The question came up recently at a community event: "What Technical Skills Should a Scrum Master Have?"

Brian didn't answer the originally posed question, turning it into "What skills should a SM have," and that bugged him so much, he wanted to turn the actual question into a podcast!

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss the corporate atmosphere that may be behind this question, as well as answering the re-worded question, and even delving into some pros and cons of the Scrum Master having technical skills.

0:00 Topic Intro: What Technical Skills Should a SM Have?
0:23 Om's Response: Should Haves
1:39 Om's Example
2:28 Brian's Counter-point
4:53 Desire for Knowledge
7:50 Additional Value via Skills
11:35 More Examples (New Dev Laptop Example)
14:31 Speed to Knowledge
16:21 Barriers to Initial Employment
19:12 Om's Counterpoint: Curiosity & Willingness to Learn
21:32 Product Managers & the BA Skillset
23:35 Skills a SM Should Have
24:36 Programming Knowledge/Skill
26:54 Self-Imposed Barriers
28:58 Public Opinion vs Reality
31:30 Is a SM Entry Level?
35:44 You Get What You Pay For...
37:13 ...but Entry-Level Can Be Done

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Minimum Viable Product as made famous by Eric Reis in the Lean Startup is barely recognizable and likely unusable due to the proliferation of different concepts associated with the term.

Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss and debate what MVP is, what it's supposed to be, and try to discern any usefulness from the jargon that seems to have coopted and repurposed "Minimum Viable Product!"

0:00 Topic Intro: MVP
0:18 Why Talk About MVP?
1:16 Discussion Framework
3:14 Users/Market Want Everything
5:18 Arguing on the Dropbox Video "MVP"
10:31 Terminology Hang-ups
13:02 Platform Compatibility
15:18 Release Planning (Alpha, Beta, Production)
17:18 Laundry List of Assumptions
20:09 Agreeing on the Obvious
21:43 The Case Against Expansion of the Term MVP
24:47 Assuming Risk (or Gambling)
27:12 Skipping the Learning
29:48 Wireframes
30:41 Arguing on: What is a Product (Again)
34:03 Running Out of Money
35:44 Summary: Test Feasibility
39:29 Wrap-up
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Apple Podcasts:
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Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/362QvYORmtZRKAeTAE57v3

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HELP! Our Backlog has 500 Bugs and we feel like we're never going to dig ourselves out!!!

Remain calm...

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando walk through how a company or shop might get to this point, and discuss some strategies to help dig yourself out of this deep, dark hole!

0:00 Topic Intro: 500 Bugs in the Backlog
0:28 Initial Reactions
2:44 Reasons
3:55 Process
5:10 Rogue QA, or the Perception Thereof
7:18 It's Done, But...
8:53 Customers Pay the Bills
10:12 Culture - the 3 (or 4) "P's"
11:28 The Business of Prioritization
13:39 A Strategy for Digging Out
15:59 Involving Customers/Stakeholders
17:41 Another Strategy - Categorization
19:30 Pushing Back on Customer Involvement
21:04 Rank Ordering and Closing Bugs As-Is
24:28 Definition of Done
28:36 Program DoD
29:11 The Restaurant Analogy
33:04 Customer Validation
37:10 Surveying Customers
40:02 Podcast Summary
41:44 Wrap-Up

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Recently, a small audience was shocked to learn that Product Manager Brian Orlando has no team members in the permanent role of QA (or Testing).

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss why the audience reacted like Brian just kicked their dog, and what it takes to get a hypothetical team to the same point.

0:00 Topic Intro: We Have No QA
0:26 The Backstory
1:46 It's What We've Always Done
2:43 Handoff Disfunctions
4:55 Efficiency
7:27 Brian's Programming Story
8:52 Unpacking Brian's Tirade
10:00 What Are Testers Doing?
12:21 Real Example of Collaboration
14:49 QA and Customers
16:57 Process Improvement
19:18 Customer Verification
22:14 Cross-Functionality vs. Penny-Pinching
25:19 Team Collaboration vs Silos
27:02 Brian's Rant on Silos
30:47 Summary & Key Takeaways
33:10 Wrap-Up

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On this week's podcast, we're joined by Alex Polyakov. Alex is the CEO and Founder of Project Simple. Alex and his company are on a mission to make Teams better by building the first ever AI Agile Software Management Platform and solving the ever-growing list of problems and frustrations that come with Jira. Go see what Project Simple is all about by visiting them at projectsimple.ai

...or connect with Alex on LinkedIn!

Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando sit down with Alex to talk about his journey from Software Engineer to CEO and Founder, the frustrations of Jira, and many, many other topics.

0:00 Guest Intro
0:33 Alex's Journey
3:01 Raising Funding
4:44 Fear of Failure
6:08 Learning New Skills
9:58 Sponsorship & Mentorship
12:35 Rotating Roles
13:36 Making a Difference
15:25 Strategy and Problem Solving
19:15 Start-Up Success Factors
20:58 Investing
23:57 Early Investors
25:48 Jira
30:07 Better Concepts and Systems
33:06 Better Ways of Working
36:40 Delegation and Ownership
38:47 Visibility
40:40 Wrap-Up

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We're reviewing Ron Jeffries article: "Estimation is Evil" from the February 2013 issue of the Pragmatic Programmers magazine.

This article is mostly known for being the source most people quote when they say the inventor of story points is sorry he created them, or that the inventor of story points doesn't like story points. We dig into this claim, reading the article and summarizing and pontificating on key points.

Join, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando as they time-travel back to the not-so-good old days of 2013 (and before)!

The source article:
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/021-01ff/estimation-is-evil/

0:00 Topic Intro: Estimation is Evil by Ron Jeffries
1:14 Article Opening: A Historical Snapshot
7:07 Undistinguished Teams
8:45 "All Our Requirements" is Wrong
11:06 80/20 Rule in Requirements
14:11 Forcing the Answer
16:05 Contracts in Agile
18:11 Forecasting & Stretch Goals
24:52 Asking for "Better" Estimates
28:28 Financing Software
31:41 How Much Do You Want to Spend?
35:24 Relative Estimation (the Soundbite Section)
40:17 Two Ways to Go
44:58 Article Conclusion
52:33 Summary
54:02 Wrap-Up

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How do you "sell" management on Retrospectives?

This question was posed to the group at a community networking event and we thought it was such a deep question, we'd bring it into the podcast!

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss ways to bring up retrospectives and way to engrain them into the culture of your organization.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:14 Om's Initial Reaction
0:42 Om's First Pitch
1:52 A Manager's Fallacy
4:25 Escaping Middle Management Purgatory (ROI)
5:38 Start Small
7:38 One on Ones
8:28 Business Alignment
11:40 Aligning Teams
16:38 Not Visible = Not Urgent
17:49 Communities of Practice & Getting Help
19:43 Marketing Continuous Improvement
21:35 Pushback: Management Fiat
23:44 Team Empowerment
27:09 Om's Story
30:29 Wrap-Up

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In this podcast, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss the most common disagreements, arguments, and spirited discussions that Scrum Masters find themselves in throughout their careers.

There were so many topics, we had to split this podcast into two!

0:00 Topic Intro: Most Common SM Disagreements
0:35 Impediment Disagreements
2:59 Using the Definition of Done
6:34 Building Communication
10:53 Meeting Fatigue
15:20 More Effective Retrospectives
17:43 Example - One Cause of Meeting Fatigue
20:53 Cultural Resistance
26:58 Personality Clashes
28:56 Scrum Master Value
32:47 Conflict and Perspectives
34:13 Wrap-Up

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Amazon Music:
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ee3506fc-38f2-46d1-a301-79681c55ed82/Agile-Podcast

In this podcast, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss the most common disagreements, arguments, and spirited discussions that Scrum Masters find themselves in throughout their careers.

There were so many topics, we had to split this podcast into two!

0:00 Topic Intro: Most Common Disagreements
0:34 Today's Framework
0:59 Hourly Estimates
3:04 Relative Estimation
7:13 Re-Estimating After Discovering New Info
11:27 Scope Creep
17:50 Role Confusion
20:23 Aligning on Role Clarity
25:15 Pressure for More Velocity
26:47 Overcommitment
28:47 Measuring Value Delivered
33:33 Technical Disagreements
39:27 Wrap-Up
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Apple Podcasts:
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Spotify:
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In this episode, we explore an article titled "Do Infrastructure Teams Need Product Management."

Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel as we discuss the realities of Infrastructure or Platform teams and the reasons they team might or might not have a Product Manager.

Click here for the Source Article.

0:00 Topic Intro: Do Infrastructure Teams Need Product Management
0:26 Reading the Article
1:29 Om's Initial Take
3:13 Arguing on Observation #1: Seasoned Teams
4:37 Why So Scarce?
5:51 What is Culture?
9:00 Statement #2 - Solving Different Problems
14:01 Reframing the Argument
15:25 Examples from the Article
17:13 Going Over Each Point
18:49 Brian's Example of One Product, Multiple Teams
21:16 Common Use & Politics
27:26 Executive Interrupts
34:37 Listen with Empathy
35:07 Aligning with Strategy
39:29 Multiple Teams & the Bigger Picture
43:04 Article Conclusion
45:11 Brian's Call to Action
46:03 Om's Summary
48:53 Podcast Summary
50:31 Wrap-Up

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Apple Podcasts:
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Google Podcasts:
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xNzgxMzE5LnJzcw

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AA133 - Do Infrastructure Teams Need Product Management?