Software Process And Measurement Cast

The SPaMCAST 732 features our interview with Robert Cooke. Robert and I discussed the role of software development in delivering value in non-software product organizations. Robert Cooke is the Founder and Principal Architect at 3Forge, a New York-based provider of data virtualization and visualization technology. 3Forge has achieved significant growth over the years as a result of increasing demand for its award-winning, web-based browser AMI platform. Today, AMI is deployed at three of the five largest global banks, and nearly 20 percent of global equities flow through the platform. 3Forge also has provided its services to hedge funds, broker-dealers, and other financial services firms. The company is the leading provider of “performance at scale” data management systems. Robert’s accomplishments have spanned electronic trading, middle and back office, regulatory reporting, compliance, and risk management. Website: https://www.3forge.com/  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robert-cooke-a7835b69   Re-read Saturday N

The annual Thanksgiving holiday in the US was a few days ago providing space to reflect and give thanks to everyone involved in the 16-plus years history of the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog and podcast. There is a lot to be thankful and grateful for, this week we put the spotlight on everyone that makes the SPaMCAST possible. Also, Jon M Quigley brings his Alpha and Omega of Product Development to the podcast. Jon and I discuss the idea of flow. Re-read Saturday News This week we are taking a break from our re-read of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond (Amazon Associate Link).  Previous Entries in Our Re-read: Week 1: Logistics and Forewords - https://bit.ly/3zoAYlx  Week 2: Introduction to Badassery in Agile Coaching  - https://bit.ly/3hcEPMs  Week 3: The Mindset of the Badass Agile Coach - http://bit.ly/3Eu0qJu  Week 4:  Agile Coaching Frameworks - http://bit.ly/3Ok60S7  A quick advertisement: Controlling work entry requires preparation and k

The SPaMCAST 730 features our conversation with Ramzi Marjaba. Ramzi and I discussed the role of a sales engineer. The role solves customers' problems and is a bridge between customers and technical teams. With all that going for it, why is it a forgotten job path for people with deep technical acumen?  Ramzi is an established Sales Engineer and the Founder of We The Sales Engineers and found his calling in helping people change their lives for the better, either by breaking into the difficult world of Sales Engineering or upskilling their current skill levels to get that pay raise and promotion. Contact Information Website  https://wethesalesengineers.com/ or wetheses.com   Ramzi’s LinkedIn Profile linkedin.com/in/ramzimarjaba  Email rmarjaba@gmail.com   Podcast https://apple.co/3EdrUlb   Twitter WeTheSEs Re-read Saturday News This week we re-read Chapter 3 of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond (Amazon Associate Link). In Chapter 3, Agile Coaching Framework

This week we go back to basics and answer a listener’s question (name and a bit of the context changed to protect the involved parties). In the essay this week we discuss why it is a rotten idea to have a functional product owner and a technical product owner. When it comes to product owners the old adage, “the more the merrier," does not hold. Also, we have an installment of Tony Timbol’s “To Tell A Story” column. In this installment, Tony discusses how to synchronize team-level agile with a waterfall requirements process. This is one of those scenarios that when you run into it you will need to find a way to deal with it until more of the organization embraces agile.    Re-read Saturday News This week we re-read Chapter 2 of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond (Amazon Associate Link). Chapter 2, The Mindset of the Badass Agile Coach, focuses on the most important part of a coach's arsenal of superpowers: their mindset.  This Week: Week 3: The Mindset of the

SPaMCAST 728 features a discussion with Anjali Leon and Nadezhda Belousova. We discussed their new model, Product Leadership Stances. One of my takeaways was how powerful the model was in helping to develop an understanding of product leadership and then highlighting gaps in how the role is practiced in organizations.  Anjali and Nadezhda’s Bios! Anjali Leon is an Agility, Product, and Professional Coach, Collaboration Facilitator, and Trusted Strategic Advisor.  Through her boutique coaching and consulting practice, PPL Coach, She brings her years of experience in technology, leadership, and Agile to help her clients adapt, innovate, and thrive in the new-normal business environment - where the meaning of ‘winning’ is quickly being redefined as integrating better business outcomes and our collective well-being. You can experience Anjali’s authentic head, hearts and hands approach to product, people, and personal leadership through one of her unique value-driven and values-based coaching programs, wo

In SPaMCAST 727 we discuss the assumptions behind Little’s Law and Neglected WIP. Some of the assumptions you can cheat to generate useful conversations but there are limits and you need to be upfront about what you are doing.  We also have a visit from Susan Parente who brings her Not A Scrumdamentalist column to the cast. In this installment, Susan answers a listener's question about the complications of a team with 2 developers and 5 managers.  Re-read Saturday News This week we begin our re-read of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond (Amazon Associate Link – buy your copy soon and start reading). This week we begin with a few notes on the logistics of the read and then review the two Forewords. Week 1: Logistics and Forewords - https://bit.ly/3zoAYlx    A quick advertisement: Controlling work entry requires preparation and knowledge building to establish a path to control work entry (magic wands are normally not available), which is why Jeremy Willets and

In SPaMCAST 726 Mr. Allan Kelly returns! We discussed the fact that backlogs often become dumping grounds. Allan suggested an energetic solution. We also discussed OKRs and whether they are related to backlogs. Are OKRs the chicken or the egg? Allan Kelly advises and mentors managers and teams in using agile approaches and OKRs to accelerate delivery, meet deadlines and execute against strategy. He believes these approaches benefit businesses and create more fulfilling work environments. Allan is a keynote conference speaker and author of several books including "Succeeding with OKRs in Agile", "The Art of Agile Product Ownership" and "Business Patterns for Software Developers". He blogs at allankelly.net and can be contacted there or on Linkedin, https://www.linkedin.com/in/allankellynet/ Re-read Saturday News We complete our re-read of the classic Coaching Agile Teams this week with a few final thoughts. I view Coaching Agile Teams as a tale of two themes. The first is a book of philosophy and the second is

One of the most common problems teams face is starting more work than they complete. Neglected WIP is the gap between all the work you say you are working on and the stuff you are doing. The natural vagaries of office life can cause an item to get stuck due to someone being out sick or because your co-worker hit the lottery - stuff happens. A little might be ok, but more is bad. When neglected WIP passes that hurdle, real flow time will increase and velocity will slow. The combination of getting less work done and taking longer at it is a prescription for your stakeholders to start looking for torches and pitchforks.      We also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault who brings his QA Corner to the podcast. In this installment, we discussed the QA Lead’s role in agile teams. So just what does a QA Lead do in an agile team . . . Jeremy has some ideas. Re-read Saturday News I am going to combine the conversation of Chapters 12 and 13 of  Coaching Agile Teams this week because there is a common core in these two ch

This week we feature an interview with Indus Khaitan, Founder & CEO at Quolum. A few of the topics covered include:  Why do organizations need help in consuming SaaS at scale efficiently? How can looking carefully at how you are using Saas save organizations tons of money?  How can organizations refocus on delivering value rather than on overhead? What does it take to take a vision and make it a going concern, more than once? Indus Khaitan is the founder of Quolum. Quolum helps companies manage their SaaS spend. He started Bitzer Mobile, a mobile security startup that Oracle acquired. Earlier, he led growth at Chargebee. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Indus’ Profile: linkedin.com/in/khaitan Websites: angel.co/1ndus (AngelList Profile) quolum.com (Company) Email: khaitan@gmail.com Twitter: 1ndus  Podcast: Chief Future Officer  Re-read Saturday News This week we reread Chapter 11 of Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins (SPaMCAST Amazon affiliate link https://amzn.to/38G0ZD3). Chapter 11, Agile C

SPaMCAST 723 features our essay on neglected WIP. Work that has been started and is now just sitting around is neglected. Running a team or organization above their natural level WIP for any length of time causes flow velocity (throughput) to slow and flow time (cycle time) to increase. When there is too much work, people try all sorts of techniques to get work done. Multitasking is the grandfather of them all and we all know how that turns out (need a hint – badly). In the end, all approaches to trying to do too many ends up with some things being juggled and ignored. That is neglected WIP. We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley and his Alpha and Omega of Product Development Column. In this column Jon and I discuss time. Speaking of time, this is a lost episode…we started the episode discussing snow, last year's snow. We talked last week and were discussing when the first snow will be this year. Sometimes time flys and sometimes it doesn’t. Re-read Saturday News This week we reread Chapter 10 of Coaching Ag

We are back with new content this week! The bears did not eat us as we trekked in three national parks. We did see bears but kept a respectable distance from them. Today the SPaMCAST 722 features an interview with Scott Showalter, Agile Career Accelerator. We discussed the definition of an agile coach. Building on that definition we wrestled with how to scale the business of agile coaching.  Note - I mispronounced Scott’s name at the beginning of the interview, rather than re-record the faux pax, it triggered a great story so I left it in.   Scott is an active enterprise agile coach working in the trenches with execs and leaders at a Fortune 10 organization, and what he has learned throughout the journey of his career is that what feels impossible only becomes achievable once we shift our perspective.  Scott has a passion for helping people design, grow and automate their products and their lives so that they can focus on what's truly important and have a greater impact on this planet. He coaches IT professio

The SPaMCAST is on a three-week hiatus. We will be back with new programming on September 25. In the interim, I asked the SPaMCAST columnists (Jeremy, Jon, Susan, and Tony) for a couple of favorite columns they delivered.  Today we have: Jeremy Berriault from SPaMCAST 571 Jiu-Jitsu and Teams, Want to listen to the full podcast? http://bit.ly/2pCtlHI Susan Parente from SPaMCAST 556 Agile In Name Only, Want to listen to the full podcast? http://bit.ly/2JRGTFk  Tony TImbol from SPaMCAST 692  Agile Requirements, Want to listen to the full podcast?  https://bit.ly/3hng3WY Enjoy! Do you have questions that you would like Susan, Jon, Jeremy, Tony, or myself to answer?  Leave a voice message at 01.440.668.5717 or an email at spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Re-read Saturday News I am packaging this show well ahead of time therefore all I can say for sure about the re-read is to remember to buy a copy of Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins (SPaMCAST Amazon affiliate link https://amzn.to/38G0ZD3) and read along! A quick advert

The SPaMCAST is on a three-week hiatus. We will be back with new programming on September 25. In the interim, I asked the SPaMCAST columnists (Jeremy, Jon, Susan, and Tony) for a couple of favorite columns they delivered.  Today we have: Jon M Quigley - SPaMCAST 397 – Project Strategy - Want to listen to the full podcast? https://bit.ly/3pLztbU (Note: this was Jon’s debut column and he doesn’t know I am slipping this in.) Susan Parente and Jon M Quigley- SPaMCAST 585 - Most Agile Transformations Ignore Technical Skills - Want to listen to the full podcast?  http://bit.ly/2Haa4CE Enjoy! Do you have questions that you would like Susan, Jon, Jeremy, Tony, or myself to answer?  Leave a voice message at 01.440.668.5717 or an email at spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Re-read Saturday News I am packaging this show well ahead of time therefore all I can say for sure about the re-read is to remember to buy a copy of  Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins (SPaMCAST Amazon affiliate line https://amzn.to/38G0ZD3) and read along! A

The SPaMCAST is on a three-week hiatus. We will be back with new programming on September 25. In the interim, I asked the SPaMCAST columnists (Jeremy, Jon, Susan, and Tony) for a couple of favorite columns they delivered.  Today we have: Jeremy Berriault - Your Scrum Master Is Not Yout Team Admin from SPaMCAST 705 Want to listen to the full podcast?   https://bit.ly/3wXIguD Tony Timbol - Agile Requirement Lifecycle from SPaMCAST 709 - Want to listen to the full podcast?  https://bit.ly/3OnjHyJ Susan Parente - Virtual Agile from SPaMCAST 589 - Want to listen to the full podcast?  http://bit.ly/2PVUP59 Enjoy! Do you have questions that you would like Susan, Jon, Jeremy, Tony, or myself to answer?  Leave a voice message at 01.440.668.5717 or an email at spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Re-read Saturday News I am packaging this show well ahead of time therefore all I can say for sure about the re-read is to remember to buy a copy of  Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins (SPaMCAST Amazon affiliate line https://amzn.to/38G0

Earlier this year I attended Agile 2022; It was a fantastic conference. One of the undercurrent themes was the use of OKRs (objectives and key results for the uninitiated) to enable agility, align organizations, and cure Covid. There is no such thing as a silver bullet, especially with the wide range of interpretations of what an OKR is and how to apply them. Luis Gonçalves retunes to the podcast to set us straight.   Luis’s Bio Luis Gonçalves is an Entrepreneur, Best Seller Author, and International Keynote Speaker. When consulting he works exclusively with Entrepreneurs, Founders, and Senior Leaders on the implementation of his game-changing "ADAPT Methodology". By following the "ADAPT Methodology" Executive Leaders will be able to transform their traditional project-oriented companies into modern digital product companies. OKR Guide: https://adaptmethodology.com/okr-guide-en Website: https://adaptmethodology.com/  Website: evolution4all.com  Podcast: https://adaptmethodology.com/podcast/ LinkedIn:  linkedi

Flow Load has a special place in flow metrics, it is a leading indicator of value delivery as exhibited in flow velocity (throughput) and flow time. We review one experiment and propose another. In the end, you either control work entry or it controls you. A quick advertisement: Controlling work entry requires preparation and knowledge building to establish a path to control work entry (magic wands are normally not available) which is why Jeremy Willets and I have developed a work entry workshop. We recently delivered the workshop at the 2022 Path to Agility in Columbus, OH to rave reviews. Interested email us at tcagley@tomcagley.com or willetsjm@gmail.com Also this week we are joined by Tony TImbol and his To Tell A Story column. In this installment, Tony focuses on the impact of delayed requirements on agile teams.  Do you have questions that you would like Susan, Jon, Jeremy, Tony, or myself to answer?  Leave a voice message at 01.440.668.5717 or an email at spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Re-read Saturday News C

This week Jeff Perry and I discussed learning how to consciously guide your technology career. We are all problem solvers, and Jeff provides a ton of hard-won advice. We also wrestled with the difference between a series of jobs and a career.  Jeff’s Bio: Jeff Perry is the founder of More Than Engineering and serves as a leadership and career coach for engineers and technology professionals. His innovative programs and coaching help people take a mindful, intentional, and purposeful approach to career transitions, leadership, and personal development goals. Listeners of the SPaMCAST can find some free resources including the Career Clarity Checklist at https://www.engineeringcareeraccelerator.com/spamcast. They can also find and follow Jeff on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcperry/. Do you have questions that you would like Susan, Jon, Jeremy, Tony, or myself to answer?  Leave a voice message at 01.440.668.5717 or an email at spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Re-read Saturday News Chapter 5 begins Part 2

A funny thing happened on the way to the essay this week. I was distracted by feedback from a colleague on a workshop Jeremy Willets and I developed and delivered this week. We discuss why the phrase work entry describes how work gets to teams and organizations, and why “work intake” masks problems in the real world.  We also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. This month Susan answers a listener's question about whether it makes sense for a Scrum Master to also play other roles on a team.    Do you have questions that you would like Susan, Jon, Jeremy, Tony, or myself to answer?  Leave a voice message at 01.440.668.5717 or an email at spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Re-read Saturday News Chapter 4 of Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins, discusses the idea that a team, individual, or organization follows a path from a learner to mastery to a teacher using the Shu Ha Ri metaphor. The concept of Shu Ha Ri represents a continuum of learning. In martial arts or any demonstrable activit

Today Jonathon Wright will shift us…right? After decades of listening to the mantra shift left, you probably think you are entering the twilight zone. Maybe, but not on our account! Jonathan and I talked about putting customers first, testing AI, quality, and leadership.   Jonathon Wright is the Chief Technology Evangelist and heads up Solution Engineering (R&D) for Eggplant a Keysight Technologies company. He is a strategic thought leader and distinguished technology evangelist. He specializes in emerging technologies, innovation, and automation, and has more than 25 years of international commercial experience within global organizations. Jonathon combines his extensive practical experience and leadership with insights into real-world adoption of Cognitive Engineering (Enterprise A.I. and AIOps). Thus, he is frequently in demand as a speaker at international conferences such as TEDx, Gartner, Oracle, AI Summit, ITWeb, EuroSTAR, STAREast, STARWest, UKSTAR, Guild Conferences, Swiss Testing Days, Unicom,

Today’s cast is a very short podcast.  Over the past week, I spent an amazing week at Agile 2022. My goal was to be re-radicalized. I reconnected with friends, made new friends, learned a new set of personal pronouns (while not for me, they really work well), picked up a bunch of swag, learned a ton, got re-energized and re-radicalized, and got Covid19. I could have done without the latter. I will get better, but right now it is moving up on my personal least fun thing to do list. I told Jeremy  Berriault (you will hear from him later) that Covid is somewhere between the sixth and seventh least fun thing I've ever been involved with. It was a solid #7 yesterday. With luck, things will be back to normal soon.   All that aside, the money shot presentation (for me) was given by Bethany Andres-Beck, titled “A Radical Culture of Culture Building.” Zie rocked it. The combination of small group influencing techniques combined with anarchist meeting design, community activism from the civil rights era, and the women’