Troubleshooting Agile

By A weekly problem-solving session for all things agileBusiness

Troubleshooting Agile episodes

March 31, 2021 A Conversation with Johan, Part II
In the second of a two-part series, Johan Abildskov of Eficode has a conversation with Jeffrey and Squirrel about tools for using conversations to implement agile and DevOps methods, including Test-Driven Development for People (aka the Ladder of Inference).
SHOW LINKS:
- Eficode: https://www.eficode.com/
- TDD for People: https://www.douglassquirrel.com/how-i-work.html
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Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
26 min
March 24, 2021 A Conversation with Johan, Part I
In the first of a two-part series, Johan Abildskov of Eficode has a conversation with Jeffrey and Squirrel about culture, transparency, curiosity, and how to use all three to adopt DevOps methods successfully.
Special addition: a video version of today's podcast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6c8qIJUdwo
SHOW LINKS:
- Eficode: https://www.eficode.com/
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
22 min
March 17, 2021 Curating Moments of Cultural Insight
We discuss two very different stories about leaders that communicate a cultural message pithily and clearly, and reflect on why these stories were effective and how all of us can communicate culture in this way.
SHOW LINKS:
- Steve Jobs aquarium story: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/in-praise-of-bad-steve/246242/
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
15 min
March 10, 2021 Bosses From Mars
If your boss isn't helping like you think she should, maybe she's not from Mars, but actually trying to give you more autonomy. We reflect on this in light of real-world coaching stories.
SHOW LINKS:
- Situational Leadership: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
16 min
March 03, 2021 A Series of Unfortunate Ideas?
A reader asks whether following the "bad idea" advice from last episode can lead to an unrecoverable local maximum, sentencing the team to endless patches and obscure bugs. Squirrel and Jeffrey have different takes on this based on their ancient greybeard stories.
SHOW LINKS:
- The Power of a Bad Idea episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-power-of-a-bad-idea
- Local maximum: https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/functions-maxima-minima.html
- The Strangler Fig Application: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/StranglerFigApplication.html
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
19 min
February 24, 2021 The Power of a Bad Idea
Drawing lessons from Squirrel's driving test experiences, we explore why making a cultural or process change that's intentionally suboptimal can be surprisingly valuable.
SHOW LINKS:
- Driving Lessons episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/driving-lessons
- Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework
- Kaizen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen
- Toyota Kata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Kata
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
19 min
February 17, 2021 Driftwood vs Planks - Agile Team Roles and Skills
We start with a listener question on roles in an agile team, but quickly divert to Squirrel's "driftwood theory" of hiring and role specification, which turns out to be based on effective conversations and flexible problem solving (what a surprise!)
SHOW LINKS:
- We're the Aliens episode: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/we're-the-aliens-three-ways-to-seek-safety/
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
21 min
February 10, 2021 Driving Lessons
How giving work to your boss positions you as the driving force, not the bottleneck—and more methods and mindset shifts to change the perception "gee, that tech team sure is slow".
SHOW LINKS:
- Squirrel's workshop on “Decoding Tech Talk”: https://www.douglassquirrel.com/resources.html
- Nudge book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_(book)
- Radiate Intent, Elizabeth Ayer: https://medium.com/@ElizAyer/dont-ask-forgiveness-radiate-intent-d36fd22393a3
- Art of Action, Stephen Bungay: https://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
20 min
February 03, 2021 Why (and Why Not!) To Ask, "Why?"
We discover that we've given opposing advice about asking "Why" questions—including in our chapter on the Why Conversation! It turns out that a big factor in the success or failure of a "why" is your intent, and that (as usual) greater transparency can avoid misunderstandings and help you find new options.
SHOW LINKS:
- Never Split the Difference: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the-difference
- Yes, And - https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/yes-and/
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
17 min
January 27, 2021 We're The Aliens - Three Ways to Seek Safety
Jeffrey tells us stories about three ways agile teams deal with uncertainty: seeking cover by looking to a single source of truth, or seeking similar cover by following a process, or seeking true psychological safety through conversations. We analyse why the first two often don't work and why the third is so threatening to adopt.
SHOW LINKS:
- Psychological safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8
- Argyris on defensive routines: http://www.clevelandconsultinggroup.com/articles/theories-in-action.php
- Apollo 13 scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry55--J4_VQ
- Westrum cultures: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1765804/pdf/v013p0ii22.pdf
---
Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list!
We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.
Email us at [email protected]
18 min

About Troubleshooting Agile

From the publisher's feed

Troubleshooting Agile is a problem-solving session for agile teams. Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel look at common problems agile teams face and provide practical, immediately useful advice for…