Giora Morein - The State of Agile and Post-SAFeism

This episode of DrunkenPM Radio features a conversation with ThinkLouder’s Giora Morein. During this discussion Giora offers his take on how things have evolved within the Agile space over the past few years and some of the challenges we currently face. For example, if you are trying to use Scrum to build twice the work in half the time, how do you make sure that all the extra stuff you are building is the right stuff? And what if you run out of valuable things to build? Giora and I cover a lot of ground during the interview, which culminates in Giora breaking down life in the world of Post-SAFe-ism.

SHOW NOTES

00:08 Podcast Begins

00:50 An update on ThinkLouder

02:15 Taking greater ownership of your organization’s Agile Transformation

03:20 Pivoting from the “You want more agile, you need more coach” mindset

03:45 Why an experienced Agilist and an agile coach are not the same thing

08:48 Have we moved on to the “cleaning up after the party” stage of agile? Have the thought leaders moved on?

12:27 Have we moved on to a less dynamic stage of the agile conversation? What new ideas in agile is Giora paying the most attention to.

16:14 If you can do twice the work in half the time, how do you make sure the additional work you are doing is the right work?

17:27 The new thing…. the language of innovation

18:10 It’s easier to sell increased velocity/speed to IT than it is to sell transformation of an entire business

19:57  It has to start with “What’s the business driver?”

20:45 The only way Giora and I are going to end up with flying cars

22:32 Use Agile to figure out how to best meet the organization’s business drivers (getting deep in Oklahoma)

23:34 Building the wrong thing really fast is not helping anyone

24:13 Micro-maturation in Scaling

24:34 Post-SAFe-ism

25:45 How to reach Giora

26:29 Podcast Ends

CONTACTING

If you’d like to contact Giora directly, here are some ways to reach him:

Web: https://ThinkLouder.com

Email: gmorein@thinklouder.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gmorein

Why Digital Transformation is More Important than Agile Transformation w/ Devin Hedge

In this interview Devin Hedge and I dig into some of the research he has been doing around the impact of Digital Transformation, how it impacts consumers and the role that things like Agile and Design Thinking play in helping companies move from an analog way of managing their work to a completely digital way of managing their work.

SHOW NOTES

• 00:08 Interview Begins
• 00:47 Introduction to the topic of Digital Transformation
• 01:58 Defining Digital Transformation
• 04:19 Is there conflict between digital transformation and the goal of having greater empathy for other humans
• 05:38 Using the Apple Store as a way to dig into the digital vs. deep empathy connection
• 08:03 Our addiction to the dopamine hit we get from our devices and our need to increase the hit
• 09:48 Are we letting our desire for the “hit” drive decisions which lead to inefficient business practices? 
• 10:39 How the articles in management magazines drive the pursuit of increasing the frequency and depth of the hit
• 12:55 Hopper in the tunnels = Stickiness
• 14:02 How are Design Thinking and Agile actually helping?
• 18:45 Can developing a level of comfort with constant change also become an addictive hit?
• 20:17 The constant influx of information can be valuable in some respects and have a deeply negative impact in others.
• 24:45 Agile can provide a set of tools to hope us cope with change
• 27:43 What are the challenges of creating a culture where change is the only constant?
• 30:54 Devin wanders into Dangerous Territory!
• 35:56 The tools and techniques we use are not destinations. They are ways to deliver more value faster. 
• 37:25 Why we need a User Centric approach
• 40:10 Summarizing the conversation 
• 41:42 How to get in touch with Devin
• 42:16 Podcast Ends

CONTACTING DEVIN

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinhedge/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/devinhedge
• Web: http://devinhedge.com

Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) Deadline 12/31/17 - HOW TO EARN SEUs FAST!

The Scrum Alliance’s Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) designation is changing on Jan 1, 2018. If you meet the qualifications for the current version of CSP, applying before it expires on December 31, 2017 may provide you with a much easier path to the the practitioner level of certification offered by the Scrum Alliance.

You’ll find details on the current version of CSP here:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/certifications/practitioners/csp-certification

In order to quality for CSP there are a number of requirements that must be met including earning 70 Scrum Education Units (SEUs).

With the pending change, I have been recommending to all my CSM and CSPO students that they apply for CSP as soon as possible in order to beat the deadline. Many of them have come back with questions about how to earn the SEUs required for the CSP designation.

In this podcast, Scrum Alliance Director of Global Leaning and Assessment, Erika Massie and Scrum Alliance Learning Coordinator, Cody Wanberg break down the changes to the CSP certification, the timeline for the change AND we talk though different ways to attain the required SEU’s before the deadline.

It’s a short podcast, so no actual  show notes for this one. Just a few things to keep in mind…

• In order to qualify for CSP before the change you must have your completed application submitted to the Scrum Alliance before it becomes 2018 in Denver.
• Once you submit, the turnaround time you should expect is 8 weeks.

Here are a few of the ways you can earn SEUs…

• Watch the CST facilitated webinars on the Scrum Alliance website. There are 19 of these and they are an hour each. If you watch  them all, you’ll earn 19 SEUs.
• Watch the Scrum Foundations e-learning series to earn 1 SEU.
• If you took a CSM or CSPO, each class is worth 16 SEUs. If you’ve taken both, that is 32. AND, if you’ve taken CSM or CSPO more than once, you get the 16 for each time you take the class.
• During the interview, Cody and Erika explain that listening to something like the Agile Uprising’s Manifesto Author Review podcast series could be submitted under Category E - Independent Learning. You get 1 SEU for each hour of time spent listening. It is a great series and I highly recommend it. You an find it here.
• There are a number of additional ways to earn SEUs and you can find that detailed on the Scrum Alliance site. https://www.scrumalliance.org/certifications/practitioners/csp-certification/ways-to-earn-seus

Additional Questions

If you have questions for the Scrum Alliance about the changes to CSP or SEU’s, send an email to support@scrumalliance.org with the subject line CSP Application Question