Software Process And Measurement Cast

In SPaMCAST 692 we discuss Process Improvement as a phrase or perhaps even a mantra. Uttering the phrase evokes all sorts of baggage and cognitive biases that affect behaviors, not always for the better. What are the listeners of the Software Process and Measurement Cast to do?   We also have a visit from Tony TImbol who brings his “To Tell A Story” column to the Podcast. We dive headlong into the tangled world of user stories and agile requirements.  Tony also announces his new ebook on agile requirements. Get your own copy!  https://bit.ly/3plyiAu  Re-Read Saturday News  Week 9 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick is about commitment. Over the years I have observed that there are some people who are very committed to adopting a new way of working, some people that pay lip service, and others who flat-out resist. This is obviously a continuum.  Update on last week’s experiment: I was not able to leverage the concepts of joint design directly.  I did use coherence bu

In SPaMCAST 69, Kevin McKeel talks about using neurolinguistics to aid in software estimation tools. Is this the end of the world for the software estimating profession or the beginning of a golden age?  Probably both, listen and draw your own conclusions. Kevin’s Bio Mr. Kevin McKeel has over 25 years of experience in software cost estimation. He is a CCEA and SAFe Architect and received the prestigious 2021 Technical Achievement of the Year award from ICEAA related to the research of automated software sizing using AI and NLP. Mr. McKeel holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration (Finance, ‘89) from James Madison University and a Master’s in Business Administration (Decision Systems, ’92) from The George Washington University. LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/kevin-mckeel-2457235 Website: logapps.com Re-Read Saturday News  Week 8 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick concludes our read of Chapter 5 addressing the ‘Why Conversation’. This week we spent time tackling the c

This week we revisit the age-old statements, “I don't want to be measured” and its alter ego, “management will use metrics against me.”  While often stated as if they are questions, both are positions. We weave in two recent techniques from our Re-read of Agile Conversations to consider the interests behind the statements   Also, Jeremy Berriault weighs in on the need for testing strategies in agile on this edition of this QA Corner.   Re-Read Saturday News  Week 7 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick begins Chapter 5 addressing the ‘Why Conversation’. Like the ‘Fear Conversation’, we will approach this in two parts; focusing this week on two areas, positions and interests, and inquiry and advocacy. We will tackle joint design next week.  My experiment of the week: I set out to create a fear matrix – that sounds like a movie title.  I failed, BUT more importantly, I was able to use the fear matrix approach as a structure for a retrospective.  It worked well. The idea

Prabhjot Singh and I talk about AI using AI to improve the flow of work and the delivery of value.  AI, however you define it, is in your future. You need to be ready!   Mr. Singh’s bio:  Prabhjot Singh is a serial entrepreneur who has started multiple for-profit, social enterprise, and non-profit ventures. He serves as President and CEO of Pyze, the most recent company he founded to enable the world’s largest enterprises to improve business operations through AI-driven Process Intelligence and Analytics. He has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and product management. He previously co-founded Pixatel Systems, a social enterprise that utilizes mobile computing to deploy apps and e-Learning solutions to millions of users. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/psinghsf Twitter: https://twitter.com/psinghSF Company Website: https://www.pyze.com/ Re-Read Saturday News  Week 6 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick continues on Chapter 4: The Fear Conversation. We discu

Continuous improvement through inspecting and adapting is a core tenant of an agile mindset, which dovetails well with every executive’s need to deliver the most value possible.  Measurement is an important tool to help teams and organizations ask the right questions at the right time. Flow metrics, not burndowns and velocity, need to be a big part of any IT organization's approach to measurement.  We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley who brings his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column to the podcast.  Jon discusses the complicated relationship between time, work entry, and promises.  Have you checked out The Open Transformation Playbooks Martin Foster discussed last week? If not, you are missing something important.  https://transformationplaybooks.org/    The Open Transformation Playbooks is an initiative to build an open, remixable, body of knowledge for agile organizational transformation.   Re-Read Saturday News  Week 5 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fr

Today we begin Year 16 with an interview, discussion, conversation -- call it what you like -- with Martin Foster.  We covered a ton of ground, including whether the goal of any organization should be to be more agile and the 2021 Business Agility Report. During one segment we discussed the statement, “the impediments are the path.” A wonderful and thought-provoking start to Year 16!   ANNOUNCING:  The Open Transformation Playbooks: https://transformationplaybooks.org/    A (very new) initiative to build an open, remixable, body of knowledge for agile organizational transformation.  To accompany this episode Martin and TeamForm have launched the first tranche of content.  Martin’s Contact Information: 2021 Business Agility Report: https://bit.ly/3GXfzBJ TeamForm: https://www.teamform.co/  Email: martin@orchestrated.io LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martinfoster   Martin’s Bio  Martin is a senior consultant at TeamForm.  His passion is working with organizations that are transforming themselves to cross-functional

Today marks the end of year 15 on the Software Process and Measurement Cast, and we are closing the year with pitchfork and torches. We discussed the world of knowledge work in 2022. Leadership, principles, value, and values take center stage. Panels like this make me want to do panels every week! The panelists (other than myself) are: Jeremy Berriault https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-berriault-mba/ Web: https://berriaultandassociates.com/  Jon M Quigley linkedin.com/in/jonmquigley Web: https://www.valuetransform.com/product-development-tools/ Kevin Rush linkedin.com/in/kezrush Twitter: @Kezrush Chris Hurney linkedin.com/in/chrishurney Web: https://www.inspiradoconsulting.com/ Twitter: chris_hurney Participating in spirit (they were on part one last week) Susan Parente Susan Parente  linkedin.com/in/susanparente Twitter: @TechRiskManager Jeremy Willets linkedin.com/in/jeremywillets   Blog: https://www.jeremywillets.com/    Re-Read Saturday News  Week 3 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squir

One of the fun parts of programming the Software Process and Measurement Cast is getting diverse groups of people together to chat.  In this edition of the podcast, Jon M Quigley, Jeremy Willets, Jeremy Berriault, Kevin Rush, Susan Parente, and myself convened to discuss what we learned about work in 2021. The last few years have been extraordinary -- both good and bad. When you live in times like these it is incumbent on all of us to learn from them. The panelists (other than myself) are: Jeremy Berriault https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-berriault-mba/ Web: https://berriaultandassociates.com/  Susan Parente linkedin.com/in/susanparente Web: http://www.s3-tec.com/ Jon M Quigley linkedin.com/in/jonmquigley Web: https://www.valuetransform.com/product-development-tools/ Kevin Rush linkedin.com/in/kezrush Twitter: @Kezrush Jeremy Willets linkedin.com/in/jeremywillets   Blog: https://www.jeremywillets.com/     Re-Read Saturday News  Week 2 of our re-read of  Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fr

SPaMCAST 684 posts on January 2nd, 2022.  The new year evokes both retrospection and expectations for the future. 2021 was quite the year; SPaMCAST 635 marked the beginning of our 15th year of publishing with a conversation with Johanna Rothman (SPaMCAST 635 - Practical Ways to Manage, A Conversation with Johanna Rothman). That was our most downloaded cast of 2021.  In late August I lost a podcast . . . (a summer rerun), SPaMCAST 668 has attained the status of the Lost Show. Somehow while I was backpacking on Isle Royale the preprogrammed show failed to post.  I have a backup but it is more fun to have a lost cast.  I will rectify the situation at some point when I stop being amused. The year ended with my 12-year-old mixer going to the electronics recycler. The new mixer should be delivered soon. Even with all of the hassle, I have been able to do three great interviews and two related panel discussions that will round out year 15 and kick-off year 16. That’s the long way to say that even though I am struggl

Ben Woznicki and I talk about the book and ideas inside the covers of Team Topologies. Ben provides a great deal of advice on creating teams that are fit for purpose.  Ben and I have worked together, hosted a video podcast together, and more -- it is a great conversation. Ben is an Organizational Health Coach: Helping you deliver sooner, with higher confidence, and more consistency.  Ben has 10 years of experience with all facets of technical and business agility and organizational transformation. He collaborates with, trains, mentors, and coaches at all levels to smooth the transition to Lean and Agile ways of delivering value. And aligns transformation efforts to organizational objectives so everyone is on the same page.  Contact InformationLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwoz/  Email: b@benwoz.com   Re-Read Saturday News  We have just completed our re-read of Project to Product ( https://amzn.to/2WzvPac - Amazon Affiliate link). Next week we begin our re-read of  Agile Conversations: Transform Yo

At the end of the year, planning and prioritization take center stage. We can only really prioritize work, needs, and dreams that are within our span of control. That does not stop people from trying to prioritize work that is not theirs to prioritize.  We also have a visit from Susan Parente who brings her I’m Not A Scrumdamentalist column to the cast.  This month we talk about getting leadership right. It is possible! Re-Read Saturday News  As 2021 comes to a close we bring our re-read of Project to Product to a close as well (buy a copy and dive into the book https://amzn.to/2WzvPac - Amazon Affiliate link). The conclusion of the book brings the discussion back as a reflection on the turning point of the Age of Software.  Catch up on previous installments: Week 1: Foreword and Introduction - https://bit.ly/39gIt0A  Week 2: Age of Software - https://bit.ly/2XYvqyI  Week 3: From Project to Product - https://bit.ly/3mhwJBb  Week 4: Introducing The Flow Framework - https://bit.ly/3lqJTwd Week 5: Capturing Flow

This week we touch on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, work entry, with an essay titled Prioritization Without Control of Work Entry. I am tempted to suggest that without control over what you can say yes to, the whole idea of prioritization is a farce. The answer is more complicated, but only a little.  We also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault who brings his QA Corner to the cast. This week we discuss measuring testing -- it is more than just pass/fail. Re-Read Saturday News  Chapter 9 of Project to Product (buy a copy and re-read the book with us https://amzn.to/2WzvPac Amazon Affiliate Link) ties the three layers of the author’s model together and exposes the third epiphany from his visit to the BMW plant that has been the central plot element of the book. The chapter puts all the parts together. But instead of relating how he connects the infrastructure, I want to focus on how important it is to generate an end-to-end view of work for any software-intensive product. Catch up on previous instal

This week Mauricio Aguiar and Christine Green join me to discuss the state and future of Software Measurement. Mauricio, Christine, and I are all recent Past Presidents of the International Function Point Users Group (the largest international software measurement association). The conversation is both provocative and enlightening.  Note, the audio of my voice is a little muffled but the important parts of the conversation come from Christine’s and Mauricio’s lips. I know what the issue was and have added a step to my interview checklist.  Bios Mauricio Aguiar is the founder of TI Metricas, a leading software measurement company based in Brazil. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Mauricio was elected President of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) for 2005-2007 and also for 2017-2019, after serving on the IFPUG Board since 2000. Mauricio was involved with the implementation of function point analysis and metrics programs in many Brazili

As we begin counting down to the end of the year, I would like to consider the team lead’s role. It is a nearly ubiquitous role in organizations, but is almost never talked about in agile frameworks. We begin our journey into the role by establishing three examples to help understand how the role is practiced and why it can generate friction if not addressed when adopting frameworks.  We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley who brings his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column to the cast.  This week we talk about the idea of descoping and its role in work entry. Done early, descoping is a tool while done after you have made commitments it makes a tool out of you.  Re-Read Saturday News  Nearly 30 hours of driving, Thanksgiving, and far too few hours with a large part of my extended family kept me from completing the re-read of Chapter 8 of Project to Product  https://amzn.to/2WzvPac (Amazon Affiliate Link). We will be back next week to talk about the problems caused by role and tool disconnection acro

This week we are taking a quick journey into a discussion of prioritization outside of a team or an organization's span of control. It is easy to confuse influence and actually be able to exert control over an outcome.  Wishful thinking often can lead to frustration.  Tony TImbol also brings his “To Tell A Story” column to the cast building on the ideas that are central fro good user stores.  Check out Tony’s Product Owner training events at http://tonytimbol.com/events/  This week to talk about the product owner’s role in writing and maintaining user stories.  Re-Read Saturday News  This week we re-read Chapter 7 of Project to Product  https://amzn.to/2WzvPac (Amazon Affiliate Link). This week we consider Mik’s first two epiphanies and introduce the topic of network value streams.   Catch up on previous installments: Week 1: Foreword and Introduction - https://bit.ly/39gIt0A  Week 2: Age of Software - https://bit.ly/2XYvqyI  Week 3: From Project to Product - https://bit.ly/3mhwJBb  Week 4: Introducing The Fl

Today we will speak to Kit Merker, COO of Nobl9 about Service Level Objectives (SLO). Kit provides down-to-earth advice for adopting and using SLOs to benefit teams AND organizations.  Kit’s bio: Kit Merker's 20+ year career spans product management, engineering, evangelism and community-building roles at Google, Microsoft, JFrog, and the governing board of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). He is currently Chief Operating Officer for Nobl9, driving community and growth for service reliability for enterprise development teams. Contact information: linkedin.com/in/kitmerker (LinkedIn) kitmerker.com  (Personal Website) nobl9.com  (Company Website) @KitMerker (Twitter) Re-Read Saturday News  This week we re-read Chapter 6 of Project to Product  https://amzn.to/2WzvPac (Amazon Affiliate Link). In the chapter the author tells four stories of disruption -- they are interesting in their own right. Still, if we look for a common thread I would suggest the communication needed to manage the balance betwee

Today we feature our interview with Vincent Hendersen. We talked about scaling agility up -- not the same as scaling agile. Mr. Hendersen and I discussed thinking about agile as a service to align team and portfolio. This is a most thought-provoking interview. The idea of thinking about agile teams as a subscription model shifts the whole agile paradigm. Vincent’s bio: Vincent Henderson is an operations and product executive in B2B organizations that use knowledge and technology to create value. He has transformed information supply chains and content-driven businesses across 10 countries, 5 industries, and 3 decades. Vincent is a business technologist. He enjoys building rational and purposeful teams that focus on concrete, meaningful outcomes. He had his first Agile workshop about 10 years ago with Tom Cagley and Anthony Mersino. Since that watershed moment of insight, he has implemented and run Agile product development in the 4 different organizations that he has led since. As a business leader who rolls

This week we continue the priority theme with an essay titled, “What is a Priority?” I wish it was a simple question. Since the whole idea of priority is premised on a group of people having a shared perspective and definition this is a question that needs to be asked and answered.  We also have a visit from Susan Parente with her I’m Not A Scrumdamentalist column.  In this installment, we tackle bad leadership (I wish tackle was not used metaphorically). Upcoming Events Out of Control Work Entry Means "No Agile For You" November 4, 2021 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EST In this webinar, we will use five common patterns of work entry to highlight team dysfunctions of poor work entry practices.  We will also explore a path forward for each work entry pattern to help improve the delivery of business value. Register Now: https://bit.ly/3q1yWnw  Re-Read Saturday News  I was busy preparing for my webinar, Out of Control Work Entry Means "No Agile For You" and did not complete Chapter 5’s re-read of Project to Product.  http

In the essay today, prioritization requires a steady hand and consistency. The process for prioritization should have more in common with a well-oiled basketball or futbol team than five-year-olds playing soccer in the schoolyard. How the moving parts work together is a process, but in some circles, “process” is a dirty word.   On the conversation side, Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the cast. We discuss test automation plans and strategies in agile.  Upcoming Events The Agile Online Summit!  This Week!!  Tom Henricksen delivers one of the most innovative online conferences. This year he has upped the bar again! While you can attend the Summit for free, there are a number of innovative options to learn even more from the Summit. Please join the premier Agile Online Conference from October 25th to 27th, 2021. Register at https://bit.ly/3mplqIK Re-Read Saturday News  This week, we dive into Chapter 4 of Project to Product titled Capturing Flow Metrics.  https://amzn.to/2WzvPac (Amazon Affiliate Link).

Today, we feature an essay titled, So I Asked What Is Agile. A simple question that yields interesting answers. One interesting outcome was that answers fit into three categories. We explore the process and people-oriented groups this week. I will come back to the rant category later this month.   In addition to the essay, Tony Timbol brings his To Tell A Story column to the cast! In this installment, the product owner’s role is under the microscope. Check out Tony’s website at https://bit.ly/2Z1IrIg Upcoming Events The Agile Online Summit!  The clock is ticking - loudly!  Tom Henricksen delivers one of the most innovative online conferences. This year he has upped the bar again! While you can attend the Summit for free, there are a number of innovative options to learn even more from the Summit. Please join the premier Agile Online Conference from October 25th to 27th, 2021. Register at https://bit.ly/3mplqIK Re-Read Saturday News  This week, we are taking a break from Project to Product.  Remember to buy a