Sunday, August 23, 2020

What To Do When They Want To Know Cost Per Point w Troy Lightfoot

I had a student recently who was being asked to provide information cost per User Story Point. In this interview with Troy Lightfoot we discuss different strategies you might employ when responding to this request and why management asking for this is such a troubling sign. 

You can find the interview here



Sunday, July 26, 2020

When Sprint Planning Is Like Hunger Games with Meghan McInerny

“What advice do you have on structuring sprint planning meetings in an agency setting with different product owners and project teams (when each PM is 'competing' for the same development resources)?" 

That is the question I got during the Q&A portion of a webinar I did recently for The Bureau of Digital on how to make Sprint Planning work better.

In this episode of the podcast I am joined by  Meghan McInerny. We talk though the issues, risks, and opportunities that come with a “Hunger Games” approach to Sprint Planning and offer some advice on how to cope with and/or resolve the problem defined in the question above. 


Side Note: The webinar I did for the Bureau of Digital focused on the new version of my Sprint Capacity Calculator and how to get the most out of Sprint Planning. These webinars are normally available in a recorded format only to members of the Bureau, but they are very kind and have made this one public in case you’d like to check it out after listening to the podcast. You'll find it here.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Practicing Agile at Home with Yvonne Marcus

Yvonne Marcus is on a mission to create positive home management solutions for every family and she’s using Agile to do it. In this episode of the Reluctant Agilist, Yvonne and I discuss how and why she began an Agile transformation at home, how it has impacted life for her and her family, and how you can get started bringing Agile practices into your home and personal life. 

You can find the podcast here, along with links to her podcast that focuses on her work to bring Agile into people's homes. 


Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Using Outcome Based Planning at Home to Effect Social Change


In this episode of the Reluctant Agilist, you’ll hear the story of how a father helped his son use outcome-based planning to define his personal response to what happened to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter events that followed. 

Ross Beurmann is a seasoned Agile coach (and a co-worker of mine). His son Tom just graduated from high school. When Tom learned about what happened to George Floyd, he felt a need to respond. Attending a local march was definitely an option, but Ross brought some of his coaching experience to bear in the conversation. By working together to define the results his son was looking for and exploring ways to achieve that outcome, Ross and Tom were able to define a plan of action that has impacted local officials, law enforcement, and increased local interest and awareness. This set the stage for Tom to move forward with his efforts to establish lasting local change that will have a positive impact now and into the future.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Sprint Capacity Calculator 2.0

I've updated the Sprint Capacity Calculator and I'll be posting a video on how to use it shortly. In the meantime, you can download it here.

I'm also going to be doing a demo of it during my "Getting Better at Sprint Planning" webinar which is being hosted by the Bureau of Digital today (6/25/20) at 2PM. If you'd like to attend, click here.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Product Ownership and Online Education with Braden Cundiff

Braden Cundiff  works in the International Division of McGraw-Hill Education serving in a Product Ownership role for international education products. His work involves creating tools and products that are used in collaborative, educational environments all across the globe. He also has a background that includes teaching, agile coaching, and transformation. This allows him to offer a unique perspective on how to create an effective online environment for your teams. 

We also spend time at the start of the interview discussing something which is asked about in every Certified Scrum Product Owner class  I teach:  how to say "No".


Friday, June 12, 2020

Remote Possibilities with Kevin Hogan

Remote Possibilities is a new podcast focusing on eLearning and the future of educational technology. It's hosted by my good friend Kevin Hogan. He's deeply experienced in the field and has been posting at least one interview a week. This link is to his first episode - where Kevin interviewed me.


Tuesday, June 09, 2020

The Business Agility Canvas with Karim Harbott

The transition to Agile is challenging for any organization. It’s even worse when you do not understand the strategic and business reasons behind the change. This is one of the primary reasons so many Agile transformations fail to achieve lasting change.

Karim is a seasoned Agile Trainer, Executive Coach, and a founding partner of Agile Centre. He also currently serves on the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors. He created The Business Agility Canvas to help organizations clarify the business drivers leading their change to Agile.

In this episode of the podcast, Karim explains the six enablers of business agility and how to use the Business Agility Canvas.

You can find the interview here.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Disciplined Agile Training Event Recap with Tony Johnson

In part two of my interview with Crosswind PM's Tony Johnson,  Tony and I discuss his recent experience attending a PMI training on Disciplined Agile, PMI's overall approach with Agile and what that means for the larger PM and Agile communities.

You can find the interview here.

If you'd like to check out the first part of the interview, which explores some of the upcoming changes to the PMBOK and how that will impact the PMP Exam, you can find that here.


Tuesday, May 05, 2020

Agile Virtual Summit w/ Adam Weisbart


The Agile Virtual Summit is taking place on June 1-5. It's being run by Adam Weisbart and he's put together an amazing line up of though leaders from the Agile community (and beyond).  In this interview Adam and I talked about the podcast, why he put it together and why it is happening sooner than originally planned.  The list of speakers includes Diana Larsen, Lyssa Adkins, Jim Benson, Clinton Keith, Ronica Roth, and more.

During the conversation Adam and I also discussed some of the challenges we've both been working through as we transition to providing training 100% online. So, if you are struggling with getting your folks to engage (and keeping their attention), this interview should provide some help.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PODCAST

CLICK HERE FOR THE AGILE VIRTUAL SUMMIT