Troubleshooting Agile

This week, we bring you one of our most popular previous episodes to refresh your memory or listen to for the first time. The first chapter of Agile Conversations is all about people-centred development, and we tell the story of our own journey from over-determined software factory to today's feature factories, with similar Taylorist theories of management in both. In today's episode, we go into more depth on the causes of this tragic journey, touching on old and new topics like Theories X and Y, the Cynefin framework, and why there isn't a JIRA plugin for conversational quality. SHOW LINKS: - Taylorism: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management - Theories X and Y: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - 12 Signs You're Working in a Feature Factory by John Cutler: cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre…n-a-feature-factory - Cargo cults: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult and www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Cargo-Cult-Agile.html - Cockburn on people: web.archive.org/web/2014032920365…tware+development - Cynefin: en.wi

Jeffrey and Squirrel draw lessons from unlikely sources like Henry Ford and Eliezer Yudkowsky on creating a culture that favours innovation and inquiry. SHOW LINKS: - Henry Ford article: https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/experts/ - Hero License: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dhj9dhiwhq3DX6W8z/hero-licensing - Dan Luu on productivity: https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/ - Chris Matts on experts: https://twitter.com/PapaChrisMatts/status/1462379387471511553 - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@agileconversations.com

When your team misses a sprint goal, or you let down a stakeholder, you or your team may feel guilty—but we make concrete recommendations, using Pixar movies and Adlerian psychology, for grief as a more effective alternative that leads to faster recovery and improvement. SHOW LINKS: - The Courage to be Disliked: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43306206-the-courage-to-be-disliked - Feeling Good podcast: https://feelinggood.com - Wisdom at Work meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Wisdom-at-Work-Online-MeetUp - Sadness and Joy from Inside Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT6FdhKriB8 - Just Say No to Need: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/just-say-no-to-need --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Continuing from last week's episode on Gemba Walks, we explore how leaders can use information they gather from the "coal face" to tell compelling stories and change culture and direction. SHOW LINKS: - Last week's episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/gemba-walks-and-ride-alongs - Three Perspectives on Future Search: http://www.marvinweisbord.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Future%20Search%20Perspectives.pdf - Pixar Story Course: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/storytelling-pixar-in-a-box --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey tell two stories of leaders who "walked the floor" to see what work was being done, in two very different situations, and how the resulting stories helped transform their teams. SHOW LINKS: - Gemba Walk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemba - Container Stacking blog post: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/an-unexpected-victory-container-stacking-at-the-port-of-los-angeles/ - Container Stacking twitter thread: https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451543776992845834 - Secrets of Consulting: http://geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Consulting_Secrets.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey consider the benefits and risks of building a feature for just one user. When is this advisable and when is it a product cul-de-sac? SHOW LINKS: - Alan Cooper on personas: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44098.The_Inmates_Are_Running_the_Asylum - Poppendiecks on lean software (waste of software development): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194338.Lean_Software_Development --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

A listener asks about "de-silo-ifying" data science and how to match cadences between data teams and product teams. Data expert Ian Ozsvald tells stories of insurance forms and data horrors as he helps us explore ways to address this cadence mismatch. SHOW LINKS: - Ian Ozsvald: https://ianozsvald.com - PyData London: https://london.pydata.org/ - Gemba walk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemba#Gemba_Walk --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey explore their different reasons for recommending that you remove the word "need" from your vocabulary. SHOW LINKS: - “Need” tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1445683926983340037 - Correct vs useful episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/correct-vs-useful --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

A listener asks about conditions where ringfencing might make sense, and we explore the differences among ringfencing, focus, and empowerment. SHOW LINKS: - Listener question: https://twitter.com/DeliverItCast/status/1443304167313915907 - Ringfencing episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-ringfencing-trap - The Goal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel) --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Jeffrey tells the story of his team writing code that gives incorrect but still useful results, and we reflect on why it can be hard to choose to "pay to learn". SHOW LINKS: - Thinking, Fast and Slow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow - Worse is Better: https://dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel helps teams split their work into tiny "slices" they can release daily or weekly, and finds that the biggest obstacle is all the things that developers think they know about users, many of which they have to first unlearn. SHOW LINKS: - Original tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1435602671306674176 - Falsehoods programmers believe about names: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ - Elephant carpaccio: https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Elephant-Carpaccio-exercise-instructions.pdf - Will Rogers: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/11/18/know-trouble/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel tells stories of clients whose attempt to ringfence developers on certain tasks ended badly, and we explore why hiding from a difficult conversation with "dedicated" engineers doesn't work. SHOW LINKS: - Original tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1435602662796537861 - https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/solving-the-problem-of-siloed-it-in-organizations/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@agileconversations.com

We discuss making radical change in an organisation by violating its norms in use and producing productive conflict. SHOW LINKS: - How Should the Company Decide?: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-should-the-company-decide --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

We consider the dynamics—or perhaps statics!—of an organisation that is stuck running the same agile processes or following an unchanging strategy, even though it isn't providing any improvement, and consider why an organisation might get stuck in this way. SHOW LINKS: - Double-Loop Learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-loop_learning --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@agileconversations.com

We discuss why daily delivery via "elephant carpaccio"—already challenging for engineers—is doubly difficult for designers, and what to do about it. SHOW LINKS: - Elephant Carpaccio: https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Elephant-Carpaccio-exercise-instructions.pdf --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

A listener asks how to find a great company to work for, and Jeffrey and Squirrel share a few opinionated, biased heuristics for discovering great environments to work in. SHOW LINKS: - CITCON conferences: https://citconf.com/ - DevopsDays: https://devopsdays.org/ - DOES conference: https://events.itrevolution.com - Joel Test: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-steps-to-better-code/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey trade stories about coaching people who feel trapped by a decision seemingly outside their control—and how a recursive question can help unlock more options and a better result. SHOW LINKS: - Unilateral control: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-i - Mutual learning: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/mutual-learning-model-part-one - Eight behaviors: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - Drive by Daniel Pink: https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Continuing our discussion of codewords as a signal of intimacy, we look at how team cohesion changes as a team grows or shrinks, and how you can anticipate this and retain positive cultural elements as your team evolves. SHOW LINKS: - Alistair Cockburn communication graph: p. 6 of https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/A-concise-theory-of-software-development-in-pictures.pdf - Missing Affordances of Remote Work episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/missing-affordances-for-remote-working --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel explains how a telephone emoji helped a coaching client and we discover how codewords help build trust. SHOW LINKS: - Code words tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1421016370850971650 - Alistair Cockburn communication graph: p. 6 of https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/A-concise-theory-of-software-development-in-pictures.pdf - Schwarz, Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us at info@conversationaltransformation.com

If you're already struggling to hit targets, don't add more! Recommendations for improving performance without overcomplication. SHOW LINKS: - Tilted slider: p. 139 of https://itrevolution.com/agile-conversations/ - Metrics tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1418149716584501254 --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@conversationaltransformation.com