All Things Agile - Episode 004 - A New Hope

12/01/13 • -1 min

Agile Instructor - Coaching for Agile Methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban

Today's episode is centered around some exciting news. I am launching a new venture, Team Xcelerator Inc., which will focus on Agile team software. The AgileInstructor.com blog and the All Things Agile podcast will be moved under the Team Xcelerator umbrella. I am very excited about the possibilities. Please checkout the podcast and send me your thoughts and product feature input using [email protected]m. Also, don't forget to please post a kind review in iTunes. We really appreciate your time and support :)
All Things Agile - Episode 4 - A New Hope
Transcript:
Welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast. Your destination for tips and interviews with the leaders in the world of Agile. Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast in iTunes and please check out our sponsor: TeamXcelerator.com. And now, here’s your host: Ronnie Andrews Jr. Hello everyone and welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast, Episode 4. Today’s title is ‘A New Hope’. This is paying homage to the classic Star Wars title, but before we begin, a quick reminder that this podcast is for informational purposes only and accepts no legal liability. So let’s get started. As an Agile coach, I’m frequently searching for tools to help myself and others utilize Agile methodology successfully. Candidly, I haven’t found many tools which truly reflect the needs that I have seen over the years. Rather than let this frustration remain, I decided to start a new company: Team Xcelerator Inc. to tackle common challenges for Agile teams. You have undoubtedly heard references to Team Xcelerator a few times already. I want to take a few moments to talk about it in more detail. Everything is still very early stages, but I’m hopeful that many Agile practitioners will come to love it. A goal of mine is to develop a product which reflects the global nature of today’s workforce. Almost all development teams are now spread across the world and this trend is only continuing to rise. The use of Agile itself is also on the rise. However, many organizations are still struggling with learning and how to adapt Agile, including the fact that teams or departments may implement Agile differently. Many of the products that I’ve seen on the market are really just project management tools. We still have a lot of work remaining, but it is a goal of mine to develop Team Xcelerator into a cloud-based web tool which will enable teams to specifically focus on Agile success. I also intend for Team Xcelerator to be affordable. I want to encourage teams to utilize the tool and achieve success. It will be targeting organizations of all different sizes, including young startups to industry veterans. I can’t release too many specifics at this time, but I did want to take a moment and let my audience have advance notice of this new platform. I’m also interested in your input to ensure that it better conforms to your needs. As the episode title alludes to, it is a new hope for me and for the world of Agile; an opportunity to create a platform for Agile professionals, by Agile professionals. And I hope that you’re excited about this recent product news as I am – and remember: you can check out my blog using the website agileinstructor.com and feel free to contact me using [email protected] and feel free to include product comments that you may have regarding Agile tools. I would love to be able to take in your input and ensure that we have product features that will truly meet the needs of our audience. Also, don’t forget to visit our previously discussed sponsor: TeamXcelerator.com which makes this podcast possible. And thank you once again for joining me for this quick podcast – join me for Episode 5, we’re having an exciting interview with Mary and Tom Poppendieck who are the innovators of Lean Software. You don’t want to miss it! Remember – it’s time to accelerate your team, today!
Thank you for listening to All Things Agile. We look forward to you subscribing to the podcast on iTunes and leaving a kind review. Thanks and God bless!

Previous Episode

All Things Agile - Episode 003 - Use of Overtime

In this episode, I discuss the subject of overtime. I provide my recommendations based on solid experience and explain the reasoning behind it. During the episode, I also reference Rework by Jason Fried. Please take a moment to subscribe now in iTunes. Provide your own feedback or recommendations by writing to me using [email protected].
All Things Agile - Episode 003 - Use of Overtime
Transcript:
Welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast. Your destination for tips and interviews with the leaders in the world of Agile. Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast in iTunes and please check out our sponsor: teamxcelerator.com. And now, here’s your host: Ronnie Andrews Jr. Hello everyone and welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast – Episode 3. Today’s topic will be ‘The Use of Overtime’. But before we begin, a quick reminder that this podcast is for informational purposes only and accepts no legal liability. So let’s get started. As part of the AgileInstructor blog and this podcast, I like to cover topics that are often overlooked by traditional Agile books or articles. So in this case, I want to focus on the application of overtime within Agile teams. It’s a topic which can certainly illicit strong emotions. There are some that advocate that overtime should never be used. In contrast, many teams engage in overtime occasionally or perhaps even routinely as part of their reality. I would like to take a moment and share some insights from my hands-on experience which I hope that you will find very helpful. I think there are 3 general viewpoints: the first opinion is that there should never be overtime. That we need to build sustainable teams. The use of overtime violates that principle. The second group often believes that we have to do whatever we have to do in order to deliver the project on time. If that means overtime, then that’s what we have to do. Perhaps you’ve heard that language from one of your project managers before. Lastly, there’s another opinion that lies somewhere between the two spectrums – that the use of overtime is not sinful, but should not become a regular habit. Through my experience, if there’s a need for overtime, it’s because there are underlying problems that haven’t been addressed. This is an insight that 99% of businesses simply do not get. They don’t see overtime as a warning signal to an existing problem. It’s used to overcome issues with estimation, over commitment, technology, processes, etc. I understand that occasional use of overtime might be justified for events which are not predictable, such as national disasters. However, most uses of overtime are related to things which could have been predicted. Overtime does not fix the core issue which caused the team to get behind in the first place. It’s treating the symptom, not the problem. The biggest source of issues related to overtime is expectations. Simply put, the team is either over-committed or has impediments which are not properly accounted for. Schedules are defined based on everything working out perfectly. However, most projects have bumps along the way. If teams and ‘leadership’ communicate the situation to stakeholders, the difficulties can often be accounted for by either reducing scope or extend the expected delivery timeframe, etc. However, that rarely happens in most organizations. Why? Well, because most members of leadership are not truly leaders. It’s brutal, but it’s true. They are individuals focused on their career and their reputation. They don’t want to lose face and admit that their group is behind schedule. They think that it will tarnish their reputation among their peers. That’s the real truth. Most deadlines given to teams are artificial. A project manager somewhere looked at a calendar and picked a date for their release to be delivered. Stop and think about it. Will someone be physically harmed if the release is delivered on a Friday instead of a Monday? No! Will the company go bankrupt? No! Those PMs and other managers may treat the projects as life or death, but it’s not. They’re just dates! Let’s not make the dates more significant than they truly are. It is often the case that the subject of overtime comes up due to artificial dates that the team didn’t even influence. This environment often breeds routine overtime. So why is that so wrong? Well, first – regular overtime exhausts team members, leading to burnout. As a result, morale and ultimately, productivity drop dramati...

Next Episode

All Things Agile - Episode 005 - Mary and Tom Poppendieck Interview

I am thrilled to present a wonderful interview with Mary and Tom Poppendieck. They are true legends in the Agile and Lean Software Development movement. Checkout today's episode where we discuss challenges facing many organizations such as: product vs. project mindset, globally distributed teams, and equipping teams for success. We also discuss their latest book, The Lean Mindset. Please consider picking up the book to learn more about these topics in greater detail.
Please check out their website: poppendieck.com to learn more about Mary & Tom and their insightful work. Many thanks to Mary and Tom for investing their time for this podcast and for their contribution to our industry.
All Things Agile - Episode 005 - Mary and Tom Poppendieck Interview
Transcript:
Welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast. Your destination for tips and interviews with the leaders in the world of Agile. Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, and please check out our sponsor: TeamXcelerator.com. And now, here’s your host: Ronnie Andrews Jr. Ronnie: Hello everyone and welcome to the All Things Agile Podcast, Episode 5. I’m very excited to present to you a wonderful interview with lead software legends Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Before I begin, a quick reminder that this podcast is for informational purposes only and accepts no legal liability. So let’s get started! One of the goals for this podcast is to interview and feature influential leaders in the Agile space. Today’s guests are just that – Mary and Tom pioneered the Lean Software development movement, with their groundbreaking book Lean Software Development and Agile Toolkit. It’s a classic among Agile literature. In 2013 they also released ‘The Lean Mindset – Ask the Right Questions’. Mary and Tom travel the globe, speaking at conferences and consulting with many of the world’s top companies. It’s an honor and a pleasure to have them on the All Things Agile Podcast. Without further ado, let’s welcome Mary and Tom! Well, thank you for joining me today Mary and Tom, I really appreciate it. Why don’t we go ahead and get started with a few questions. During my own career, I have worked at several Fortune 500 companies. And I’ve often found that large organizations tend to be project-focused, rather than product focused. For example, I have seen environments where software development is treated as a black box, and it can sometimes have a throw-it-over-the-fence mentality. I would love to hear your thoughts on integrating software development as part as a holistic product chain. Mary: If you look back to the early 90’s, I was a manager in the early 90’s and there were very few of my colleagues that could even type. Typing wasn’t something that you learned, unless you were going to be a secretary. The idea of doing email and stuff was so difficult that when the internet first came, many managers sat down their secretaries to do their email typing. Eventually that went away. But if you look at industries that were formed before technology was widespread, like banks and insurance companies and those kinds of industries, you’ll find that this technology area was separated out from the mainstream for two reasons: one reason is because the managers of the line businesses simply were not comfortable with technology; and another was that computer technology was considered something that was expensive and should be centralized in order to reduce costs. Well, today, computer technology is not the same. It is the fundamental basis for competition for almost every company that uses it. Thanks to the kinds of products that they offer, or the things that help them be competitive – if you take a look at the new companies like Google and Facebook and Amazon and those companies, computer technology is a fundamental competitive advantage. And if that’s true, then it needs to be manage, at least what’s done, in the line organization, rather than in some side-organization that is in side to the line organization. So if you look at the companies I’ve just mentioned, they don’t have a central IT department. They have the line organizations responsible. That doesn’t mean that they don’t think about IT costs, but they think about them as product development costs. So now, the things that people develop that are helping the company become more competitive and disting...