Arguing Agile: Product Management, Business Leadership, & Org Design

Is Velocity a number that should go up and up, forever? What does it mean when Velocity goes down? On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel talk about the ups and downs (pun intended) of Velocity.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:43 Should Velocity Perpetually Rise?
3:03 Let's Argue About: Metrics
7:27 Sustainability and Circling the Drain Faster
12:32 Seeking Justification
15:55 Decreasing Team Size to Speed Up
20:52 Reasons to Increase Velocity
25:42 Standardization/Equalization Between Teams
27:51 More on Bad Metrics
33:42 Business Value
39:15 Stability, an Example
45:08 Dips in Velocity - Where is Product?
50:33 Summarizing the Topic
53:19 Tracking Variance
59:10 Wrap-Up

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AA73 - Should Velocity Always Be Increasing, Forever?

On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel talk about Gantt charts. What is a Gantt chart, why do people do them, what purpose do they serve in agile software development, and why they're terrible and you should never do one.

0:00 Introductory Banter
1:00 Topic Intro
2:52 Deciding How We'll Argue
4:05 What is a Gantt Charts and it's History
10:05 Unknown Tasks
15:46 Dependencies
20:50 Changing Plans
24:46 Compiling the Gantt Chart
32:00 Lean Principles & Adjusting Plans
35:39 The Case Against Gantt Charts
42:00 Planning for Capacity
48:03 Gantt Charts and Roadmaps
52:17 Product Focus & Story/Release Mapping
57:27 The Feeling of Control
1:00:59 Systems Thinking
1:02:35 Gantt Charts vs Burn-down
1:07:09 Don't Do Gantt Charts
1:10:59 Brian's Hot-Take
1:15:38 Wrap-Up

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AA72 - Gantt Charts in Agile Software Development

On this episode, Product Owner and Registered Nurse Stormy Dickson stops by to discuss her journey to Product. Additionally, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel muse on the different ways people find themselves in Product.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:38 Path to Product
3:27 Assumptions
9:04 First Job PM - Things to Watch
13:36 Trying to See the Other Side
18:38 Journey Starting with Domain Experience
24:09 Discover Users, Build Empathy
35:11 Comparing PMs
37:51 PM vs PO
45:14 Getting Stuck in the Tactical World
52:58 The Skill to Challenge Things
59:22 Suggestions for Your Past Self
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AA71 - Career Paths to Product Management

On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel talk through working within the confines of limited or finite resources.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:22 The Problem
2:42 Team Member Sharing
8:11 Architects
13:12 UI/UX
18:22 Testers
25:50 Faux Fixes
33:19 Team Agility Radar
38:37 Centers of Excellence
41:19 Fixes: Understand Vision
47:49 Fixes: Contractors
51:15 Fixes: Decentralizing
57:13 Wrap-Up

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AA70 - Working with Finite Resources

On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel talk about the sticky topic of Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters gatekeeping agility and thereby lowering trust in agile software development theory and practices, all around.

0:00 Topic Intro
1:53 The Post, Part 1
3:46 Arguing the Post
8:37 Supporting Arguments
15:46 Mindset & Psychological Safety
20:57 The Article, Part 2 (Part
25:41 Meet them Where They Are
34:24 Trainers
40:42 Coaches with Technical Backgrounds
47:38 Arguing on the Last Points (Part 3)
57:17 Wrap-Up

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AA69 - Gatekeeping Agile

On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel are joined their favorite Special Mystery Guest to talk about something that most people are bad at - dealing with conflict.

0:00 Topic Intro
1:00 Scaled Retro Example
6:37 One-on-Ones
8:56 Conflict Avoidance
12:42 Saying "No"
18:57 Learning on the Job
23:53 Problematic Coworkers
31:53 Scrum Master Assertiveness
41:02 Scrum Master Saying No, Continued
51:29 Finger Pointing
1:00:53 Dealing with "the Higher-Ups"
1:08:57 Focus on Problems
1:11:32 Involving HR
1:18:02 Encountering Sociopaths
1:25:16 Jessica's Summary
1:28:17 Wrap-Up

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AA68 - Dealing with Conflict, with Special Mystery Guest

On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando pitches Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel on the team optimization suggestions from the book, Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow (2019), by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais.

Team Topologies Website

0:00 Topic Intro: Team Topologies
1:58 Stream-Aligned Teams
3:50 Why this Book?
7:25 Cognitive Load
12:46 4 Fundamental Topologies
20:22 Platform Teams
22:47 Arguing on Team Topologies
25:16 3 Core Interaction Modes
30:30 Case Studies
31:21 Om's First Reaction
33:16 Re-summarizing the Book
35:40 Ratios
39:05 Teams' Responsibility for Commercial Viability
43:02 What We Learned
51:18 Riffing on Non-Development Teams
55:31 Why It's Worth Reading

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AA67 - Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow

When we think about unmitigated optimism and unwavering positivity, we think of none other than the unflappable - Joey deVilla!

On this episode, we talk about how the great resignation has affected us and how a commitment to personal agility helps people and companies through tough times.

0:00 Intro
0:24 Topic Intro
0:59 Reasons for In-Person Gathering
4:19 Team Bonding, Positive Vibes
8:40 Work, Life, & Sustainability
15:50 Interviews: Vetting Companies
19:55 Segue on Microsoft
25:51 Learning
31:12 Time to Think
37:34 Evolution of Technology & Skills
44:55 Solving Problems
47:51 Personal Agility
53:24 Monkeys, a Banana, and a Ladder
1:02:18 Returning to the Office
1:08:43 The Future
1:13:00 Wrap-Up

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AA66 - Personal Agility & the Great Resignation, with Joey deVilla

Does a perfect Sprint Review agenda exist?

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel ask this very question and try to figure it! Using some original content from one of our favorite Agile Coaches out there, Vibhor Chandel, we review and revise our way toward a Sprint Review agenda that we are excited to try with our teams, and that we hope you'll try with yours.

Vibhor Chandel's Original Post

Vibhor Chandel on LinkedIn and YouTube

0:00 Sprint Review Simplified (Topic Intro)
1:01 Brian's Current Agenda
2:20 Why a Sprint Review
5:15 Facilitating the Event
7:25 Arguing Facilitation
11:34 1. Intros
15:20 2. Sprint Goal
24:08 Tangent: Recording
27:09 3. Outcomes
37:14 4. Credits
38:40 5 & 6. Demo & Feedback
50:49 7 & 8. Release Progress & Close
57:04 Revised Agenda Review
59:15 Wrap-Up

Our Sprint Review Agenda (from this Episode):
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1. Introductions (if necessary, 5 mins max)
   1. Names
   2. Roles
   3. Location (if distributed)
2. Sprint Goal
   1. What was it?
   2. Success/Partial Success/Failure?
   3. Accept failure as a team
   4. Changes made to the sprint goal during the sprint
3. Demo & Feedback (repeat, for each item)
   1. Walkthrough of the Work Done (& Discoveries made)
   2. Actual Demo
   3. Collect feedback
   4. Record feedback
   5. Thanks
4. Close
   1. Sprint Goal for the next Sprint (if known)
   2. Date for the next Review
   3. Give Shout-outs to individuals
   4. External teams/individuals that helped
   5. Thank everyone for coming

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AA65 - A Better Sprint Review Agenda

What creates bad experiences with agile; what do they look like, and how to we deal with them? On this episode of Arguing Agile, Curtis Lembke is back, joining Brian Orlando and Om Patel to talk through Bad Agile Experiences and why some people just totally against agile. 

0:00 User-First Mindset
4:44 Introductory Banter
5:14 Topic Intro - Bad Agile Experiences
9:09 Why People Resist
12:25 Laggards & the Late Majority
15:52 What about Steve Jobs?
18:43 Product Cannibalization
23:58 Create Your Competition
26:44 Input, Output, & the Environment
30:27 Musings on Auto Production
32:45 Self Management
36:36 Bad Actors
44:20 Mindset
49:21 Scrum Master Titles
54:04 Leads and Scaling
1:02:39 Who is the Expert?
1:06:51 Biases & Starting from a Negative
1:13:14 Guard Rails
1:17:58 The Case for Waterfall
1:24:46 Agility, How We Learn
1:29:50 Budgetary Risk Avoidance
1:35:22 Wrap-Up

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AA64 - Bad Agile Experiences, with Curtis Lembke