Troubleshooting Agile

After Squirrel argued passionately in a previous episode that non-functional requirements should be eliminated, we invite medtech expert and portfolio CTO Alex Hudson to visit and describe why he finds NFRs helpful. It turns out that the two positions are closer together than we might have thought, and we get fascinating stories about medical device design and 30-second page loads along the way. SHOW LINKS: - Alex Hudson: https://twitter.com/ealexhudson and https://alexhudson.com/ - Previous rant episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/squirrels-rant - Twitter debate with Alex: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1207400245002457090 - The "ilities": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-functional_requirement *** 
 Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc 
 We'd love to hear a

We review our holiday reading and watching plans for listeners who might want to join us in exploring lean and agile ideas over the break. We also list our top 5 episodes from 2019 and preview a few events planned for 2020. SHOW LINKS: - Ed Catmull on conversations and other challenges at Pixar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc - Kent Beck on throughput vs latency: https://medium.com/@kentbeck_7670/inefficient-efficiency-5b3ab5294791 - Mark Schwartz, War and Peace and IT: https://itrevolution.com/war-and-peace-and-it/ https://twitter.com/schwartz_cio - Subscribed by Tien Tzuo and Gabe Weisert.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscribed_(book) - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team - Lean Thinking by Womack and Jones: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289467.Lean_Thinking - The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17255186-the-phoenix-project - The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim : https

Squirrel gets hot under the collar about non-functional "requirements", and after he gets his rant off his chest, we discover NFRs are all too often just excuses to avoid a conversation. In addition, we touch on the "ilities", security, and ethical considerations for software developers. SHOW LINKS: - The "ilities": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-functional_requirement *** 
Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc 
 We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com 
 Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile 
 Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Mark Schwartz, author of War and Peace and IT, describes his experience in the CIO trenches, where low trust between "the business" and IT bogs the organisation down in lengthy acquisition processes and contract negotiations rather than delivering business objectives. We touch on value stream mapping, how to use devops and its relatives devsecops and finops, briefing and back briefing, and what we see as the root of the disconnect between business and tech, a lack of trust. SHOW LINKS: - Mark Schwartz, War and Peace and IT: https://itrevolution.com/war-and-peace-and-it/ https://twitter.com/schwartz_cio - Value Stream Map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-stream_mapping - Briefing and Back Briefing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Action-Leaders-between-Actions/dp/1857885597 *** 
 Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.yo

Last week, Domenica DeGrandis talked with us about making work visible. Today, we distinguish that idea from a related one, that of making your *output* visible. How can your team show its results frequently? What symptoms indicate that this might help you? What results can you expect from showing meaningful business value often? SHOW LINKS: - Domenica's Making Work Visible book: https://itrevolution.com/book/making-work-visible/ - Lean Thinking: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lean-Thinking-Banish-Create-Corporation/dp/0743231643 - Genchi Genbutsu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genchi_Genbutsu - Alistair Cockburn on Elephant Carpaccio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lNvr2RWbFo *** 
 Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! New video of us at the Las Vegas Devops Enterprise Summit 2019 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc 
 We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the sho

Sunday is the new Monday, and that’s a bad thing - says our guest today, Dominica DeGrandis, author of Making Work Visible. How can you move from default yes to an effective, smooth flow of work? Dominica addresses this question while touching on queueing theory, empathy, and hope! SHOW LINKS: - Dominica’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/dominicad - Domenica’s web site: https://ddegrandis.com/ - Kanban book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402/ref=asc_df_0984521402/ - Queueing theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_theory - Paul Graham on Maker and Manager Schedules: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
 *** 
 Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! 
 We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. 
 Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com 
 Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile 
 Also, if you'd like to leave us

Have you ever "flipped the bozo bit" on someone, concluding that he or she is completely clueless and communication is hopeless? We tell some tales of bozo bits we've seen flipped, describe some causes and consequences including the idea of "duelling ladders", and suggest how to get out of the bozo bit trap. SHOW LINKS: - The Bozo Bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo_bit - Jim McCarthy's book on the Bozo Bit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dynamics-Software-Development-Jim-McCarthy/dp/1556158238 - Previous episode on the Ladder of Inference: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/introspection-with-the-ladder-of-inference - Fear is the Mind Killer: https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Litany_Against_Fear - Squirrel and Jeffrey speaking on Conversational Transformation at DOES Las Vegas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMT_Tqzf_vc *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can pre-order! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or fe

Today we finish our conversation with author, podcaster, and DevOps expert John Willis https://twitter.com/botchagalupe . John covers a wide variety of topics at lightning speed, including: SHA - a hash algorithm, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1 CAB - Change Advisory Board, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change-advisory_board Jim Benson on Kanban - http://personalkanban.com/pk/about-us/team/jim-benson/ Andreesen on “software eating the world” - https://a16z.com/2011/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world/ Knight Capital disaster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Capital_Group#2012_stock_trading_disruption CAMS - https://medium.com/@brunodelb/the-cams-model-to-better-understand-the-devops-movement-ffe6713c3fd7 Deming 14 points - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_75.htm Peter Senge 5th Discipline - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline Equifax breach - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49070596 Air France 447 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flig

Today we speak to author, podcaster, and DevOps expert John Willis https://twitter.com/botchagalupe . John covers a wide variety of topics at lightning speed, including: SHA - a hash algorithm, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1 CAB - Change Advisory Board, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change-advisory_board Jim Benson on Kanban - http://personalkanban.com/pk/about-us/team/jim-benson/ Andreesen on “software eating the world” - https://a16z.com/2011/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world/ Knight Capital disaster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Capital_Group#2012_stock_trading_disruption CAMS - https://medium.com/@brunodelb/the-cams-model-to-better-understand-the-devops-movement-ffe6713c3fd7 Deming 14 points - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_75.htm Peter Senge 5th Discipline - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline Equifax breach - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49070596 Air France 447 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447 Sidney Dekker

Listener Jamie let us know about a sequel to one of our favourite blog posts, John Cutler on the Feature Factory. We focus on just one of John's well-made points, the idea of lowering Work In Progress to improve throughput. We tell a story about on "death by spreadsheet" project management and the futile and counterproductive attempt to get utilisation to 100%. This brings us back to lean methods, kanban, and the Theory of Constraints. SHOW LINKS: - 12 Signs You're Working in a Feature Factory: https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory - Feature Factory 3 Years Later: https://amplitude.com/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-3-years-later - Kanban book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402 - The Goal: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0566086654 - Slack (the book not the software!): https://www.amazon.com/Slack-Getting-Burnout-Busywork-Efficiency/dp/0767907698 *** Our new book, Agile

Our new book is all about what people miss in their digital/agile/lean/devops transformations: cultural changes that underlie human-centred development and the conversations that can lead you to those changes. Inspired by the book Accelerate!, we look at Westrum's Three Cultures and reflect on how the culture you're in affects how you transform to the culture you want. SHOW LINKS: - Accelerate!: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339 - Westrum on Three Cultures: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1765804/pdf/v013p0ii22.pdf - Gale, Digital Helix: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Helix-Transform-Aspect-Organization/dp/1626344647 - Edmondson, Teaming: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaming-Organizations-Innovate-Compete-Knowledge/dp/078797093X/ref=sr_1_1 - Previous episode on the 4 Rs: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/learning-through-case-studies-the-4-rs *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://itr

Alistair Cockburn gets us thinking about how agile methods are spreading, even to non-software teams like sales. Further, we bring in the idea of Wardley Mapping to see how, ironically, this very spread can lead to the conclusion that agile development is headed for the dustbin, but conclude (phew!) that agile methods have a healthy future. Apologies for a minor audio problem about 12 minutes in. SHOW LINKS: - Alistair Cockburn says Agile isn't dead: https://heartofagile.com/agile-is-not-dead-quite-the-opposite/ - Moore, Crossing the Chasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm - Sheridan, Joy, Inc.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joy-Inc-Built-Workplace-People/dp/1591847125 - Wardley Maps: https://www.slideshare.net/swardley/an-introduction-to-wardley-maps - Previous episode on Agile beyond software: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/agile-outside-software-teams - Heresy.io: https://heresy.io/ *** Our new book, Agile Conversations, will be out in May 2020! See https://itrevolution.c

Following on further from Avery Pennarun's intriguing article on "what executives do", we ask how, exactly, executives (and others!) can trigger action, if they are not themselves going to carry it out? It turns out we've covered our favourite technique for this before - Bungay's Briefing and Back Briefing - but this time we have a scoring checklist that can help you use the technique, and two new stories about successful and unsuccessful delegation. SHOW LINKS: - What do executives do, anyway? by Pennarun: https://apenwarr.ca/log/20190926 and Hacker News discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21088425 - Art of Action: http://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink - Previous episode on Bungay: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/briefing-and-back-briefing *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and su

We respond to an intriguing and dense article from Avery Pennarun about what executives do. He takes us back to Andy Grove’s classic High Output Management and we reflect on the leverage leaders can use, how they and their staff can fool themselves into thinking they have the right information, and a mindset exercise to help you find “unknown unknowns”. SHOW LINKS: - What do executives do, anyway? by Pennarun: https://apenwarr.ca/log/20190926 and Hacker News discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21088425 - Andy Grove, High Output Management: https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884 - Art of Action: http://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink - Argyris, Organizational Traps: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8633384-organizational-traps - Unknown Unknowns, Rumsfeld: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twit

We conclude our conversation with Ryan Singer, Head of Strategy at Basecamp and author of Shape Up, by asking him how the team functions without requiring code reviews or QA checks. Then he goes on to describe in detail their "hill" metaphor for progress measurement and why this method provides a useful narrative that goes way beyond sprint duration or story points. SHOW LINKS: - Shape Up: https://basecamp.com/shapeup/?ref=df - Daring Fireball intro to Shape Up: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/08/04/shape-up - Extreme Programming Explained: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Programming-Explained-Embrace-Change/dp/0321278658 - Feature Factory: https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory - Petition the King: https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/petitiontheking/ - Art of Action: http://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShoot

We continue chatting with Ryan Singer, Head of Strategy at Basecamp and author of Shape Up. Ryan explains the "shaping" and "betting" processes in more detail, including who does the various roles and what is crucial to get right when you set up a design-and-build system like the one they advocate. SHOW LINKS: - Shape Up: https://basecamp.com/shapeup/?ref=df - Daring Fireball intro to Shape Up: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/08/04/shape-up - Extreme Programming Explained: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Programming-Explained-Embrace-Change/dp/0321278658 - Feature Factory: https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory - Petition the King: https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/petitiontheking/ - Art of Action: http://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just

We start our conversation with Ryan Singer, Head of Strategy at Basecamp, by asking him to help us understand how their Shape Up process works and how they developed it. He explains how the fear of not shipping drove their movement to frequent delivery of carefully designed (or "shaped") features, why their teams avoid single-page apps to ensure designers can make the maximum contribution, and why they have neither front-end devs nor back-end specialists. SHOW LINKS: - Shape Up: https://basecamp.com/shapeup/?ref=df - Daring Fireball intro to Shape Up: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/08/04/shape-up - Extreme Programming Explained: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Programming-Explained-Embrace-Change/dp/0321278658 - Feature Factory: https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory - Petition the King: https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/petitiontheking/ - Art of Action: http://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have ab

Squirrel adds to last week's story, describing how being transparent and curious helped him uncover a conflict that helped lead to insight and better alternatives. SHOW LINKS: - The HiPPO effect: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/10/26/data-driven-decision-making-beware-of-the-hippo-effect/ - The Uncanny Valley of a Functional Organization: https://stratechery.com/2013/the-uncanny-valley-of-a-functional-organization/ *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Squirrel tells a story in which digging for emotional signals helps a technical team find alternatives to an arbitrary-looking initiative. Jeffrey explains how nonviolent communication provides a framework for seeking emotional understanding first. SHOW LINKS: - Nonviolent communication: https://www.cnvc.org - Feelings inventory: https://www.cnvc.org/training/resource/feelings-inventory - Kano model: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2013/07/using-the-kano-model-to-prioritize-product-development/ *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

We saw last week how inflexible implementation killed checklists at hospitals - and the same disease affects agile development, we've found. Do you think there's a single "recipe" for agile, like our friends at Basecamp who claim they're not agile because they don't use post-its, backlogs, or standups? If so, we think you're missing some important opportunities for building internal commitment and improving your practise. SHOW LINKS: - Hospital checklists fail: https://www.nature.com/news/hospital-checklists-are-meant-to-save-lives-so-why-do-they-often-fail-1.18057 - Fix XP: http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/fixit.html - Anand's comment on Agile as chocolate-chip cookie: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/activity:6432900799365419008/ - Basecamp ShapeUp: DaringFireball https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/08/04/shape-up and announcement https://basecamp.com/shapeup - Heart of Agile: https://heartofagile.com/ *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Emai