Planning Sprints and Releases

My colleague, Jeff Howey and I respond to a question I got from a student in one of my classes:

"I would like to know how long should milestones typically be and how many sprints should we break it down to. We have a goal of what we want to achieve and a rough timeline but we don’t log too many feature tickets ahead of time thinking that the task might become stale or pollute the board with an everlasting list of things to do and most of the time we were just closing the tickets. As a result, I feel we become short-sighted and optimize for the current sprint but not for the milestone."

You can find out response here.

Multiple Product Owners with Competing Priorities w/ Jeff Howey

In this LeadingAgile podcast, Jeff Howey and I take on a question from a student about what to do when you have multiple POs working on one product, shared resources, and all the PO's have competing priorities. 

You can find the podcast here.

Working in Quarantine - What We Learned - Week 1

Jessica Wolfe, Derek Huether and I recorded a Zoom call talking about what we learned after our first week of working under quarantine. This was recorded on 3/29 and we're going to try to make it a semi-regular thing. We're posting it on Derek's YouTube channel.

Getting Better at Saying No with Tim Wise

One of the hardest parts about being a good Product Owner is saying "No" all the time. No matter how much experience you have, or what your reasoning is, telling people you aren't going to give them what they want is never easy. 

My friend and colleague, Tim Wise, joined me for a podcast where talk all about how to get better at saying No to people.

You can find the interview here.

What people think of my CSM and CSPO classes...

LeadingAgile put together a cool video with feedback from students in my CSM and CSPO classes...

 

 If you'd like to learn more about upcoming CSM and CSPO classes, click here.

Live from Agile 2019!!!!

This week is Agile 2019! It's the biggest, busiest Agile week of the year and I'll be doing live interviews from the LeadingAgile booth, talking with speakers and Agile thought leaders who are attending the show. It's going to be an amazing week!

So if you can't make it to the show, keep an eye on https://www.facebook.com/leadingagile and you'll be able to get a sense for all the amazing things happening at the conference this year.

Sprint Planning - How it works.. Why it works

This is a SoundNotes podcast that we just put up on LeadingAgile. The intent is to provide a basic foundational explanation of what Sprint Planning is, why it is so important, how it works, etc. (And why no one should be trying to do it before the Sprint starts.)

Click here to check it out

System of Delivery vs. System of Transformation

Click here for the podcast



When people talk about Agile, they often talk about the approach they are taking: Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, SAFe, LeSS, DAD, Nexus, etc. These and the other frameworks and methodologies that could be considered to fall under the Agile umbrella are Systems of Delivery because they are techniques for delivering.


There's often an assumption that if we adopt the System of Delivery, our organization will Transform to Agile. Sometimes this happens, but often, organizations need more than a System of Delivery. They need a way to go about helping their organization evolve into a state where it's capable of realizing the benefits of the various Systems of Delivery. This journey from your current state, into a state that's capable of fully leveraging the System of Delivery, may actually require a System of Transformation.


In this episode of SoundNotes, our CEO & Founder, Mike Cottmeyer spends some time with Dave digging into what a System of Transformation is, why this is different than a System of Delivery, how the two are connected, and why having a System of Transformation is such a critical part of your organization's ability to realize the benefits of taking an Agile approach to delivering work.


Click here for the podcast

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What is the worth of a good Product Owner? w/ Tim Wise

Tim Wise and I responded to a question from a student who worked in an org that saw no benefit from having Product Owners. Tim and I talk through the likely impact, how to cope with not having a PO, and why an engaged Product Owner is so critical to your team's ability to deliver.

You can find the podcast interview on LinkedIn.

Prioritizing the Work to Maximize Return w/ Dennis Stevens (3/7/19)

Part 3 of 3 of my interviews with Dennis Stevens on how to maximize the return produced by teams within the organization.

(3/7/19)
http://bit.ly/2IYohGF

Kicking off 2019 with Mike Cottmeyer

Shiny new episode of LeadingAgile Soundnotes... my interview with Mike Cottmeyer on what he's focused on for 2019 and what to expect in the Agile space.

https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/kicking-off-2019-with-mike-cottmeyer/

Agile 2018 Video Podcast Interviews (ALL OF THEM!)

I was trying to post these one at a time, but it is taking me too long.

There is some really good stuff in here and I'm very grateful to everyone who was willing to sit with me and let me ask them questions. (And to the amazing crew at LeadingAgile for making it happen.)

I hope you find them helpful as well.

And if you want more, and you are a member of the Agile Alliance, you should be able to view many of the presentations from the conference here.

Agile 2018 Video Podcast Interviews

Day 1 Interviews - Johanna Rothman & Mark Kilby, Mike Cottmeyer, Erika Lenz and Michele Sliger, Ron Jeffries & Chet Hendrickson, Paul Argiry, Linda Rising, Diana Larsen, Bob Tarne
Day 2 Interviews -  Jeff Patton, Cass Van Gelder, Lyssa Adkins, Joe Vallone, Sarah Klarich and Pam Corbin, Dom Price (Keynote), and David Bland
Day 3 Interviews - Troy Magennis (Keynote), Larry Maccherone, Dhaval Panchal, Dean Leffingwell, Dennis Stevens, Bernie Maloney, Becky Hartman, Peter Green, John Tanner
Day 4 Interviews - Cara Turner, John Miller, Esther Derby, Tricia Broderick, Laura Powers, Chris Sims, Scott Ambler, Olaf Lewitz, Natalie Warnert

Agile 2017 - Mike Griffiths and Johanna Rothman on the PMI Agile Practice Guide

At Agile 2017 I had the chance to sit down with Johanna Rothman and Mike Griffiths to talk about the work they've been doing on the PMI Agile Practice Guide. Their work was part of a joint effort between the Agile Alliance and PMI and is intended to offer guidance for traditional PMs on how to begin applying Agile in their work. The PMI Agile Practice Guide will be released in September 2017.

For more video podcast interviews from Agile 2017, please follow @leadingagile or check out the LeadingAgile on YouTube.

Are Stretch Goals OK? w/ Tim Wise from LeadingAgile

This week's LeadingAgile SoundNotes features a conversation between myself and Tim Wise on Stretch Goals. I had a student ask about them in class last week and did not have time to get back to it before class ended.

Even if you have formed an opinion about Stretch Goals, I'd encourage you to check this podcast out. I tend to be pretty anti-stretch goals, but during the interview Tim suggested a type of stretch goal that would actually be a very positive thing for a team to commit to.

You can find the podcast here.

Student QA: Design on the Scrum Team & Multiple Roles w/ Derek Huether

This post originally appeared on  LeadingAgile's Field Notes.
You can subscribe directly to these podcasts on SoundCloud or iTunes

Design and Cross Functional Teams (2:11 )

“Every time I hear you speak about cross-functional team I am not sure who these teams comprise of exactly. In my world the confusion here is most often related to design inputs. Any digital product will have a visual UI and thus its development will require design inputs. Do most of Leading Agile clients consider this a separate process that contributes to the readiness of stories for a technical Scrum team? Or do you normally assume designers are a part of a Scrum team?
In my view, the former creates waterfall-like dependencies and the latter gets in the way of confident estimations. So, even if both models are feasible, none of them seems ideal, because it leaves an are that has to be tightly managed.” Submitted by Sergey via Email

Multiple Roles - ScrumMaster & Product Owner for 3 Teams (8:20)

How do you deal with a manager who thinks you should be ScrumMaster for multiple teams AND Product Owner at the same time?

This question was submitted by a student in a CSPO class who allowed me to record the question being asked as long as I promised not to post the recording or identify the person by name. In order to honor that, I played the recording for Derek before hand, but in the podcast, what you’ll hear is me (Dave) relating the question.

The question shared by the student related to the fact that they are currently playing the role of ScrumMaster on three different teams and have also been asked to act as Product Owner for these teams. The person explained to their manager that the way Scrum is designed to work, a ScrumMaster is supposed to be dedicated to a single team, should definitely not be trying to support three teams and absolutely should not be playing the role of ScrumMaster and Product Owner at the same time. The manager responded by asking that the person give a detailed account what they are doing all day as a Scrum Master because the manager did not believe the person was too busy to be able to serve as ScrumMaster for three teams and Product Owner for as those teams as well.

Contacting Derek

You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/
On Twitter at twitter.com/derekhuether
Or on his personal site at www.derekhuether.com

Contacting Dave

You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo
Or on his personal site at: drunkenpm.net

Feedback/Questions

If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/
Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

Should the PMO go away?

(Resposted from the LeadingAgile site)
The Project Management Office (PMO) has traditionally been responsible for providing governance over projects, programs and portfolios; ensuring projects are managed according the standards set forth by the PMO; and to provide reporting on progress to leadership. When Agile is introduced into an organization, along with new ways of tracking work, self-organizing teams and new ways of understanding priority, the value the PMO provides comes into question. In a recent blog post, LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant Marty Bradley addressed the question “Should the PMO Go Away?” In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, Marty and Dave dig deeper on this topic and explore what PMO’s (and PMO Leaders) need to do in order to remain relevant to an organization transitioning to Agile.

Show Notes

00:08 Podcast Begins

00:35 What does a LeadingAgile Executive Coach actually do 

01:40 When the Executives say “Stop saying Agile.”, it’s actually a good thing.

3:05 Should the PMO go away? Who’s asking and why?

07:12 Why do we need a PMO and governance if the teams are supposed to be self organizing?

08:38 If we do not have trust, how can we have self-organization and Agility?

09:39 All night deployments and the impact of not trusting the team

10:43 When the people who “know better” create a system that fosters missed deadlines and failure, they create a very dysfunctional form of predictability

12:15 How the PMO can maintain its’ relevancy in an organization transitioning to Agile.

13:27 How do we maintain the necessary non-agile elements when we transition to Agile?

14:55 How can we have more empathy for the members of the PMO and the massive personal and career change they are facing in maintaining the stability of a traditional approach while supporting the change to Agile?

16:29 Changing the focus and the metrics used to track the work

17:10 The impact on Development Managers

18:12 Why would I want to eliminate the need for my own position (if we transition from waterfall to Agile)

18:42 Coping with transition: “This is my job,…I got a family…What am I supposed to do?”

19:55 Maintaining a balance between preserving the necessary domain knowledge and changing as fast as you can

20:29 What PMO Leaders need to know before the Agile transition team shows up - “Not everything needs to be perfect Agile.”

23:51 If I am in a PMO and I want to get up to speed and maintain my own relevancy, what do I need to learn? 

25:10 “I’d look at my company and figure out what is value in my company?” How do you define value?

27:02 Finding your organization’s own definition of value

27:46 Closeout

Contacting Marty

Email: marty.bradley@leadingagile.com

Twitter: twitter.com/AskCoachMarty

Contacting Dave

Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Twitter: twitter.com/mrsungo

Related Links:

• Should the PMO Go Away? (Marty’s blog post mentioned in the interview) bit.ly/2jwshAS
• Cost of Delay bit.ly/2jVLfx4
• Agile Governance at eVestment - A More Agile Approach to PMO  bit.ly/2khDBhq
• Agile Governance - An interview with Liana Dore from Agile 2016 bit.ly/2kRXj6F
• Kanban  bit.ly/1cXGeK9
• Lean Startup  bit.ly/1ky8H1h
• Don Reinertsen “The Principles of Product Development Flow” amzn.to/2jYlyOY

Feedback/Questions

If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Making Agile Work at MLB Advanced Media

My LeadingAgile podcast interview with Michael Daly and Matt Volpe from MLB Advanced Media on what has made their transformation so successful.

Student Q&A: Estimating Work for Contracts when your Agile Consultancy is Bidding Against Waterfall Competitors w/ Devin Hedge

In this podcast, LeadingAgile Enterprise Transformation Consultant, Devin Hedge joins Dave Prior to discuss a question from one of our recent CSM/CSPO students who wanted to know how to estimate work for contracts if the Agile consulting he works for is bidding against a waterfall organization that may be providing a more detailed bid.



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

Here are links to the resources Devin recommends for further information: Defense Acquisition University http://dau.dodlive.mil/tag/agile/
Agile Contracts: Creating and Managing Successful Projects with Scrum http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118630947.html

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/

And if you have a question you’d like to submit for a podcast, just send us an audio file to use in an upcoming episode just send it to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Student Q&A: Using Jira with an SDLC and Scrum - Derek Huether

This podcast features a question from one of the students in a recent LeadingAgile CSM class. Cheri (the student) asked for advice on how to use Jira with Scrum and her organization's SDLC. In the podcast LeadingAgile Principle Consultant, Derek Huether, offers advice on how to go about using/customizing Jira to work with Scrum and an existing SDLC.



Contacting Derek
If you'd like to reach Derek with follow up questions you can find him at:
LeadingAgile
Twitter
DerekHuether.com
EMail at derek@leadingagile.com

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/