Lean-Agile Straight Talk

Justifying TDD: A Conversation with Scott Bain Scott Bain and Jim Trott talk about overcoming the challenges people often have to adopting Test-Driven Development in their organization. A big part of doing TDD effectively is coming to an agreement as to what it is, why we want to do it, and how to do it. We cover quesions such as: The return on the investment in TDD... for everyone Developers already have a full-time job.  Why should we give them another one? Won’t TDD slow down the development process? If the developers write tests, won’t they simply be doing the same work as testers, and if so isn’t this wasteful? How does TDD help distributed teams? As the test suite grows in size, won’t this become a massive burden? What are situations where TDD does not work?   In addition, Scott points us to helpful resources such as his excellent website, www.sustainabletdd.com. This show is part of an ongoing series of conversations with Net Objectives consultants and thought-leaders on a variety of topics. We call this series, "The Doctor Is In!" Recommendations - Reading and Sites You can use the forums on the Net Objectives Portal to ask questions about the webinar.  Note, you will have to register on the portal to do so. www.SustainableTDD.com Net Objectives TDD page Music used in this podcast: “And So It Begins” and “Easy Lemon” by Kevin MacLeod © Incompetech Inc. Blog Type: Podcast   Transcript Introduction In this show, Scott Bain and I talk about overcoming the challenges people often have to adopting test driven development in their organization. A big part of doing TDD effectively, is coming to an agreement as to what it is, why we want to do it, and how to do it. View Full Transcript Jim Trott:  It's August 8th, 2016. This show, "A Conversation on Justifying TDD with Scott Bain." [background music] Jim:  Hello. Welcome to another addition of "Lean‑Agile Straight Talk," a regular podcast series from Net Objectives. I'm your host, Jim Trott. In this show, Scott Bain and I talk about overcoming the challenges people often have to adopting test‑driven development in their organization. A big part of doing TDD effectively, is coming to an agreement as to what it is, why we want to do it, and how to do it. We're going to cover questions such as, what's the return on investment in TDD? Why should we be giving developers yet another job to do? Does TDD slow down the development process? Are we really making developers do the same kind of work that testers are doing, and isn't that wasteful? Does TDD apply in distributed team environments? What do you do as the test size grows in size? Doesn't that become a massive burden? What situations are there where TDD just doesn't work, and what are resources for learning more about TDD? The hint is, go to Scott's website, sustainabletdd.com. I'm sure if you've been thinking about TDD, some of these questions have occurred to you. I think you're going to enjoy this show. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can explore more about this topic by jumping over to the resources section of www.netobjectives.com. At Net Objectives, we're committed to discovering effective software development methods so that we can assist organizations in becoming more successful. We combine our experience to continuously extend the capability of what is possible in creating effective software development organizations. We provide these approaches to our clients, and the community in general, so that we can assist people in achieving their goals and making their organizations more successful. We'd welcome the chance to work with you, and we're always learning. We invite you to join in. Visit us at www.netobjectives.com, and let's keep the conversation going. Scott is one of my favorite presenters. He's a gifted trainer. He's an author of several books, including "Emergent Design ‑ The Evolutionary Nature of Professional Software Development" and of "Essential Skills for the Agile Developer". Sco

Lean-Agile Budgeting: A Conversation with Guy Beaver and Kelley Horton Guy Beaver, Kelley Horton, and Jim Trott discuss Lean-Agile Budgeting, a critical, though often an overlooked, topic in Lean-Agile Transformation. Budgets are powerful statements about direction and levers for changing behaviors which is critical to realize transformation. The three key concepts for understanding Lean-Agile Budgeting are: Pool your annual dollars and fund capacity, not projects; focus on a 12-month roadmap of prioritized features and use a Rolling Quarter Lock. Do your locked down planning and iterations just on the next quarter, not the entire year. Let the rest of the roadmap adjust to market needs; and never fund work that you cannot complete. Guy and Kelley have been able to implement Lean-Agile Budgeting in large banks and other organizations. It isn't easy but it is critical in the transformation. Here are topics and questions we covered: The key concepts in Lean-Agile Budgeting The annual funding cycle: Good intentions and Bad behaviors How systems thinking applies The importance of being able to respond to current market conditions and new customer requirements The danger of funding that causes people to "game the system" How Lean-Agile Budgeting both impacts and works with the PMO, especially when you move away from "projects" Putting Lean-Agile Budgeting into practice in a Lean-Agile Transformation The cost of moving people around and multi-tasking, and the 20% performance hit that this causes Lean-Agile Budgeting and assessing Business Value and ROI: Story Points are the "I", not the value This show is part of an ongoing series of conversations with Net Objectives consultants and thought-leaders on a variety of topics. We call this series, "The Doctor Is In!" Recommendations - Reading and Sites You can use the forums on the Net Objectives Portal to ask questions about the webinar.  Note, you will have to register on the portal to do so. Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen Music used in this podcast: “And So It Begins” and “Easy Lemon” by Kevin MacLeod © Incompetech Inc. Blog Type: Podcast   Transcript Introduction In this show, Guy Beaver, Kelly Horton, and Jim Trott talked about Lean‑Agile budgeting. It's a critical, though often overlooked topic in Lean‑Agile transformation. View Full Transcript Jim Trott:  It's July 27th, 2016. This show, "The Doctor Is In. The conversation on Lean‑Agile budgeting with Guy Beaver and Kelly Horton." [background music] Jim:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of "Lean‑Agile Straight Talk," a regular podcast series from Net Objectives. I'm your host, Jim Trott. In this show, Guy Beaver, Kelly Horton, and I talked about Lean‑Agile budgeting. It's a critical, though often overlooked topic in Lean‑Agile transformation. Budgets are powerful statements about direction and leverage for change in behaviors, which is critical to realize transformation. Guy and Kelley discussed three key concepts for understanding Lean‑Agile Budgeting. They are pull your annual dollars and fund capacity, not projects. Focus on a 12‑month roadmap of prioritized features and use a rolling quarter lock. You do your lockdown planning and iterations just on the next quarter, not the entire year. Let the rest of the roadmap adjust to meet market needs. Never fund work that you cannot complete. Guy and Kelley have been able to implement these in large banks and other organizations. It isn't easy, but it is critical to see transformation happen. It's a pretty interesting conversation. You'll enjoy this. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can explore more about this topic by jumping over to the resources section of www.netobjectives.com. In Net Objectives we're committed to discovering effective software development methods so that we can assist organizations in becoming more successful. We combine our experience to continuously extent the capability of what is possible in creating e

Lean-Agile Budgeting: A Conversation with Guy Beaver and Kelley Horton Guy Beaver, Kelley Horton, and Jim Trott discuss Lean-Agile Budgeting, a critical, though often an overlooked, topic in Lean-Agile Transformation. Budgets are powerful statements about direction and levers for changing behaviors which is critical to realize transformation. The three key concepts for understanding Lean-Agile Budgeting are: Pool your annual dollars and fund capacity, not projects; focus on a 12-month roadmap of prioritized features and use a Rolling Quarter Lock. Do your locked down planning and iterations just on the next quarter, not the entire year. Let the rest of the roadmap adjust to market needs; and never fund work that you cannot complete. Guy and Kelley have been able to implement Lean-Agile Budgeting in large banks and other organizations. It isn't easy but it is critical in the transformation. Here are topics and questions we covered: The key concepts in Lean-Agile Budgeting The annual funding cycle: Good intentions and Bad behaviors How systems thinking applies The importance of being able to respond to current market conditions and new customer requirements The danger of funding that causes people to "game the system" How Lean-Agile Budgeting both impacts and works with the PMO, especially when you move away from "projects" Putting Lean-Agile Budgeting into practice in a Lean-Agile Transformation The cost of moving people around and multi-tasking, and the 20% performance hit that this causes Lean-Agile Budgeting and assessing Business Value and ROI: Story Points are the "I", not the value This show is part of an ongoing series of conversations with Net Objectives consultants and thought-leaders on a variety of topics. We call this series, "The Doctor Is In!" Recommendations - Reading and Sites You can use the forums on the Net Objectives Portal to ask questions about the webinar.  Note, you will have to register on the portal to do so. Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen Music used in this podcast: “And So It Begins” and “Easy Lemon” by Kevin MacLeod © Incompetech Inc. Blog Type: Podcast   Transcript Introduction In this show, Guy Beaver, Kelly Horton, and Jim Trott talked about Lean‑Agile budgeting. It's a critical, though often overlooked topic in Lean‑Agile transformation. View Full Transcript Jim Trott:  It's July 27th, 2016. This show, "The Doctor Is In. The conversation on Lean‑Agile budgeting with Guy Beaver and Kelly Horton." [background music] Jim:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of "Lean‑Agile Straight Talk," a regular podcast series from Net Objectives. I'm your host, Jim Trott. In this show, Guy Beaver, Kelly Horton, and I talked about Lean‑Agile budgeting. It's a critical, though often overlooked topic in Lean‑Agile transformation. Budgets are powerful statements about direction and leverage for change in behaviors, which is critical to realize transformation. Guy and Kelley discussed three key concepts for understanding Lean‑Agile Budgeting. They are pull your annual dollars and fund capacity, not projects. Focus on a 12‑month roadmap of prioritized features and use a rolling quarter lock. You do your lockdown planning and iterations just on the next quarter, not the entire year. Let the rest of the roadmap adjust to meet market needs. Never fund work that you cannot complete. Guy and Kelley have been able to implement these in large banks and other organizations. It isn't easy, but it is critical to see transformation happen. It's a pretty interesting conversation. You'll enjoy this. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can explore more about this topic by jumping over to the resources section of www.netobjectives.com. In Net Objectives we're committed to discovering effective software development methods so that we can assist organizations in becoming more successful. We combine our experience to continuously extent the capability of what is possible in creating e

Middle Management and Lean-Agile: A Conversation with Dr. Tom Grant Dr. Tom Grant and Jim Trott discuss the implications of Lean and Agile software development for middle management. The role is changed, with different skills and behaviors required. Managers transition from being directive to enabling teams to be self-organizing. There are changes in performance evaluations, metrics, and power dynamics. They get into the team's life "just enough" in order to be helpful. Coaching middle managers in the transition to Lean-Agile is also different: helping them acquire new skills at just the right time, learning how to do retrospections. Tom suggests using "Serious Games" as a way to help this transition. He also discusses the influence of the various Agile frameworks on management and the transition to Lean-Agile ​Dr. Tom Grant is an analyst covering software development and delivery. His specific focus areas include Agile, Lean, application lifecycle management (ALM), requirements, serious games, and the innovation process. He has also taught political science at UC Irvine and Chapman College. This show is part of a regular series of conversations with Net Objectives consultants and thought-leaders on a variety of topics. We call this series, "The Doctor Is In!" Recommendations - Reading and Sites You can use the forums on the Net Objectives Portal to ask questions about the webinar.  Note, you will have to register on the portal to do so. The Importance of Leadership and Management in Agile by Al Shalloway TastyCupcakes.org for serious games for Lean-Agile Music used in this podcast: “And So It Begins” and “Easy Lemon” by Kevin MacLeod © Incompetech Inc. Blog Type: Podcast   Transcript Introduction In this show, Dr. Tom Grant and Jim Trott talk about the implications for Agile and Lean for middle management. View Full Transcript Jim Trott:  It's July 19, 2016. This show, "The Doctor Is In." with Tom Grant. [background music] Jim:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of Lean‑Agile Straight Talk, a regular podcast series from Net Objectives. I'm your host, Jim Trott. In this show, Dr. Tom Grant and I talk about the implications for Agile and Lean for middle management. Dr. Grant is an analyst covering software development and delivery. His specific focus areas include Agile, Lean, application lifecycle management requirements, serious games, and the innovation process. He's also taught political science at UC Irvine and Chapman College. In this show we're going to discuss many issues that impact middle management, in a Lean‑Agile organization, including things such as what changes are required for middle managers and what new skills are they going have to acquire? When should middle‑management be trained in the Lean‑Agile process, so they can be better enablers of Lean‑Agile for their own teams, implications for managing performance on self‑organizing Agile teams, implications for retrospections and power dynamics and metrics, the dynamics involved in coaching middle‑management for the transition to Lean Agile, and the use of serious games that coaches can use for developing Lean‑Agile culture. It's a really interesting podcast. You're going enjoy it. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can explore more about this topic and other topics by jumping over to the resources section at www.netobjectives.com. At Net Objectives we are committed to discovering effective software development methods, so that we can assist organizations in becoming more successful. We combine our experience to continuously extend the capability of what is possible in creating effective software development organizations. We provide these approaches to our clients and the community in general, so that we can assist people in achieving their goals, in making their organizations more successful. Our scope includes a Lean, Agile, Leanban, Kanban, Emergent Design and Acceptance Test Driven Development. We welcome the chance to work with

Middle Management and Lean-Agile: A Conversation with Dr. Tom Grant Dr. Tom Grant and Jim Trott discuss the implications of Lean and Agile software development for middle management. The role is changed, with different skills and behaviors required. Managers transition from being directive to enabling teams to be self-organizing. There are changes in performance evaluations, metrics, and power dynamics. They get into the team's life "just enough" in order to be helpful. Coaching middle managers in the transition to Lean-Agile is also different: helping them acquire new skills at just the right time, learning how to do retrospections. Tom suggests using "Serious Games" as a way to help this transition. He also discusses the influence of the various Agile frameworks on management and the transition to Lean-Agile ​Dr. Tom Grant is an analyst covering software development and delivery. His specific focus areas include Agile, Lean, application lifecycle management (ALM), requirements, serious games, and the innovation process. He has also taught political science at UC Irvine and Chapman College. This show is part of a regular series of conversations with Net Objectives consultants and thought-leaders on a variety of topics. We call this series, "The Doctor Is In!" Recommendations - Reading and Sites You can use the forums on the Net Objectives Portal to ask questions about the webinar.  Note, you will have to register on the portal to do so. The Importance of Leadership and Management in Agile by Al Shalloway TastyCupcakes.org for serious games for Lean-Agile Music used in this podcast: “And So It Begins” and “Easy Lemon” by Kevin MacLeod © Incompetech Inc. Blog Type: Podcast   Transcript Introduction In this show, Dr. Tom Grant and Jim Trott talk about the implications for Agile and Lean for middle management. View Full Transcript Jim Trott:  It's July 19, 2016. This show, "The Doctor Is In." with Tom Grant. [background music] Jim:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of Lean‑Agile Straight Talk, a regular podcast series from Net Objectives. I'm your host, Jim Trott. In this show, Dr. Tom Grant and I talk about the implications for Agile and Lean for middle management. Dr. Grant is an analyst covering software development and delivery. His specific focus areas include Agile, Lean, application lifecycle management requirements, serious games, and the innovation process. He's also taught political science at UC Irvine and Chapman College. In this show we're going to discuss many issues that impact middle management, in a Lean‑Agile organization, including things such as what changes are required for middle managers and what new skills are they going have to acquire? When should middle‑management be trained in the Lean‑Agile process, so they can be better enablers of Lean‑Agile for their own teams, implications for managing performance on self‑organizing Agile teams, implications for retrospections and power dynamics and metrics, the dynamics involved in coaching middle‑management for the transition to Lean Agile, and the use of serious games that coaches can use for developing Lean‑Agile culture. It's a really interesting podcast. You're going enjoy it. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can explore more about this topic and other topics by jumping over to the resources section at www.netobjectives.com. At Net Objectives we are committed to discovering effective software development methods, so that we can assist organizations in becoming more successful. We combine our experience to continuously extend the capability of what is possible in creating effective software development organizations. We provide these approaches to our clients and the community in general, so that we can assist people in achieving their goals, in making their organizations more successful. Our scope includes a Lean, Agile, Leanban, Kanban, Emergent Design and Acceptance Test Driven Development. We welcome the chance to work with

 Management and Trust: A Twibinar with Esther Derby and Alan Shalloway (audio of the webinar) On July 16, 2012, Alan Shalloway and Esther Derby held a twibinar conversation on Trust and Management. Talking with each other and with attendees who participated via Twitter, they got into the important topic of trust in the organization, one of the necessary foundations for being able to scale Agile in the organization. This conversation grew out of talks that Alan and Esther have been having about scaling Agile across teams. This quickly led to a broader conversation about trust as a necessary foundation for scaling. Note: This webinar is about 40 minutes long. Here are some of my notes from their conversation: Trust grows in the doing. Alan finds that when there is an absence of trust between teams and management, it helps to have them start working together, to achieve small successes. This becomes a virtuous cycle of wins and confidence and trust. He does not always address the issue of trust head-on but lets trust emerge from what people do. Trust is intentional. In Esther's experience, the way to engender trust is to give trust, demonstrate trust, and then to have a process for maintaining trust and nurturing it. Trust is active. It grows from small things. Having a common vision and goal is very helpful to build trust. When there is a lack of clarity in the organization about where we are going, who our customers are, how we want to interact with customers, how we want to relate with our employees, then it is very easy for people to have hidden agendas, hidden goals that might be at odds with the common vision of the company. That is where you get into trouble. This can lead to politicking and distrust. Making the common vision explicit gets everything into the open and that can build trust. It allows for accountability. And, hopefully, it means people can make generous interpretations of the actions of others. Workflows are really about relationships. Alan says that having explicit workflows is also helpful in this way. Making workflows explicit is not about enforcing control; rather, it is a way for the team to agree together how they want to do work. This sort of concrete discussion helps the team to gel and trust. One advantage to focusing on workflows is that they are "neutral." It is easier and less threatening to critique a process than to critique another person. Esther has another perspective. She believes that the vision and goals are most important. Without that common understanding, the organization as a whole is going to have problems. She observes that how Alan described "workflow" is not really about work definition but instead is about the relationships between people on a team. It is not the formal definitions of process that build trust. Trust emerges from the conversations and negotiations people have as they relate and aim toward the common goal. Silos lead to distrust. They make it easy to miss seeing the common goals, to work on your own agendas, and not to value the differences that lead to creating value. It is also important to review policies to see that they reinforce trust. How often it is that policies broadcast that we don't trust our employees to work like adults. Books and Resource Recommendations Creating a Lean Culture by David Mann Blog: Why not to focus on the company's culture The Power of Losing Control by Joe Caruso Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships and Life by Robert C Solomon and Fernando Flores Have a look at the current Net Objectives webinar series, Lean-Agile at Scale and at the Team: The Value Stream Series Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

 Management and Trust: A Twibinar with Esther Derby and Alan Shalloway (audio of the webinar) On July 16, 2012, Alan Shalloway and Esther Derby held a twibinar conversation on Trust and Management. Talking with each other and with attendees who participated via Twitter, they got into the important topic of trust in the organization, one of the necessary foundations for being able to scale Agile in the organization. This conversation grew out of talks that Alan and Esther have been having about scaling Agile across teams. This quickly led to a broader conversation about trust as a necessary foundation for scaling. Note: This webinar is about 40 minutes long. Here are some of my notes from their conversation: Trust grows in the doing. Alan finds that when there is an absence of trust between teams and management, it helps to have them start working together, to achieve small successes. This becomes a virtuous cycle of wins and confidence and trust. He does not always address the issue of trust head-on but lets trust emerge from what people do. Trust is intentional. In Esther's experience, the way to engender trust is to give trust, demonstrate trust, and then to have a process for maintaining trust and nurturing it. Trust is active. It grows from small things. Having a common vision and goal is very helpful to build trust. When there is a lack of clarity in the organization about where we are going, who our customers are, how we want to interact with customers, how we want to relate with our employees, then it is very easy for people to have hidden agendas, hidden goals that might be at odds with the common vision of the company. That is where you get into trouble. This can lead to politicking and distrust. Making the common vision explicit gets everything into the open and that can build trust. It allows for accountability. And, hopefully, it means people can make generous interpretations of the actions of others. Workflows are really about relationships. Alan says that having explicit workflows is also helpful in this way. Making workflows explicit is not about enforcing control; rather, it is a way for the team to agree together how they want to do work. This sort of concrete discussion helps the team to gel and trust. One advantage to focusing on workflows is that they are "neutral." It is easier and less threatening to critique a process than to critique another person. Esther has another perspective. She believes that the vision and goals are most important. Without that common understanding, the organization as a whole is going to have problems. She observes that how Alan described "workflow" is not really about work definition but instead is about the relationships between people on a team. It is not the formal definitions of process that build trust. Trust emerges from the conversations and negotiations people have as they relate and aim toward the common goal. Silos lead to distrust. They make it easy to miss seeing the common goals, to work on your own agendas, and not to value the differences that lead to creating value. It is also important to review policies to see that they reinforce trust. How often it is that policies broadcast that we don't trust our employees to work like adults. Books and Resource Recommendations Creating a Lean Culture by David Mann Blog: Why not to focus on the company's culture The Power of Losing Control by Joe Caruso Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships and Life by Robert C Solomon and Fernando Flores Have a look at the current Net Objectives webinar series, Lean-Agile at Scale and at the Team: The Value Stream Series Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

 Product Portfolio Management: Why It Is Critical for Agile at Scale This is going to be the topic of a webinar on June 18, 2012. We frequently hear about organizations who have had good success with Agile at a team level - good productivity gains, higher quality code, good morale - but then they have problems getting Agile to work "at scale." They have a hard getting collections of teams to work together. They don't see the hoped-for impacts on the bottom-line across the portfolio of work to be done. In our consulting work and our dialog with other consultants, we have learned that success at scale requires attention to four essential aspects: Actively managing the product portfolio Delivering work to the team Intentionally managing the web of relationships with multiple stakeholders and teams Attending to the final integration All four of these are critical for success in product development. They each affect the other. Of course, you apply as much of the model as you need while knowing the bigger view so you can see where you are going. Below are notes about each of these. Product Portfolio Management. How do you ensure that teams are working on the right things? Managing the Web of Relationships. Larger, more complex the organizations usually need to have different people managing the relationships: Someone who is looking after the interests of the Business Stakeholders and executives. (This is often called a "Product Manager" and we call it "Business Product Owner") Someone who is focused on driving teams (This is often called a "Product Owner") Delivering work to the team. Creating the context and loading the teams. How do you manage the Work-in-Progress so that teams are loaded in a way that work will flow at pace that is sustainable, efficient, and constantly delivers value. This involves a systems-orientation. An issue here is getting them to collaborate effectively. Scrum of Scrums is one approach that Agile teams have tried for collaboration among teams but it has met with only limited success. This is because teams are naturally "tribal" A more successful approach is to set up the system in a way that reduces the amount of collaboration that teams have to do. The webinar discusses approaches to do this using a common backlog. Final Integration. What are the most significant constraints we face in software development? Usually, they are at the end of the process: integration and testing. Think about these early in the process. The main Constraint: The ability of teams to stay in sync? If they can stay in sync, then final integration should become easier. Dynamic Feature Teams is one approach to address final integration and staying in sync. The webinar will present a case study how this works. Learn to See: Beware of your Biases! In the mid-1800's, Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that hand-washing could reduce mortality rates in childbed fever to below 1%. Yet, despite repeated demonstrations and publications, the medical community rejected his ideas because they conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time. They did not yet know about germ theory. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis In some ways, we are like that in software development. "Flow" may be one of those essential laws in software development that we do not yet understand. And so we have more complex approaches. Things may not be self-evident but once they are pointed out, they become intuitive.   Lean-Agile at Scale and the Team: The Value Stream Series The Lean-Agile at Scale and the Team: The Value Stream Series addresses closing this gap between knowing and doing. It addresses a dozen areas that will significantly improve the flow across the value stream, shortening the time to market from when an idea is conceptualized until it can be put to use by customers. Attending to these things offers great benefit both to development teams and to the Business. And to continue doing so in a sustainable way. You can get

 Product Portfolio Management: Why It Is Critical for Agile at Scale This is going to be the topic of a webinar on June 18, 2012. We frequently hear about organizations who have had good success with Agile at a team level - good productivity gains, higher quality code, good morale - but then they have problems getting Agile to work "at scale." They have a hard getting collections of teams to work together. They don't see the hoped-for impacts on the bottom-line across the portfolio of work to be done. In our consulting work and our dialog with other consultants, we have learned that success at scale requires attention to four essential aspects: Actively managing the product portfolio Delivering work to the team Intentionally managing the web of relationships with multiple stakeholders and teams Attending to the final integration All four of these are critical for success in product development. They each affect the other. Of course, you apply as much of the model as you need while knowing the bigger view so you can see where you are going. Below are notes about each of these. Product Portfolio Management. How do you ensure that teams are working on the right things? Managing the Web of Relationships. Larger, more complex the organizations usually need to have different people managing the relationships: Someone who is looking after the interests of the Business Stakeholders and executives. (This is often called a "Product Manager" and we call it "Business Product Owner") Someone who is focused on driving teams (This is often called a "Product Owner") Delivering work to the team. Creating the context and loading the teams. How do you manage the Work-in-Progress so that teams are loaded in a way that work will flow at pace that is sustainable, efficient, and constantly delivers value. This involves a systems-orientation. An issue here is getting them to collaborate effectively. Scrum of Scrums is one approach that Agile teams have tried for collaboration among teams but it has met with only limited success. This is because teams are naturally "tribal" A more successful approach is to set up the system in a way that reduces the amount of collaboration that teams have to do. The webinar discusses approaches to do this using a common backlog. Final Integration. What are the most significant constraints we face in software development? Usually, they are at the end of the process: integration and testing. Think about these early in the process. The main Constraint: The ability of teams to stay in sync? If they can stay in sync, then final integration should become easier. Dynamic Feature Teams is one approach to address final integration and staying in sync. The webinar will present a case study how this works. Learn to See: Beware of your Biases! In the mid-1800's, Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that hand-washing could reduce mortality rates in childbed fever to below 1%. Yet, despite repeated demonstrations and publications, the medical community rejected his ideas because they conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time. They did not yet know about germ theory. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis In some ways, we are like that in software development. "Flow" may be one of those essential laws in software development that we do not yet understand. And so we have more complex approaches. Things may not be self-evident but once they are pointed out, they become intuitive.   Lean-Agile at Scale and the Team: The Value Stream Series The Lean-Agile at Scale and the Team: The Value Stream Series addresses closing this gap between knowing and doing. It addresses a dozen areas that will significantly improve the flow across the value stream, shortening the time to market from when an idea is conceptualized until it can be put to use by customers. Attending to these things offers great benefit both to development teams and to the Business. And to continue doing so in a sustainable way. You can get

A New Season and a New Webinar Series It is springtime in Seattle, a good time to start anew. Since the last season of Lean-Agile Straight Talk, we have been writing and consulting and coaching and working with many clients. We have greatly deepened our understanding. To start the new season of Lean-Agile Straight Talk, I asked Alan Shalloway, CEO and Founder of Net Objectives, to start sharing some of what is on his mind right now based on what we have been learning. If you know Alan, you will know that one of his main things is the gap between knowing and doing that is in our industry, we know a lot of what to do but the doing is often not yet in common practice. And this is leading Net Objectives to offer Lean-Agile at Scale and at the Team: The Value Stream Series, a new webinar series that helps you know what to pay attention to to close that gap. I'm looking forward to a new season of conversations. I welcome your comments. Drop me a note at jim.trott@netobjectives.com Complex Stuff and Complicated Stuff: Doing what we know would help Software product development is among the most challenging of human endeavors. It is a system of many elements and stakeholders with interests, forces, and needs that must be addressed. Markets and people and human nature being what they are, there will always be significant aspects of product development that are "complex" - not fully knowable so we have to observe and try to predict. But not everything is that way. We have learned much about what is required to develop effectively, to be able to deliver value sustainably to the organization. This means that great chunks of this effort could move into the realm of "complicated" work - it still is not simple, but we know what to do. Examples include XP engineering practices, Acceptance Test-Driven Development, Design Patterns, how to manage flow, the importance of making work visible. Doing the complicated stuff the right way would go a long ways toward more sustainable, more valuable, less painful development work. We know this works because we are seeing this in our own coaching and in conversations with other coaches and consultants. The challenge before us is that even though We know what to do, it is not yet in common practice. Lean-Agile at Scale and the Team: The Value Stream Series We are introducing a new webinar series addresses closing this gap between knowing and doing. It addresses a dozen areas that will significantly improve the flow across the value stream, shortening the time to market from when an idea is conceptualized until it can be put to use by customers. Attending to these things offers great benefit both to development teams and to the Business. And to continue doing so in a sustainable way. The series begins on May 22, 2012 and you can sign up at www.netobjectives.com/lean-agile-scale-and-team-value-stream-series What is covered in this webinar series? Lean startup Product portfolio management Scrum, Kanban, and XP practices Technical Agility The Role of the Product Owner Acceptance TDD Enhancing and Extending Scrum Essential Skills for the Agile Developer Scaling Agile with Lean Attending to the culture in your Agile transition Operations and Agility Credits Music by Bill Chushman ghostnotes.blogspot.com Webmaster: Andrea Bain Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

A New Season and a New Webinar Series It is springtime in Seattle, a good time to start anew. Since the last season of Lean-Agile Straight Talk, we have been writing and consulting and coaching and working with many clients. We have greatly deepened our understanding. To start the new season of Lean-Agile Straight Talk, I asked Alan Shalloway, CEO and Founder of Net Objectives, to start sharing some of what is on his mind right now based on what we have been learning. If you know Alan, you will know that one of his main things is the gap between knowing and doing that is in our industry, we know a lot of what to do but the doing is often not yet in common practice. And this is leading Net Objectives to offer Lean-Agile at Scale and at the Team: The Value Stream Series, a new webinar series that helps you know what to pay attention to to close that gap. I'm looking forward to a new season of conversations. I welcome your comments. Drop me a note at jim.trott@netobjectives.com Complex Stuff and Complicated Stuff: Doing what we know would help Software product development is among the most challenging of human endeavors. It is a system of many elements and stakeholders with interests, forces, and needs that must be addressed. Markets and people and human nature being what they are, there will always be significant aspects of product development that are "complex" - not fully knowable so we have to observe and try to predict. But not everything is that way. We have learned much about what is required to develop effectively, to be able to deliver value sustainably to the organization. This means that great chunks of this effort could move into the realm of "complicated" work - it still is not simple, but we know what to do. Examples include XP engineering practices, Acceptance Test-Driven Development, Design Patterns, how to manage flow, the importance of making work visible. Doing the complicated stuff the right way would go a long ways toward more sustainable, more valuable, less painful development work. We know this works because we are seeing this in our own coaching and in conversations with other coaches and consultants. The challenge before us is that even though We know what to do, it is not yet in common practice. Lean-Agile at Scale and the Team: The Value Stream Series We are introducing a new webinar series addresses closing this gap between knowing and doing. It addresses a dozen areas that will significantly improve the flow across the value stream, shortening the time to market from when an idea is conceptualized until it can be put to use by customers. Attending to these things offers great benefit both to development teams and to the Business. And to continue doing so in a sustainable way. The series begins on May 22, 2012 and you can sign up at www.netobjectives.com/lean-agile-scale-and-team-value-stream-series What is covered in this webinar series? Lean startup Product portfolio management Scrum, Kanban, and XP practices Technical Agility The Role of the Product Owner Acceptance TDD Enhancing and Extending Scrum Essential Skills for the Agile Developer Scaling Agile with Lean Attending to the culture in your Agile transition Operations and Agility Credits Music by Bill Chushman ghostnotes.blogspot.com Webmaster: Andrea Bain Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

 Notes from LeanSSC Atlanta 2010 In this show, Alan Shalloway shares his impressions from the inaugural conference of the LeanSSC which was held in Atlanta, Georgia. LeanSSC stands for the Lean Software and Systems Consortium. This is a consortium of practitioners and experts from many organizations who are committed to assisting enterprises that depend on software – from start-ups to those that build complex, software intensive products, systems & services – with the application of Lean Thinking throughout the enterprise.  The conference website is at Atlanta2010.LeanSSC.org and we are busily posting presentations and video from the conference to give you a notion of the many topics that were discussed. The speakers at this conference were from the top notch of our industry, people who have done the hard work of bringing these good approaches to the enterprise. There was a lot of talk about what works and what doesn't work. It was great to be among like-minded people who could debate passionately about the issues but coming from a common foundation. We talk about who was there, what was surprising, and some of the future vision that speakers shared. Amidst all the diversity was that there were common themes: respect for the knowledge of people, the importance of paying attention to key principles, maintaining a common vision. We hope you can come to the next conference: either this this fall in Europe or next year in Los Angeles! This is a movement. It is open and driven by a broad spectrum community of practitioners, making knowledge available to industry.RecommendationsLeanSSC Atlanta 2010 ConferenceLean Software and Systems Consortium: www.leanssc.orgLimited WIP Society D.J. Anderson Associates: www.agilemanagement.netDon Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product DevelopmentFor more information, visit us at https://www.netobjectives.com/ Music used in this podcast is by Bill Cushman at http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com and Kevin McLeod: http://www.incompetech.com/. If you need music, I’d encourage you to subscribe to their feeds.Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

 Notes from LeanSSC Atlanta 2010 In this show, Alan Shalloway shares his impressions from the inaugural conference of the LeanSSC which was held in Atlanta, Georgia. LeanSSC stands for the Lean Software and Systems Consortium. This is a consortium of practitioners and experts from many organizations who are committed to assisting enterprises that depend on software – from start-ups to those that build complex, software intensive products, systems & services – with the application of Lean Thinking throughout the enterprise.  The conference website is at Atlanta2010.LeanSSC.org and we are busily posting presentations and video from the conference to give you a notion of the many topics that were discussed. The speakers at this conference were from the top notch of our industry, people who have done the hard work of bringing these good approaches to the enterprise. There was a lot of talk about what works and what doesn't work. It was great to be among like-minded people who could debate passionately about the issues but coming from a common foundation. We talk about who was there, what was surprising, and some of the future vision that speakers shared. Amidst all the diversity was that there were common themes: respect for the knowledge of people, the importance of paying attention to key principles, maintaining a common vision. We hope you can come to the next conference: either this this fall in Europe or next year in Los Angeles! This is a movement. It is open and driven by a broad spectrum community of practitioners, making knowledge available to industry.RecommendationsLeanSSC Atlanta 2010 ConferenceLean Software and Systems Consortium: www.leanssc.orgLimited WIP Society D.J. Anderson Associates: www.agilemanagement.netDon Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product DevelopmentFor more information, visit us at http://www.netobjectives.com/ Music used in this podcast is by Bill Cushman at http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com and Kevin McLeod: http://www.incompetech.com/. If you need music, I’d encourage you to subscribe to their feeds.Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

 Reflections on a New Year: Part 2 We continue reflecting about the trends in 2010 and areas in which Net Objectives will be investing some of its energy and thought as we help to serve our partners and customers. In this podcast, we talk more about transitions: the team that is involved, how it helps to think about the entire value stream.  Introducing change requires a partnership of business, management/leadership, and the team. No one has the complete picture. All three have to be engaged to succeed. It is driven by the business. Management leads, coaches, guides. The team sees its process and applies technical skills. The goal is to introduce change in a way that is most effective for the whole value stream. This guides you in deciding when, where to introduce what kind of change. The good news is that it doesn't have to be (only) the team that has to be the focus of change efforts. This is a break in the walk-through of Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility. We will turn back to it in mid-February. Recommendations Lean Software and Systems Consortium: www.leanssc.org Limited WIP Society David J. Anderson & Associates William Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the most of change Don Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development For more information, visit us at https://www.netobjectives.com/ Music used in this podcast is by Bill Cushman at http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com and Kevin McLeod: http://www.incompetech.com/. If you need music, I’d encourage you to subscribe to their feeds. Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments

 Reflections on a New Year: Part 2 We continue reflecting about the trends in 2010 and areas in which Net Objectives will be investing some of its energy and thought as we help to serve our partners and customers. In this podcast, we talk more about transitions: the team that is involved, how it helps to think about the entire value stream.  Introducing change requires a partnership of business, management/leadership, and the team. No one has the complete picture. All three have to be engaged to succeed. It is driven by the business. Management leads, coaches, guides. The team sees its process and applies technical skills. The goal is to introduce change in a way that is most effective for the whole value stream. This guides you in deciding when, where to introduce what kind of change. The good news is that it doesn't have to be (only) the team that has to be the focus of change efforts. This is a break in the walk-through of Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility. We will turn back to it in mid-February. Recommendations Lean Software and Systems Consortium: www.leanssc.org Limited WIP Society David J. Anderson & Associates William Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the most of change Don Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development For more information, visit us at http://www.netobjectives.com/ Music used in this podcast is by Bill Cushman at http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com and Kevin McLeod: http://www.incompetech.com/. If you need music, I’d encourage you to subscribe to their feeds. Blog Type: PodcastLog in or register to post comments