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

What is a Service Manager? What do they do? On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel are joined by Brian Fidalgo to talk about what it is like to be a Service Manager.

0:00 Intro
0:18 What is a Service Manager?
2:49 Is it a Large Company Thing?
6:37 Is It Like Scaled Product?
12:53 Organizational Alignment
16:10 Day in the Life
19:24 Quality and Control/Influence
23:24 Similarities in Dance & Music
29:20 Acronyms (SLA and OLA)
33:40 Elements of Process and Product
39:00 Like a Program-Level Scrum Master?
45:10 Brian Hones In!
48:38 Background of a Service Manager
51:34 Working with Vendors
54:47 Desire to Learn and Help
59:41 Love of Your Job
1:04:19 Challenges of the Job
1:08:03 Building Relationships
1:10:31 Career Progression of a Service Manager
1:15:49 Focusing on Outcomes
1:22:49 Advice for Future Service Managers
1:23:55 Wrap-Up

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AP53 - Service Manager: Brian Fidalgo

This episode of the Agile Podcast is all about Frederick Winslow Taylor and his invention: Scientific Management. The father of Management Consulting, Taylor wrote a book called the Principles of Scientific Management which became (in our opinion) the cornerstone of management theory for the majority of the post-Industrial era into the current day.

Join Brian Orlando and Om Patel, with special guest  Alfonso Guerra, as we delve into the world of Taylorism!

0:00 Intro & Taylor's History
4:32 First, Some Context
7:16 Opening Thesis
10:00 Scientific Management, Process Overview
11:22 Taylor's Biggest Problem: Soldiering
17:27 Management in Scientific Management
20:03 Relevance to Software Development
23:26 Back to the Point
28:19 Midvale Steel and Background Affinity
33:29 Three Years Later... (Parallels in Change Management)
35:51 Jumping Ahead (Future Podcasts)
38:02 Results of Three Years of Experiments
41:38 Who Plans the Work
44:59 Collaboration is an Assumed Proficiency
51:25 Poaching Workers
54:01 The Price of Waste
57:06 Finding New Methods of Working
1:03:50 Skipping the Ball Bearing Example
1:05:16 Problems with Profit Sharing
1:08:26 Assumptions on Human Nature
1:12:40 Supporting Silos
1:17:53 Learning New Skills (Side-Track)
1:23:23 Management Roles in Scientific Management
1:25:44 Modern HR
1:29:49 The Villain, Henry Gantt
1:34:03 Jumping Ahead in Podcasts
1:35:12 The Disciplinarian, HR and Finance
1:40:01 The Need for the Disciplinarian
1:43:19 Not-Agile Transformation
1:46:45 Taylor's Warnings on Misapplications
1:49:23 Good and Bad Workplaces
1:51:08 The Taylor Manifesto
1:54:03 Quality, Effectiveness, and Taylorism
1:55:55 Scientific Management and Knowledge Work
1:59:04 Looking at Taylorism with a Modern Lens
2:03:24 Brian's Thoughts...
2:05:02 Om's Thoughts...
2:07:32 Alfonso's Thoughts...
2:10:42 Overall Summary
2:15:01 Bad Education, Bad Management, and Bad Metrics
2:19:53 Wrap-Up
2:22:00 Thanks for Listening!

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AP52 - Taylorism: The Principles of Scientific Management

On this Episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel are joined by VP of Product Tricia Barnes for a brief discussion about challenges frequently encountered by Product Managers.

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AP51 - Challenges of Product Management

In this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss the dreaded topic of estimation in agile software development. We discuss the pros and cons of each type of estimation, starting with time/hours-based estimates, then moving to story points and finally flow (or #noestimates).

0:00 Intro
0:18 Topic Intro
1:28 Why Estimate?
3:15 Real Deadlines... Sometimes...
5:13 Why Estimate? A Product Viewpoint
7:49 Estimation or Guess
10:59 Guesses, Demands, & Tricks
13:36 "Pick a Date" Behavior
15:44 Methods of Estimation: Hours (or Time)
22:44 If You Have to Estimate in Hours...
24:24 Other Games with Time Estimates
27:59 The Evils of Individual Time Metrics
32:26 Relative Estimation: Story Points
36:23 Forgetting About Risk & Complexity
41:19 Doing Story Points Right
42:58 Flow-Based Estimation (aka. #NoEstimates)
46:39 Breaking Stories - the Secret to Success in Flow
50:23 Flow in Kanban
53:52 Delivery of Business Value
59:45 Future Business Value Podcast
1:02:40 Wrap-Up
1:02:53 Blooper Reel

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AP50 - Estimation (Hours vs. Story Points vs. Flow)

In this very special episode of the Agile Podcast, Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss a question that we have all heard many, many times: "Should a Scrum Master be Technical." We discuss this question in-depth, and why its the wrong question to ask. We also talk about the underlying "real" question fueling this inquiry and explore what it really might mean!

0:00 Topic Intro
0:54 SM Required Skills
2:50 Who is Asking?
5:07 Technology Background as a Hindrance
7:36 Technology Background as a Benefit
9:52 Technical Experience as Domain Expertise
11:23 Product Managers Replacing Too Many Positions
14:38 Understanding Risk
16:22 The Better Debate Question
19:46 Technical Agility
22:10 Podcast Idea: Technical Agility and DevOps
24:46 Abilities of an Enterprise Agile Coach
26:20 Quick Aside...
26:51 Business and Technical Agility?
30:49 Business Agility - Why?
34:18 Change Agents
35:15 Business Agility Skill on a Technical Team
37:56 Topic Wrap/Summary
39:23 Wrap-Up

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AP49 - Should a Scrum Master be Technical (and why its the wrong question)

In this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel sit down with our favorite mystery guest - Jessica! Doing the hard work for us (as normal), Jessica brings the patterns she has observed emerging as trends throughout her career that hold back or damage agility... and we do our best to discuss both sides of each!

0:00 Intro (but, a real intro)
0:25 Scrum Master Managers (but, evil ones)
7:25 Non-Evil Scrum Master Managers
11:39 Peer and Community Responsibilities
15:39 Quick Animal Anecdote
16:32 Standardization (not velocity)
24:29 One Big Advantage of Distributed Models
26:14 Other Indicators: Quality
27:32 Backlog Troubles
34:56 Backlog Troubles, Part 2 (Not Enough Stories)
39:38 Product Push-back on Sprint Reviews
42:52 Sprint Review Pushback - the Counterpoint
49:24 What's the Point? - Value in Sprint Reviews
54:58 Breaking Up the Sprint Review
1:00:06 Wrap-Up
1:00:38 This Tea!

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AP48 - Anti-Patterns in Your Agility, Part 1

In this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss Acceptance Criteria! Focusing on the most granular part of a Story, we discuss what Acceptance Criteria is and what it is not. We also discuss how Acceptance Criteria can be used to empower or improve your Sprint Reviews and discussion with users or stakeholders.

0:00 Intro
0:01 Today's Topic: Acceptance Criteria
1:36 Backlog Items and Negotiating
4:02 Challenging AC / Definition of Done
6:26 Finding User Personas / Finding Value
8:17 Transparency Powering Dialogue
13:32 How the Scrum Master Might Help (or Not)
18:16 Acceptance Criteria (Main Points)
22:19 Scope Creep via Acceptance Criteria
26:16 AC and Integrating or Not
30:14 AC as Sprint Review Agenda
34:04 Culture and Facilitation Affect AC
42:26 Sprint Review Agenda
44:40 The "When Will it Be Done" Question
47:25 Different AC, Different Work Item (or Issue) Types
49:43 Tools and Epics: Jira / Azure DevOps
52:57 Multiple Teams, One Backlog
56:40 Team vs Product/Business Thinking
1:00:41 Product Team (Product Working Together)
1:03:52 Using Value Streams to Avoid Silos
1:06:32 Wrap-Up
1:06:52 Post

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AP47 - Acceptance Criteria

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel take a look at an interesting article titled: "We Should Stop Trying to Make Scrum Fit for Every Situation" by Willem-Jan Ageling.

Link to the Article:
https://medium.com/serious-scrum/we-should-stop-trying-to-make-scrum-fit-for-every-situation-f04d90cdd117

Source:
https://seriousscrum.com/

0:00 THEME MUSIC!
0:16 Topic Intro - SeriousScrum
1:05 Why We Chose This Article
1:49 #1 One Product
3:47 Examples to Test Rule #1
7:36 Break to Talk About Component Teams/Owners
12:21 Summary - One PO, One Product Backlog
13:16 No Product (...but they're delivering something)
15:50 #2 Verifying Value Regularly
17:10 Example - Building a House
21:06 #3 Knowledge is Emergent (Start Before You Know)
22:31 Example - MVP Space Shuttle
25:25 #4 One-Month Increment, Max
28:00 Increment Does Not Equal Production
33:52 #5 Product Teams
37:23 Future Episode - Collaboration
38:36 Organizations Pushing Back on Teams
40:42 #6 Stakeholders Should/Must be Involved
45:46 Article Conclusion
47:08 Our Summary
49:59 Wrap-Up

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AP46 - Article Review: We Should Stop Trying to Make Scrum Fit for Every Situation

In this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss the glue that holds programs, scaled teams of teams, and even small groups of teams together - collaboration! Even small companies and teams have problems talking, working with, and coordinating with other teams. If you've had issues getting teams to work together, this episode is for you!

0:00 Topic Intro
1:31 Challenges to Teams of Integrated Teams
4:57 The Integration Problem Agenda
6:30 But We Know the Problems
11:21 Rotating People
14:30 Reading "Team of Teams"
19:41 Surprise, its a Scrum Master
22:22 An Example of Integrating Teams
26:50 Building Trust & Cohesion, an Example
32:13 Low Value Integration Attendees/Members
36:20 Effective Integration, by Scrum Event
45:33 Back on Topic
46:38 Scaled Sprint Planning
49:21 Scaled Planning
51:50 Scaled Daily Scrum
56:07 Scaled Sprint Reviews
57:59 Scaled Retrospectives
1:04:42 Summarizing...
1:08:10 Musings on Agile HR and Finance
1:10:45 Wrap-Up

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AP45 - Better Cross-Team Collaboration

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel sit down to discuss Product Manager focused ways of doing business where the only constant on the Scrum Teams are the Product Manager and the Developers. We discuss shared services supporting this model of development and talk about examples where divorcing the discovery work from the team led to disaster!

0:00 Intro
0:05 Team Structures
3:13 The Plan for No Scrum Masters
7:01 Agile Coaching and Training Budgets
13:22 Cost of NOT Doing Something - A Future Podcast
15:17 Bothering Users
18:13 Shared Services Models
26:05 Alternatives to Shared Services
29:23 One Product Manager, One Team
33:06 Developers and Customers
35:50 Surprise, You're Waterfall Again
38:19 Diluting Product & Discovery Coaching
41:41 Product Managers and Technical Debt
45:04 Non-Software Product Managers, with Examples
50:33 HR Segue (A Future Podcast)
53:48 Expanding the Agile-in-Waterfall Bubble
56:29 Brian's Data Product Example
1:05:27 Kicking Out the Smartest People in the Room
1:08:42 Wrap-Up

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AP44 - Product Managers and Their Teams