Software Process and Measurement Cast

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 385 features our essay on Agile portfolio metrics. Agile portfolio metrics are integral to prioritization and validating the flow of work. But, Agile portfolio metrics are only useful if they provide value. Metrics and measures add value if they reduce uncertainty so that we can make better decisions. In the second segment, Kim Pries, the Software Sensei asks the question, “Why should we care about diversity?” No spoilers here, but the answer might have something to do with value! Anchoring the cast, Gene Hughson discusses Architecture and OODA Loops: Fast Is Not Enough from his blog Form Follows Function! For those of you that don’t remember, OODA stands for observe, orient, decide, and act. Re-Read Saturday NewsThis week we are back with Chapter 12 of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter 12 we discussed The Ultimate Measurement Instrument: Human Judges. Humans can be a valuable measurement tool; however, that value requires using techniques to correct for the certain errors that are common in unaided human judgment. Upcoming EventsI am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on March 15th at 1 PM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd. I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th. Register now! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature our interview with Jason Little. Jason and I discussed his exploration of the use of storytelling in change management. Stories are a powerful tool to develop and hone a big picture view of organizational change. 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 Chinese.

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 384 features our interview with Gwen Walsh. Gwen is the President of TechEdge LLC. We discuss leadership and why leadership is important. We also discuss the topic of performance appraisals and how classic methods can hurt your organization. Gwen’s advice both redefines industry standards and provides you with an idea of what is truly possible. Gwen Walsh has built a career creating and implementing business and technology solutions that redefine the industry standards for both Fortune 100 corporations and entrepreneurial organizations. With over 25 years of experience in leadership development and organizational transformation, Ms. Walsh, founder of TechEdge LLC, helps her clients stay ahead of their competition, stay in touch with their customers and stay in high demand. Ms. Walsh's client portfolio includes Kaiser Permanente, Hospital Corporation of America, Hewlett-Packard, KeyBank, Medical Mutual of Ohio, General Motors, Omaha Public Power District and Anheuser-Busch. Contact information gwalsh@techedgellc.comhttp://techedgellc.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/techedge-llchttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gwenwalsh Re-Read Saturday NewsThis week we are back with Chapter 11 of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. Chapter 11 begins section four of the book and is titled Preferences and Attitudes: The Softer Side of Measurement. The softer side is a euphemism for attitudes and opinions. In this chapter, we visit how to: · Measure opinions and feelings.· Design out bias in surveys and questions.· Observe opinions and feelings through trade-offs.· Use trade-offs to describe risk tolerance. Anyone living in the United States knows that every election year there are a plethora opinion polls. One of my favorite blogs is Nate Silver’s FiveThrityEight, which shows a wealth of statistical information about sports, economics, culture, and politics (a form of sport). Much of the data presented is a reflection of opinions and attitudes. Often they are real predictors of behavior and product success. Upcoming EventsI am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on March 15th at 1 PM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd. I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th. Register now! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our essay on portfolio metrics. Agile portfolio metrics are integral to prioritization and validating the flow of work. But, Agile portfolio metrics are only useful if they provide value. Metrics and measures add value if they reduce uncertainty so that we can make better decisions. We will also have a new installment from the Software Sensei. Kim asks the question, “Why should we care about diversity?” Gene Hughson will anchor cast with another entry from his wonderful blog Form Follows Function! 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 h and Chinese.

Software Process and Measurement Cast 383 features our essay on peer reviews. Peer reviews are a tool to remove defects before we need to either test them out or ask our customers to find them for us. While the data about the benefits of peer reviews is UNAMBIGUOUS, they are rarely practiced well and often turn into a blame apportionment tool. The essay discusses how to do peer reviews, whether you are using Agile or not so that you get the benefits you expect! Our second segment is a visit to the QA Corner. Jeremy Berriault discusses a piece of advice he got from a mentor that continues to pay dividends. This installment of the QA Corner discusses how a QA leader can generate and leverage responsibility without formal authority. Steve Tendon anchors this week’s SPaMCAST discussing Chapter 8 of Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross. Chapter 8 is titled “Creating A Shared Vision At The Team Level”. We discuss why it is important for the team to have a shared vision, the downside of not having a shared vision and most importantly, how to get a share vision. Remember Steve has a great offer for SPaMCAST listeners. Check out https://tameflow.com/spamcast for a way to get Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach, and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban at 40% off the list price. Re-Read Saturday News This week we are back with Chapter 10 of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter 10 we visited how to use Bayesian Statistics to account for having prior knowledge before we begin measuring. Most common statistics assume that we don’t have prior knowledge of the potential range of what we are measuring or the shape of the distribution. This is often a gross simplification with ramifications! Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on March 15th at 1 PM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd. I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th. Register now! Upcoming Webinars Budgeting, Estimation, Planning, #NoEstimates and the Agile Planning Onion March 1, 2016, 11 AM EST There are many levels of estimation, including budgeting, high-level estimation and task planning (detailed estimation). This webinar challenges the listener to consider estimation as a form of planning. Register Here Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Gwen Walsh. Gwen is the President of TechEdge LLC. We discussed leadership and why leadership is important. We also discussed the topic of performance appraisals and how classic methods can hurt your organization. Gwen’s advice both redefines industry standards and provides you with an idea of what is truly possible. 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.

Software Process and Measurement Cast 382 features our interview with Ben Linders. Ben revisits the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss his recent series of articles on targeting, finding, and eradicating impediments. Ben discussed a platform for continuous process improvement that delivers continuously increasing value! Ben’s Bio: Ben Linders is an Independent Consultant in Agile, Lean, Quality and Continuous Improvement, based in The Netherlands. He is the author of Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives, Waardevolle Agile Retrospectives, What Drives Quality and Continuous Improvement. As an adviser, coach and trainer he helps organizations by ddeploying effective software development and management practices. 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 frequent speaker and writer. He shares his experience in a bilingual blog (Dutch and English), as an editor for Agile at InfoQ and as an expert on TechTarget. Follow him on twitter: @BenLinders. Ben's impedements articles http://www.benlinders.com/2015/handling-impediments-why-it-matters/ Ben's new book on continuous improvement is available on leanpub: https://leanpub.com/continuousimprovement Re-Read Saturday News We take a break for Podcamp Toronto and to begin the process of picking the next book. What are your suggestions? In the meantime catch up on the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on March 15th at 1PM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd. I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th. Register now! Upcoming Webinars IIST Webinar: Scaling Agile Testing Using the TMMi Date: February 26, 2016Time: 11:00am ESTPresenter: Tom Cagley, VP of Consulting, TMMi Accredited Assessor Agile methods, principles and techniques are core to how many IT organizations develop and maintain software. However, even though techniques like Test-Driven Development and Scrum are widely practiced, one common complaint is that it is difficult to scale these practices. The webinar will outline the TMMi and provide a process for using environmental, technical and project context to effectively integrate testing into an Agile development environment, measuring the effectiveness of the process. Budgeting, Estimation, Planning, #NoEstimates and the Agile Planning OnionMarch 1, 2016, 11 AM ESTThere are many levels of estimation, including budgeting, high-level estimation and task planning (detailed estimation). This webinar challenges the listener to consider estimation as a form of planning. Register Here Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our essay on focus. The essay is a reaction to an earlier discussion of hyper-connectivity and the techniques to combat the downside of hyper-connectivity, which has convinced me that we are dancing around the bigger workplace issue of how can you stay focused on delivering real business value in an environment that seems to be designed to promote making incremental progress on lots of projects, rather than getting any one of them done. We will also have new entries from the Jeremy Berriault’s QA Corner and a discussion with Steve Tendon on Chapter 8 of Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban. 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, neither for you or your team.” Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

Software Process and Measurement Cast 381 features our essay on Agile adoption. Words are important. They can rally people to your banner or create barriers. Every word communicates information and intent. There has been a significant amount of energy spent discussing whether the phrase ‘Agile transformation’ delivers the right message. There is a suggestion that ‘adoption’ is a better term. We shall see! We will also have an entry from Gene Hughson’s Form Follows Function Blog. Gene will discuss his blog entry, Seductive Myths of Greenfield Development. Gene wrote “How often do we, or those around us, long for a chance to do things “from scratch”. The idea being, without the constraints of “legacy” code, we could do things “right”. While it’s a nice idea, it has no basis in reality.” The discussion built from there! And a visit from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries! In the essay, Kim ruminates on the gender gap in computer science education leading to a gender gap in the industry. Re-Read Saturday News We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter Nine, we tackle sampling. Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on February 17 at 11 AM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd. I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th. Register now! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Ben Linders. Ben revisits the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss his recent series of articles on targeting, finding, and eradicating impediments. Ben lays out a process that generates a platform for continuous process improvement that delivers continuously increasing value! 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.

Software Process and Measurement Cast 380 features our interview with Kim Robertson. Kim and I talked about big picture configuration management. Without good configuration managements work, products, and programs often go wildly astray. Kim describes the a process that is as old a dirt . . . but WORKS and delivers value. We also discussed the book Kim co-authored with Jon M Quigley (Jon was interviewed in SPaMCAST 346) Configuration Management: Theory, Practice, and Application. Kims Bio Kim Robertson is a NDIA Certified Configuration Management (CM) practitioner, consultant, and trainer with over 30 years of experience in contracts, subcontracts, finance, systems engineering and configuration management. He has an advanced degree in organizational management with a government contracts specialty and is the co-author of Configuration Management: Theory Practice and Application. He can be reached at Kim.Robertson@ValueTransform.com If you are interested in the seed questions used to frame our interview please visit the SPaMCAST Facebook page. Re-Read Saturday News We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of "Intangibles in Business" Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter Eight, we begin the transition from what to measure to how to measure. Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute's Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on February 17 at 11 AM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd. I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th. Register now! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our essay on Agile adoption. Words are important. They can rally people to your banner or create barriers. Every word communicates information and intent. There has been a significant amount of energy spent discussing whether the phrase 'Agile transformation' delivers the right message. There is a suggestion that 'adoption' is a better term. We shall see! We will also have an entry from Gene Hughson's Form Follows Function Blog. Gene will discuss his blog entry, Seductive Myths of Greenfield Development. And a visit from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries! Kim's essay is on women in the tech field. 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.

Software Process and Measurement Cast 379 features our short essay on the relationship between done and value. The essay is in response to a question from Anteneh Berhane. Anteneh called me to ask one of the hardest questions I had ever been asked: Why doesn’t the definition of done include value? We will also have an entry of Jeremy Berriault’s QA Corner. Jeremy and I discussed test data, and why having a suite of test data that many projects can use is important for efficiency. One question is who should bite the bullet and build the first iteration of any test data library? Steve Tendon completes this cast with a discussion of the next chapter in his book, Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban. Chapter 7 is titled “Budgeting is Harmful.” Steve hits classic budgeting head on, and provides options that improve flexibility and innovation. Remember to help grow the podcast by reviewing the SPaMCAST on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcatcher/player. Then share the review! Help your friends find the Software Process and Measurement Cast. After all, friends help friends find great podcasts! Re-Read Saturday News We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter Seven, we discuss the concept of the economic value of information. Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on February 17 at 11 AM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Kim Robertson. Kim and I talked about the big picture configuration management. Kim suggests that the basic need and process for configuration management has not changed since ancient China. Complexity and speed of change, however, has forced changes to the tools and who needs to be involved in the big picture of configuration management. 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, neither for you or your team.” Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

We begin year 10 of the Software Process and Measurement Cast with our Interview with Evan Leybourn. Evan returns to the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss the "end to IT projects." We discussed the idea of #NoProject and continuous delivery, and whether this is just an “IT” thing or something that can encompass the entire business. Evan’s views are informative and bit provocative. I have not stopped thinking about the concepts we discussed since originally taping the interview. Evan last appeared on SPaMCAST 284 – Evan Leybourn, Directing The Agile Organization to discuss his book Directing the Agile Organization. Evan’s BioEvan pioneered the field of Agile Business Management; applying the successful concepts and practices from the Lean and Agile movements to corporate management. He keeps busy as a business leader, consultant, non-executive director, conference speaker, internationally published author and father. Evan has a passion for building effective and productive organizations, filled with actively engaged and committed people. Only through this, can organizations flourish. His experience while holding senior leadership and board positions in both private industry and the government has driven his work in business agility and he regularly speaks on these topics at local and international industry conferences. As well as writing "Directing the Agile Organization.", Evan currently works for IBM in Singapore to help them become a leading agile organization. As always, all thoughts, ideas, and comments are his own and do not represent his clients or employer. All of Evan’s contact information and blog can be accessed on his website. Remember to help grow the podcast by reviewing the SPaMCAST on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcatcher/player and then share the review! Help your friends find the Software Process and Measurement Cast. After all, friends help friends find great podcasts! Re-Read Saturday News We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter Six, we discussed using risk in quantitative analysis and the Monte Carlo analysis. Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on February 17 at 11 AM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature our essay on the relationship between done and value. The essay is in response to a question from Anteneh Berhane. Anteneh called me to ask one of the hardest questions I had ever been asked: why doesn’t the definition of done include value? We will also have columns from Jeremy Berriault’s QA Corner and Steve Tendon discussing the next chapter in the book Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban. 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.

In this week’s Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature three columns. our essay on empathy. Coaching is a key tool to help individuals and teams reach peak performance. One of the key attributes of a good coach is empathy. Critical to the understanding the role that empathy plays in coaching is understanding the definition of empathy. As a coach, if you can’t connect with those you are coaching you will not succeed. Let’s learn how to become more empathic. Our second column features the return of the Software Sensei, Kim Pries. Kim looks at how we might apply David Allen’s concepts for Getting Things Done (after the book of the same name). Please note the comments reflect the Software Sensei’s interpretation of how Allen’s work might be applied to software development. Anchoring the cast this week is Gene Hughson bringing an entry from the Form Follows Function Blog. Today Gene discussed his essay, Changing Organizations Without Changing People. Gene proclaims, “Changing culture is impossible if you claim to value one thing but your actions demonstrate that you really don’t.” Remember to help grow the podcast by reviewing the SPaMCAST on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcatcher/player and then share the review! Help your friends find the Software Process and Measurement Cast. After all, friends help friends find great podcasts! Re-Read Saturday News We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter five, we discussed estimation, calibration and what we know now! Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on February 17 at 11 AM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge In other events, I will give a webinar, titled: Discover The Quality of Your Testing Process on January 19, 2016, at 11:00 am ESTOrganizations that seek to understand and improve their current testing capabilities can use the Test Maturity Model integration (TMMi) as a guide for best practices. The TMMi is the industry standard model of testing capabilities. Comparing your testing organization's performance to the model provides a gap analysis and outlines a path towards greater capabilities and efficiency. This webinar will walk attendees through a testing assessment that delivers a baseline of performance and a set of prioritized process improvements. Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature our Interview with Evan Leybourn. Evan returns to the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss the "end to IT projects." We discussed the idea of #NoProject and continuous delivery and whether this is just an “IT” thing or something that can encompass the entire business. 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.

This week we are doing something special. Right after the New Year holiday, all of the regulars from the Software Process and Measurement Cast gathered virtually to discuss the topics we felt would be important in 2016. The panel for the discussion was comprised of Jeremy Berriault (The QA Corner), Steve Tendon (The TameFlow Approach), Kim Pries (The Software Sensei), Gene Hughson (Form Follows Function) and myself. We had a lively discussion that included the topics of women in tech, microservices, capabilities, business/IT integration and a lot more. Help grow the podcast by reviewing the SPaMCAST on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcatcher/player and then share the review! Help your friends find the Software Process and Measurement Cast. After all, friends help friends find great podcasts! Re-Read Saturday News We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of "Intangibles in Business" Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter Four, we focused on two questions. The first is getting the reader to answer what is the decision that measurement is supposed to support. The second is, what is the definition of the thing being measured in terms of observable consequences? Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute's Capability Counts 2016 conference. The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on January 12 at 1 PM EST. http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge The Challenge will continue on February 17th at 11 AM. In other events, I will give a webinar, titled: Discover The Quality of Your Testing Process on January 19, 2016, at 11:00 am EST Organizations that seek to understand and improve their current testing capabilities can use the Test Maturity Model integration (TMMi) as a guide for best practices. The TMMi is the industry standard model of testing capabilities. Comparing your testing organization's performance to the model provides a gap analysis and outlines a path towards greater capabilities and efficiency. This webinar will walk attendees through a testing assessment that delivers a baseline of performance and a set of prioritized process improvements. Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature our essay on empathy. Coaching is a key tool to help individuals and teams reach peak performance. One of the key attributes of a good coach is empathy. Critical to the understanding the role that empathy plays in coaching is understanding the definition of empathy. As a coach, if you can't connect with those you are coaching you will not succeed. We will also have new columns from Kim Pries, The Software Sensei, and Gene Hughson Form Follows Function. 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.