Agile Coaches' Corner

In this week’s episode, Esther and Dan are discussing managers, teams, and Agile environments. They explore the manager’s side in the Agile, why having a manager is key within an Agile work environment, and what the manager’s role should be

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by co-collaborator, Sam Falco! Sam is an agile coach and Certified Scrum Professional with an extensive background in leading agile development teams.

 

Today, they’re going to be talking all about games and why they are an important part of agile. Sam illustrates why games are not just time-wasters, but are actually powerful learning tools that help teams come together and solve problems.

 

Sam and Dan discuss what constitutes a game, why they’re important to agile, the difference between games and simulations, and the importance of doing a debrief with simulations to ensure the learning objective is achieved. Sam also gives some examples of different games, how to use them in training, and some sources of resistance to games that may show up in the workplace and how to solve them.

 

Key Takeaways

Why are games important to Agile?

They help build relationships

They have goals, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation (very similar to Scrum — which is why it can be so powerful to leverage)

Cooperative games build team rapport

They allow time for a break on difficult work-related problems while still building problem-solving skills

Games that Sam recommends:

Hanabi, the card game

The Penny Game

The Ball Point Game

The Rope Game

Escape: The Curse of the Temple, the board game

Rory Story Cubes, the dice game

Apples to Apples, the card game

How games can be used in training:

Hold retrospectives to discuss how to get better within these games

Tie these games back to how to work better together as a team over time

Use them as a learning tool to learn about individual team players and how they function within a team

Bring games into the retrospectives to shake things up

Debrief after the game to reflect on key lessons

Sources of resistance to games that may show up in an organization and how to solve them:

Someone senior in the organization may not understand and consider it a waste of money (Solution: explain the value that both the company and the teams will be gaining)

An internal barrier within the group where someone may perceive an activity or game as weird or uncomfortable (Solution: you can adjust the game or allow people to opt out)

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Sam Falco (LinkedIn) Global Game Jam

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World,

by Jane McGonigal

The Grasshopper — Games, Life and Utopia, by Bernard Suits and Frank Newfeld

Hanabi (Card Game)

Penny Game

Ball Point Game

The Rope Game

Escape: The Curse of the Temple (Board Game)

Rory Story Cubes

Apples to Apples (Card Game)

Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson

Agile Coaches’ Corner, Ep. 20: “Dr. Jeff Thompson on Values-Based Leadership”

 

Sam Falco’s Book Pick

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity,

by Carl Zimmer

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by co-collaborator, Sam Falco! Sam is an agile coach and Certified Scrum Professional with an extensive background in leading agile development teams. Today, they’re going to be talking all about games and why they are an important part of agile. Sam illustrates why games are not just time-wasters, but are actually powerful learning tools that help teams come together and solve problems

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Dr. Jeff Thompson. Jeff is the Executive Advisor and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus at Gundersen Health System as well as a pediatrician, author, and speaker on values-based leadership. His experience in leadership is extensive — with his role as CEO at Gundersen Health System for 14 years being especially remarkable. During his tenure at Gundersen Health System, they had been recognized across the country for their high-quality patient care.

 

In his book, Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, Jeff illustrates how a true leader puts their people, organization, and community first. In it, he has compiled stories from a diverse group of leaders who have employed values-based leadership and succeeded. These values greatly align with those of Dan’s in the Agile space.

 

In today’s episode, Jeff and Dan discuss values-based leadership and how important it is to incorporate in an organization. Jeff gives several deep lessons on excellence and how everyone within the organization can live and benefit through an organization’s values.

 

Key Takeaways

How to implement values-based leadership in an organization:

Make the values explicit and have the courage to speak them

Give staff clarity on what the organization is about, what you’re going to stand for, and what the purpose is

Use the value set as a means to show them how to get there

Make the purpose known (especially a purpose beyond the money)

Build a steady drumbeat of serving this purpose in a disciplined way

Jeff’s tips and strategies for achieving better alignment around an organization’s purpose and values:

Be really clear and consistent about the organization’s message (write it down and post it; make it very public)

Have the courage to say what the purpose is, what the mission is, and what the values are

Implement a code of conduct that applies to everyone in the organization

Follow through

Use a covenant (or “compact”) with staff and teams to help with alignment

Follow the principle: if it’s not O.K. for everybody, then it’s not O.K. for one

Manage influential people’s bad behavior to improve overall creativity, engagement, and decrease turnover

Benefits of a values-based leadership:

Once it gets going, this model can sustain itself

Improves the wellbeing of the community

Unleashes the talents and creativity of your organization

Encourages innovation by providing a structure that allows staff to act on their own

Encourages creativity, momentum, and excellence by providing a set of principles on how to treat each other

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Dr. Jeff Thompson (LinkedIn)

Gundersen Health System

Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Dr. Jeff Thompson. Jeff is the Executive Advisor and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus at Gundersen Health System as well as a pediatrician, author, and speaker on values-based leadership. His experience in leadership is extensive — with his role as CEO at Gundersen Health System for 14 years being especially remarkable. During his tenure at Gundersen Health System, they had been recognized across the country for their high-quality patient care

Joining Dan Neumann on today’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast is return guest and fellow AgileThought colleague, Eric Landes.

 

Eric comes from a DevOps background, originally starting out as a developer. Currently, he serves as a Senior DevOps Consultant, ALM Director and Solutions Architect. In his roles, he helps clients deliver value to customers in their software delivery pipeline, and has tons of experience leading organizations in adopting agile and Lean frameworks, like Scrum and Kanban. His specialties are in agile project management, Lean software development, enterprise project management implementation, and many more.

 

In this week’s episode, Dan and Eric are exploring the topic of Kanban metrics and the Scrum framework, how to use the two together, and finding the best place to start.

 

Key Takeaways

• How using Kanban with Scrum helps teams:
  • Gives predictability with data
  • Gives even more metrics than Scrum to help teams communicate to the customer about what they can expect
  • Gives confidence levels (though, not a commitment)
  • Brings in metrics and data to drive a team’s high-probability plan
  • Gives data and metrics for continuous improvement
  • Helps to adapt a team’s delivery process
• Key Kanban metrics within a Scrum framework:
  • Throughput as a measure of predictability
  • Work item aging as a leading indicator for your team
  • Service level expectations to forecast within Scrum
• Key practices in using Kanban:
  • Working with WIP limits to boost predictability and improve cycle times and throughputs
  • Using work item aging and WIP limits together
  • Little’s Law
  • The less work-in-progress, the better your team can keep a steady pace and achieve good workflow
  • Replacing ‘agreement’ with ‘expectations’ through the service level expectation
• Issues that can arise within teams and things to avoid:
  • Increasing WIP Limits
  • Not meeting forecasts
• How Eric recommends getting started:
  • Track Cycle Time and use the Cumulative Flow Diagram template
  • Collect data daily
• Mentioned in this Episode:
  • Professional Scrum with Kanban Training
  • Kanban WIP Limits
  • Little’s Law
  • getKanban (Game)
  • “Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults,” — Ken Schwaber
  • Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson
• Eric Landes’ Book Pick
  • Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability: An Introduction, by Daniel Vacanti
• Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?
  • Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!
  • Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

In this week’s episode, Dan and Eric are exploring the topic of Kanban metrics and the Scrum framework, how to use the two together, and finding the best place to start

In today’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast, your host, Dan Neumann, is joined by repeat guest, Chris Spagnuolo. Chris is a product specialist at AgileThought, serving as the Principal Consultant of Product Management and Innovation. He has a deep background in product strategy and development, and is incredibly passionate about all things related to design thinking, Lean Startup and agile.

 

Today, Dan and Chris will be looking at some of the challenges around alignment and autonomy within organizations.

 

It’s not unusual to go into an organization and see that things are are out of sync from top to bottom—and usually, the root cause of most of these problems is a lack of alignment. Lack of alignment within an organization manifests in many ways, from a lack of discretionary effort from employees to ample activity that’s not meeting the market needs or advancing the strategy of the organization. In this episode, Chris helps identify these failure patterns, along with the success patterns. He also gives a thorough 101 on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)—a powerful strategy to better align an organization.

 

Key Takeaways

The ways that a lack of alignment manifests in an organization (AKA failure patterns):

Strategies that are not meeting their goals from lack of implementation

Ample activity that’s not meeting the market needs or advancing the strategy of the organization

Interruptions and a high volume of requests

Focusing on the emergent work that’s truly not important or urgent

A lot of autonomy with no alignment

Really high alignment with no autonomy

Low autonomy and low alignment

A lack of discretionary effort from employees

How to better align your organization (AKA success patterns):

High autonomy and high alignment

Focus on the emergent work that is important

Join autonomy and alignment together

Commit to the organization’s culture with high engagement

Maximize the creative potential of employees, allowing them to consistently achieve goals

Make sure everyone is aligned with the overall decisions

Internalize the mission statement and live the vision of the organization

OKR (Objectives and Key Results) 101:

Created by John Doerr

It’s a stated objective and two or three key results that are used to measure how an organization is moving towards that objective

Helps with alignment within an organization because they are cascaded throughout the organization (and every level that is cascaded down builds their own OKR set that has to directly align with the level above them)

They give lots of autonomy, allowing the people within the organization to decide how they’re going to execute and what strategy they’re going to build to meet the organization’s top-level goal

They’re very adaptable

It’s important to set difficult, audacious goals (that, even if you hit 75% of them, would still have a great outcome)

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Chris Spagnuolo (LinkedIn)

Agile Manifesto

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal

Cynefin & Sense-Making Framework

Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work, by Robert Austin and Lee Devin

 

Chris Spagnuolo’s Book Pick

How Music Works, by David Byrne

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

In today’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast, your host, Dan Neumann, is joined by repeat guest, Chris Spagnuolo. Chris is a product specialist at AgileThought, serving as the Principal Consultant of Product Management and Innovation. He has a deep background in product strategy and development, and is incredibly passionate about all things related to design thinking, Lean Startup and agile

Repeat guest Barry Matheney joins Dan Neumann for this week’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner podcast!

 

Barry is an agile thinker, an expert in the DevOps space, and a colleague of Dan’s at AgileThought — serving as a Senior DevOps Consultant. Prior to his role at AgileThought, he was the Director of Enterprise Applications at Kforce Inc.

 

Last time Barry was on the podcast, they discussed embedding DevOps into Scrum teams with Eric Landes. This week, they’re taking it up a notch and discussing even bigger projects: They talk about what everyone on an agile team should do; how teams can practice agility even in a non-agile company; how teams can plan with a legacy system in mind when going about new development efforts; and many more concepts around embedding DevOps in large organizations.

 

Key Takeaways

What everyone on an agile team should do:

• Challenge each other to make the product the best it can be (and not just worry about the individual components)
• Look at team formation and set standards to adhere to
• Practice personal accountability
• Challenge all of the technical resources to make sure they’re protecting the team
• Consult team and make sure rules and policies still apply
• Take a grassroots approach

How teams can be agile in a non-agile company:

• Punch holes in the silos rather than tear down the silos (AKA create a conduit between the teams and learn how to integrate their thoughts and processes)
• Have a team/working agreement in place (especially to challenge each other with new ideas)
• Diversify the teams so you do not repeat limiting patterns
• Build some of the software and test it instead of arguing over a whiteboard

How to create safety around new development efforts (especially when integrating with a legacy system):

• Plan with the legacy system in mind (while looking for ways to eliminate parts of it gradually)
• Migrate a legacy system incrementally by using the strangler pattern
• Remember that it’s not just a technology challenge; it’s a business challenge (engage with the business side about the value of taking a different approach vs. a big-bang replacement effort of the old system)

Other concepts for embedding DevOps in large organizations:

• Minimize interdependencies on any upstream or downstream system
• Ensure teams are challenging the technical resources (through the working agreement)
• Include the development team in the entire lifecycle
• Have empathy for all involved
• Continuously improve and learn over time (instead of delving into a much larger, riskier change)

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Barry Matheney (LinkedIn)

Podcast Ep. 12: “The Importance of Embedding a DevOps Skill Set into Your Team”

Greenfield Project

Podcast Ep. 4: “Setting Up Working Agreements with Christy Erbeck” Strangler Pattern

Podcast Ep. 2: “What is a Full-Cycle Developer?”

 

Barry Matheney’s Book Picks

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life, by John G. Miller

American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, by Bryce G. Hoffman

 

Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?

Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!

Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!