Planning a System of Transformation w/ Mike Cottmeyer

05/06/19 • 56 min

LeadingAgile SoundNotes: an Agile Podcast

When it comes to Agile Transformation, every organization has to deal with things in the system that are blocking them from developing an Agile System of Delivery. Impediments to Transformation exist at many levels: organizations, architectural, cultural, etc. Many of these impediments are common across companies and can be known and planned for ahead of time. In LeadingAgile's approach, there are 3 Things that are necessary for an organization to be capable of an Agile approach. Those 3 Things are stable teams, a well-formed backlog, and the ability to deliver a working tested increment of product on a regular basis. Anything that gets in the way of these 3 Things must be addressed as part of the Transformation.

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Founder and CEO, Mike Cottmeyer, and Dave Prior discuss what a System of Transformation, some of the more common impediments to Agile Transformation, and ways to cope with those impediments.

This episode is a follow up to the podcast: System of Delivery vs. System of Transformation.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

This episode is a follow up to the podcast: System of Delivery vs. System of Transformation.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Previous Episode

Understanding the Problem You're Trying to Solve with Metrics w/ Jessica Wolfe

Metrics are important. Tracking work is important. “What gets measured gets done." But, if you don’t understand why you're measuring things, or what the problem you're trying to solve when you begin measuring things—no amount of metrics is going to help.

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Senior Consultant, Jessica Wolfe and Dave Prior talk about metrics and how important it is to understand what problem you're trying to solve when you begin using metrics to understand performance and improvement. This interview is a follow up to a presentation Jessica gave recently at Agile Tampa called "Achieving Success with any Agile Planning Tool".

During the podcast, Jessica and Dave discuss some of the more common things organizations initially track when they're moving away from a traditional approach, what to be careful about when you begin using these metrics, how the metrics that you're focused on will evolve over time as you mature in your adoption of Agile, and what to do if you find yourself tracking information and you aren't sure why.

Additional Information

During the podcast, Jessica and Dave make a reference to how we design the tool to help the end users understand the new way of working in the LeadingAgile model, so we wanted to provide a couple of screenshots to assist you in seeing some of the possibilities. Here's an example of what the tool might look like at the Portfolio Tier on an Epic.

Image One: Problem Clarity

Image Two: Targeting

Contacting Jessica

If you’d like to contact Jessica you can reach her at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/jessica-wolfe/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejessicawolfe/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thejessicawolfe
Email: [email protected]

Contacting Dave

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: [email protected]

Send Us Your Questions

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected]

Upcoming Classes

And if you are interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Next Episode

Why You Need Empathy Maps w/ Scott Sehlhorst

When we develop products, we're responsible for maximizing the value we deliver to the customer. In order to do this, we have to understand who we're actually building the products for. We need to know who the customer is, what problem(s) we're trying to solve for them, and any additional information we can gather that will give us more insight into their needs and how we can address them. We also need to have an awareness of where our assumptions about the customer may be introducing risk. Unfortunately, we often get so focused on creating and delivering that this area of focus doesn't receive the level of attention that's needed to ensure that we're solving the right problem(s) in the best way possible.

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant, Scott Sehlhorst makes the case for why this work is so important and why empathy maps are such a critical (and often ignored) aspect of this work. Scott and Dave talk through a step-by-step approach you can use to deepen your understanding of the customer and their needs, as well as how to make sure the solution you are working on is the right one and how to manage your risk by tracking and testing your assumptions and biases along the way.

If you're skeptical about the value that empathy maps provide, or how important it is to take the time to collect, analyze, and test information about your customer, this podcast is for you. And if you're looking for a detailed explanation of how to go about figuring all this out, this conversation may provide you with the blueprint you need to get started making sure you actually know who it is you're trying to “delight” with the products you create.

The graphic below is referenced throughout the podcast, you’ll want to have that handy as you listen.

Links From The Podcast

The podcast Scott and Dave previously recorded which includes a detailed walk through of how to create an empathy map can be found here:
Creating Empathy Maps with Scott Sehlhorst

You can find Dave Gray's Empathy Map template here: http://gamestorming.com/empathy-mapping/

Contacting Scott Sehlhorst

If you’d like to contact Scott you can reach him at: