Traditional organizations assign differing degrees of control to certain roles, a key role being manager. Senior Director of Coaching and Training Doc List has seen cross-functional teams comprising devs, UX, QA and other roles reporting to the dev manager, UX manager, QA manager or some other type of manager, respectively. The result is chaos and confusion due to competing priorities and power plays. Often a manager is assigned to the ScrumMaster or Product Owner role. In the event of a conflict of interest, team members are forced to ask themselves which role the manager-SM is filling. In a technical setting, this is especially problematic. Doc's session at KAA2016 aims to shed some light on this problem and explore possible alternatives that better support Agile structures. SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

Traditional organizations assign differing degrees of control to certain roles, a key role being manager. Senior Director of Coaching and Training Doc List has seen cross-functional teams comprising devs, UX, QA and other roles reporting to the dev manager, UX manager, QA manager or some other type of manager, respectively. The result is chaos and confusion due to competing priorities and power plays. Often a manager is assigned to the ScrumMaster or Product Owner role. In the event of a conflict of interest, team members are forced to ask themselves which role the manager-SM is filling. In a technical setting, this is especially problematic. Doc's session at KAA2016 aims to shed some light on this problem and explore possible alternatives that better support Agile structures.

SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/).

About Agile Amped

The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com.

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/

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Agile Velocity CEO David Hawks has seen 0mph Agility and 100mph Agility. Early on he thought it was possible to take an organization, like a luxury car, from 0 to 100 in no time flat. However, over the years David has learned that achieving high velocity must be approached in a stepwise fashion: from 0 to 20, 20 to 40, 40 to 60, etc. His session this year at Keep Austin Agile 2016 is called "Path to Agility: Adoption Patterns to Overcome Pitfalls". With Agile Amped, he discusses the five stages of an Agile adoption: 1. Align 2. Learn 3. Predict 4. Accelerate 5. Adapt SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

ScrumMasters have an important role in Agile: they help delivery teams achieve high-performance by removing impediments and taking care of the workflow process so that other team members can focus on producing excellent value quickly. Too often, however, ScrumMastery devolves into an administrative role. While functioning as de facto admin may be part of an SMs responsibilities, Enterprise Agile Coach Cherie Silas wants to help SMs sharpen and, if necessary, develop coaching skills to complement the tools already in their Agile toolkit. In her KAA2016 session, Cherie will a dozen new skills that SMs can cultivate, which fall into four categories: 1. Internal Control skills - self-control, self-management 2. Verbal Communication skills - making distinctions, direct communication, articulating what's happening in the room 3. Relational/Forwarding skills - help make a connection between coaches and the team, helping the team strive for more, critical thinking 4. Creative Thinking skills - changing geography, taking different stances, using visual aids and reference points SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

ScrumMasters have an important role in Agile: they help delivery teams achieve high-performance by removing impediments and taking care of the workflow process so that other team members can focus on producing excellent value quickly. Too often, however, ScrumMastery devolves into an administrative role. While functioning as de facto admin may be part of an SMs responsibilities, Enterprise Agile Coach Cherie Silas wants to help SMs sharpen and, if necessary, develop coaching skills to complement the tools already in their Agile toolkit. In her KAA2016 session, Cherie will a dozen new skills that SMs can cultivate, which fall into four categories:

1. Internal Control skills - self-control, self-management

2. Verbal Communication skills - making distinctions, direct communication, articulating what's happening in the room

3. Relational/Forwarding skills - help make a connection between coaches and the team, helping the team strive for more, critical thinking

4. Creative Thinking skills - changing geography, taking different stances, using visual aids and reference points

SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/).

About Agile Amped

The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com.

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/

Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter

Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

Attaining and sustaining organizational agility isn't merely a matter of following a set of steps and you're done. As Stephanie Ockerman puts it, "Organizational Agility: It's Not a Sprint, It's a Marathon". Stephanie theorizes that organizational agility starts with sustainable teams--and that doesn't happen overnight. Stephanie is interested in how effective teams are, the quality of their product, how innovative they are, and even turnover rate. "If people aren't happy in the environment they're in, they're going to leave." She is a strong advocate for looking for ways to set Agile teams up for success: for example, what do they need to be their best, to collaborate, to build trust, and to feel fulfillment in their everyday work. SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

Chris Edwards sits down with Agile Amped in a hoppin' restaurant to discuss his Keep Austin Agile 2016 session "DevOps: Improving Agility Through a Culture of Continuous Delivery". Chris touches on how QA, previously completely separate from the dev team, has basically been absorbed into the Agile team. "We don't even have a QA department," Chris says of his experience, a common one in Agile teams. "The developers do all the testing, because it's all automated." DevOps takes the same principle and applies it ti operations: whereas previously devs would "toss code over the wall" to QA, now the same process is happening between devs and OPs. SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

Paul Baffes and Mike Ackerbauer are helping the elephant that is IBM jumpstart its Agile transformation. Their session at Keep Austin Agile 2016 is called "Agile from the Elephant's Point of View: Why IBM is Jump-starting Agile Teams With Design Thinking". IBM has an illustrious history as being a pioneer of software and engineering company, having carved out a product-based niche for themselves. But the future is about customer experience so the duo has been tasked with bringing design thinking and Agile together so that new products are built with the basic Agile precept of "doing the right work and doing the work right" in mind. SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

Paul Baffes and Mike Ackerbauer are helping the elephant that is IBM jumpstart its Agile transformation. Their session at Keep Austin Agile 2016 is called "Agile from the Elephant's Point of View: Why IBM is Jump-starting Agile Teams With Design Thinking". IBM has an illustrious history as being a pioneer of software and engineering company, having carved out a product-based niche for themselves. But the future is about customer experience so the duo has been tasked with bringing design thinking and Agile together so that new products are built with the basic Agile precept of "doing the right work and doing the work right" in mind.

SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/).

About Agile Amped

The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com.

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/

Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter

Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook

Scott Killen, founder and previous President of Agile Austin as well as the Agile Practice Leader for PayPal, sits down with Agile Amped at Keep Austin Agile 2016. His session at the conference isn't scandalous at all with its title "Backlog Managers: Beware the Devil on Your Shoulder!" The concept behind it is that approaches that Product Owners and other "backlog managers" employ (or don't) affect the team effectiveness. Scott shares his three tips for Product Owners to keep in mind when managing their backlogs: 1. Stories enter the backlog as a problem or need and exit as a solution. 2. Stakeholders change over the lifecycle of a user story, starting with individuals on the business side and seguing over to those from the development side. 3. Working with stakeholders to evolve a problem into a solution is "where the magic happens". SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Keep Austin Agile 2016 (http://conference.agileaustin.org/). About Agile Amped The Agile Amped podcast series engages with industry thought leaders at Agile events across the country to bring valuable content to subscribers anytime, anywhere. To receive real-time updates, subscribe at YouTube, iTunes or SolutionsIQ.com. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SIQYouTube, http://bit.ly/SIQiTunes, http://www.solutionsiq.com/agile-amped/ Follow: http://bit.ly/SIQTwitter Like: http://bit.ly/SIQFacebook