Value Stream Management with Derek Huether

Derek Huether is back for this episode and we’re focusing on Value Stream Management. Value Stream Mapping is about understanding all the steps from the inception of an idea to putting something valuable in a customer's hands, and using that information to optimize the flow of value through the system. But, within a business, you will have many value streams and we need to understand how best to coordinate those streams to optimize the overall value generated by the company across multiple value streams. If your brain is wired for traditional project management, you could think of this as creating a system that optimizes a portfolio management level view of all the value streams in the org.

• Video version: https://youtu.be/nxGvpnWgoIM
• Audio version: https://on.soundcloud.com/dAVHR

Agile Physics and the Math of Flow w Troy Magennis

When people talk about Agile you’ll hear them talk about certain ideas, topics, or “laws” that are just mentioned as if they were universally known truths, almost like gravity. In “Agile Physics - the Math of Flow”, a new FREE course offered by Troy Magennis, you can start to learn the math behind some of these truths.  In this interview, Troy joins me to explain why he developed the course, how it works, and the tools he provides to add clarity on why Agilists consider certain things to be as true as gravity.

You can find the interview here.

Can Teams Actually Achieve Predictability? w/ Troy Magennis

Before the pandemic hit, one of my favorite parts of the summer was going to the Agile Conference and doing podcast interviews with the speakers and thought leaders who were there. Each year, one of the very best moments of each Agile Conference was when I would get to sit down and talk with Troy Magennis. 

It’s been two summers. 

I miss talking to Troy.

So I reached out and he was kind enough to spare some time for an interview. 

During the conversation, we cover a number of topics, including:

• Is it actually possible for a team to become predictable? 
• What gets in the way of predictability? 
• What is BlockedApp and why did he create it?
• Which constraints are the most important ones to start with? 
• Who is responsible for acting as the scientist of flow? 
• Why are we still so focused on utilization and output instead of results?
• Why do we all need to know CPR?

Click here to check out the interview

Challenging the Sprint - An Interview with John Cutler

John Cutler describes himself as a Product Development Nut. He’s deeply focused on Product Development with a Lean /Agile approach and finding ways to improve how we work. He posts his thoughts in Medium, and although he says he is not a professional blogger, he generates new content about twice a week. I really enjoy reading his posts because they always challenge me and push me into seeing things through a different perspective. 

A few weeks ago John posted an article called “Flow, Decoupling Cadences and Fixed Sprint Lengths” in which he challenged the idea of Sprint time boxes.  (There is a video version if you’d rather watch that). The article was thought provoking and left me with a number of questions. So I reached out to John and he was kind enough to let me pester him with my questions in a podcast.

Show Notes

• 00:08 Interview Begins
• 00:50 Some background on John
• 04:31 Lessons John learned as a touring musician that help him work with teams and build new products
• 07:46 Intentionally disrupting your flow in order to grow and learn
• 08:47 Introduction of the main topic - Flow, Decoupling Cadences and Fixed Length Sprints
• 11:48 Understand they why behind the practices you are applying and figuring out how to make them work for you
• 13:30 What job do we hire the Sprint for? If you don’t know why you are using these time boxes, they may not be helping
• 19:47 If you are failing Sprints, is it about the length of the Sprint or the size of the work? Get ridiculously uncomfortable.
• 22:09 When you can’t get through it, go slower and do less. Blazing away at tempo is not going to help anyone
• 23:29 Why brand new teams should start by going slower and doing less
• 25:17 Is it that Scrum doesn’t work, or that people aren’t doing it right?
• 30:02 Be intentional and understand why you are employing practices, and then figure out how you’ll know if they work
• 32:27 What is your company hiring Agile to do?
• 33:42 Know your audience
• 38:00 Filling your Product Backlog with goals instead of features
• 41:18 Visualizing dependencies in your backlog - WITH STRING!
• 51:55 How to reach John
• 52:36 John’s upcoming events and deliverables
• 54:31 John’s writing process
• 55:40 Podcast Ends

Links from the Podcast

• John's post "Flow, Decoupling Cadences and Fixed Length Sprints"
• LeanAgile US (February 26-28) http://leanagileus.com
• FlowState (application) http://hailoverman.com/flowstate

Contacting John

• Twitter https://twitter.com/johncutlefish
• Medium https://medium.com/@johnpcutler

DevOps not making you fast enough? Focus on Agile IT Operations w/ Devin Hedge

In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, Devin Hedge makes the case for focusing on Agile IT Operations in order to increase speed within your organization. If you’ve been considering working with (or have already adopted) DevOps, the information Devin shares in this interview may help you discover how your organizations Operations function is limiting your ability to increase flow.

Show Notes
01:08 Podcast Begins  - Introductions
01:36 Background on Devin
02:14 Topic Introduction: Agile IT Operations
02:49 The relationship between Agile IT Operations and DevOps
03:48 Why DevOps is picking up again
04:34 Our new problems are our old problems
05:29 It’s about awareness and maturity
06:37 An indicator that IT Ops is where you need to focus your attention in order to increase your speed
07:02 Speed creates dependencies
08:52 Why IT Operations is the bottleneck
10:18 Agile is not going to fix your lack of solid disaster recovery planning, but it may force you to acknowledge that you need to do something about it
11:41 Automating the process of server creation all the way through the system
15:02 How to get started with understanding what the issues actually are
16:46 What do we do with the folks who need something new to do after we automate?
18:22 An example of automated templates for virtual machine creation
20:12 Organizational Debt = Technical Administrative Debt
21:50 A case study in how Agile IT Operations can impact an organization
24:50 Not trusting the automation and not being able to see the ball moving at 90 mph
27:27 How do you maintain the situational awareness that can’t come from an algorithm set up to review logs?
30:37 It’s all about establishing and maintaining a “practice”
33:49 How do I get started with this? Where can I get more information on Agile IT Operations?
34:44 How Lean Practices and Value Stream Mapping can help you get started
36:55 How gaining visibility and awareness can help you establish yourself within the organization you work for
37:54 How does this work within the context of scaling to things like SAFe?
39:51 Failure is a gift - don’t blink!
41:34 How to reach Devin


Links from the podcast
The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim http://amzn.to/2i3pURL
Additional titles by Gene Kim http://amzn.to/2i3xDPI
LeadingAgile Basecamps https://www.leadingagile.com/the-journey/


Contacting Devin
If you’d like to get in touch with Devin with follow up questions you can reach him at:
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/devin-hedge/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agiledevin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinhedge

Contacting Dave
If you’d like to get in touch with Dave
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo

For Information on LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes
If you’d like to attend one of LeadingAgile’s CSM or CSPO classes, you can find a full list of upcoming classes here: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/