategy to action. Product roadmaps are directional and answer the question of where we are going and why. As with any powerful tool, roadmaps giveth when used wisely and taketh away when used less wisely. We also visit with Gene Hughson. Gene brings his great Form Follows Function blog to the podcast. We discussed the entry Holistic Architecture – Keeping the Gears Turning. After you listen to our conversation remember that roadmaps are a way to avoid your products not to resemble a bunch of spare parts flying in close formation. Re-Read Saturday News Today we will begin the next book in the Re-read Saturday Series, The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Steven Adams (SPaMCAST 437, SPaMCAST 412 and nearly every entry in the Re-read Saturday series) will lead this re-read. Remember to use the link to buy a copy to support the podcast and blog. Steven begins the re-read by describing how he found the Paul Gibbon's book "The Science of Successful Organizational Change" (get your copy) searching "Agile Change Management" on Amazon. A Call To Action You can help the podcast. If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review somewhere, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 451 will feature our interview with James Shore. We began with a discussion of the Agile Fluency Model, the concepts, and ideas that led to the model and then got into topics such as whether Agile can ever be method agnostic. Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 449 features our interview with Jasveer Singh. We discussed his new book, Functional Software Size Measurement Methodology with Effort Estimation and Performance Indication. Jasveer proposes a new sizing methodology for estimation and other measurement processes. Jasveer Singh holds a Master of Technology degree in Computer Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and has studied Executive Master in Management at École de Commerce Solvay, Brussels, Belgium. He has about 30 years of valuable senior-level international experience in the ICT area and has worked in the top IT/Telecom equipment manufacturer, operator, consultancy, and service companies in different countries (Bharat Electronics Limited, Alcatel, Siemens Business Services, WorldCom, Logica, and Sigos in India, France, Australia, Belgium, and Germany). A significant part of this experience has been in the management of software development (analysis, design, coding, testing), system design, quality assurance/control, and project management while working with different programming languages, object-oriented technology, database management systems, etc. His in-depth experience in these software domains led him to realize the improvements needed in the currently available methodologies for software size measurement and to develop the Functional Software Size Measurement Methodology with Effort Estimation and Performance Indication (FSSM) which is a thorough methodology and great help for software projects. Currently, he is based in Belgium and is the director of EUSFP. E-mail: js@fssm.software LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasveer-singh-11230a12/ FSSM book: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119238056.html FSSM online book: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781119238126 FSSM website: www.fssm.software Re-Read Saturday News This week we wrap up our re-read of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson which was published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. The concepts in Holacracy are an important addition to the discussion of management, governance, and leadership in the 21st Century. Read or re-read this week's installment for more thoughts and comments! Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Week 10: Moving Toward Holacracy Week 11: Experience of Holacracy Week 12: The Wrap Up Next, we will begin the next book in our Re-read series, The Science of Successful Organizational Change. (I ordered my copy have you?). Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Reviews and A Call To Action A recent review on ITunes from Yetanotherjr was titled, Always something to learn. Yetanotherjr wrote, "What I love about this podcast is that I learn something from every guest. I might not agree with everything that a guest says, but I learned something. A terrific source of thinking and learning." Thank you! I am humbled and look forward to bringing new ideas and voices to the software community for a long time to come! You can help the podcast. If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 450 will feature an essay on Product Roadmaps. Roadmaps link an organization's strategy to action. Product roadmaps are directional, answer the question of where we are going and why. As with any powerful tool, roadmaps giveth when used wisely and taketh away when used less wisely. We will also have columns from Gene Hughson and Jon M Quigley! Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 448 features our essay on uncertainty. Al Pittampalli said, "uncertainty and complexity produce anxiety we wish to escape." Dealing with uncertainty is part of nearly everything we do our goal should be to address uncertainty head on. The second column features Steve Tendon talking about Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross (buy a copy here). We tackle Chapter 18. Our third column is the return of Jeremy Berriault and his QA Corner. Jeremy discusses leading in QA. Jeremy blogs at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 10 concludes our re-read of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson which was published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. This week's chapter is titled, The Experience of Holacracy. In this chapter, Robertson wraps up most of the loose ends. Next week we will conclude this re-read with some final comments and thoughts. Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Week 10: Moving Toward Holacracy Week 11: Experience of Holacracy In two weeks we will begin the next book in our Re-read series, The Science of Successful Organizational Change. (I ordered my copy have you?). Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 449 will feature our interview with Jasveer Singh. We discussed his new book, Functional Software Size Measurement Methodology with Effort Estimation and Performance Indication. Jasveer, proposes a new sizing methodology for estimation and other measurement processes. Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 447 features our interview with Angela Wick on the role of the Product Owner and Business Analyst in Agile efforts. These two roles are critically important for delivering value in an Agile environment. Angela provides a fresh take on the Product Owner role and the Product Owner's relationship to other roles Agile teams. Angela is the founder of BA-Squared, LLC, a training and consulting practice. She is passionate about modernizing requirements practices and helping organizations collaborate on a Product Vision aligned to strategy and guiding them to a meaningful backlog and iterations that keep the customer and organizational value top of mind. She trains, coaches and teaches organizations on Product Ownership and Agile BA! Email: Angela@BA-Squared.Com Web: http://www.ba-squared.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelawickcbap Twitter: https://twitter.com/WickAng This is not the first time the SPaMCAST has featured essays and conversations on the role of product owners ( for exampleSPaMCAST 430 and SPaMCAST 325). Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 9 continues the third section of Holacracy, Evolution Installed: Living Holacracy. Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson was published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. This week's chapter is titled If You're Not Ready To Adopt: Moving Toward Holacracy. In this chapter Robertson softens his if-you-can't-do-it-all-don't-do-anything approach. This chapter begins with a story of Robertson being asked how they can move forward in a limited manner. The person had just intently listened to a talk on Holacracy. The person explained that they could see the value, but did not have to power to change the organization or even their department. Robertson's knee jerk response was that you could not use parts; however, the response felt wrong. So he reached out the larger community of practitioners to gather their field observations for how they handled scenarios in which everything could not be implemented. Whether the story is apocryphal or not matters less than that this chapter softens the all-or-nothing stance stated earlier in the book. Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Week 10: Moving Toward Holacracy In approximately three weeks we will begin the next book in our Re-read series, The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 448 will feature our essay on uncertainty. Al Pittampalli said, "uncertainty and complexity produce anxiety we wish to escape". Dealing with uncertainty is part of nearly everything we do. The second column will feature Steve Tendon talking about Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross (buy a copy here). We tackle Chapter 18. Our third column will be from Jeremy Berriaul.t. Jeremy discusses leading in QA. Jeremy blogs at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

SPaMCAST 446 will feature our essay on questions. Questions are a coach and facilitator's secret power! But, with great power comes great responsibility. Our second column is from Gene Hughson. Gene and I discussed his essay Go-to People Considered Harmful originally published on his blog Form Follows Function (www.genehughson.wordpress.com). The concept may sound counterintuitive, but it is not. The third column is from Kim Pries, the Software Sensei. In this installment, Kim dives into the topic of servant leadership. Re-Read Saturday News This week we tackle Chapter 8 of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. Chapter 8 is a bit of a bits and bobs chapter but begins to draw in a lot of loose threads. This week we also announce the next book in the re-read series. The envelope please. . . . The next book is The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. Steve has been an active participant in many of our previous re-reads and has appeared twice on the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss earlier re-reads. I will provide supplemental comments and highlights. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 447 will feature our interview with Angela Wick on the role of the product owner and business analyst in Agile efforts.The two roles are important and interrelated. This is not first-time the SPaMCAST has featured essays and conversations on the role of product owners ( for example SPaMCAST 430 and SPaMCAST 325). Angela provides a fresh take on the role! Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team." Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.