SPaMCAST 757 – Intermittent Collaboration, Kanban For One, Essays and Conversations

A funny thing happened on the way to SPaMCAST 757. I was considering critical thinking when I ran into data that challenged a common agile belief – enter critical thinking. The idea is that constant collaboration, the goal of team rooms, and always-on communication software, is to create good ideas and decisions; good but not great.

This week we also have a visit from Susan Parente who talks about her approach to personal kanban, something she calls kanban for one. Susan also takes us under the hood for a view into her busy, innovative world and how she keeps it under control.

 

SPaMCAST 553 – Prioritization and Capability, An Interview with Jim Benson

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SPaMCAST 553 features our interview with Jim Benson.  Jim and I focused on prioritization and how prioritization can be a reflection of more deep-seated problems. One of the ideas Jim shares is that processes are the social contract for getting work done.  I really enjoy talking with Jim and think you will enjoy the conversation.

During the close of the interview, Jim talks about Modus Cooperandi’s class on prioritization.  Jim has extended a discount code for listeners of the podcast for all of the MI classes. The code is SPAMCAST20 or you can use the link:  

https://modusinstitute.com/p/me-what-do-i-do-next/?coupon_code=SPAMCAST20

 

Jim’s Bio:

 

SPaMCAST 535 – Kanban To The Rescue, Distributed Agile. Essays and Discussions

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SPaMCAST 535 features our essay spawned when I was asked to help a Scrum Master who said: “I messed up a scrum team, should I do kanban?”  There is not a straightforward answer because regardless of the path forward there are people issues that need to be dealt with first.

Also in this podcast, we have a visit from Susan Parente and her ‘I am not a Scrumdamentalist’ column.  In this installment, Susan discusses distributed Agile. Agile on distributed teams is often discussed in hushed tones.  Susan brings the topic out into the open and provides excellent advice.

Re-Read Saturday News
We continue our re-read of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter Four of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point begins the discussion of the role of context in approaching a tipping point.  Stop borrowing your best friends copy and buy a copy of the book for yourself!  

Check out the current entry of Re-Read Saturday at www.tcagley.wordpress.com

 

Kanban: Throwing Away The Bottle

Sometimes you just have to . . .

If you were not moved by the case for Scrum then the next step, just as suggested by our wayward Scrum Master is kanban. If re-committing to Scrum is equivalent to putting the genie back in the bottle, then adopting kanban is the equivalent to throwing the bottle away. Kanban is a flow-based framework based that originated from concepts in lean manufacturing that have been tuned for software related projects.  A team or organization using kanban pulls work from a workflow (across the board) at a pace equal to the work in process limits for each step in the process. Kanban requires team members to have the discipline to observe the policies set for the team such as only pulling new work when it can be started and swarming to bottlenecks when they are identified. Efficient and effective teams using kanban are very disciplined; whether this is because of the people or the framework is debatable.

 

I Messed Up A Scrum Team Should I Do Kanban?

Sometimes you just have to . . .

A friend and colleague recently presented me with a scenario and then as the punchline asked for more ammunition to alleviate the problem.  

The Scenario:

 

SPaMCAST 491- When Done Breaks Production, Personal Kanban, Real Software Quality

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Software Process and Measurement Cast 491 features our essay titled, Can “Done” Be Allowed To Break Production?  The most succinct answer to the question is always no, the story is not done. The reason is that the story is not implementable, and unless the goal of the story is to blow up production and anger customers it can’t be considered to be done.

Susan Parente brings her Not a Scrumdamentalist column to the cast this week.  Susan discusses Kanban for You and Me.  The discussion focuses on personal Kanban and how to use it to guide your day to day activities effectively and efficiently.

Kim Pries, the Software Sensi, anchors the cast this week.  Kim’s essay is titled Real Software Quality.  In this column, Kim warns us of the dangers of interventionism on quality.

Re-Read Saturday News

In week six of the re-read of L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around! we tackle chapter 7, titled I Relieve You. I am breaking the two chapter pattern to layup so that we can have a clean start the second part of the book next week Chapter Seven completes Part One of the book.  Part one serves tells the story of how Captain Marquet came to be in command of the USSN Santa Fe rather than the Olympia. Much of Marquet’s leadership model was emergent (like design in agile). Change may occur even without a shock like Marquet’s reassignment, but adding energy will hasten change. In this case, the shock made the development of Marquet’s leadership model inevitable.

Current Installment:

Week 6: I Relieve You – https://bit.ly/2F7C5ag

Previous Installments:

 

SPaMCAST 425 – Annual Tune-Up Ideas, Leadership, Kanban, Flow and Throughput

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Happy New Year!  

SPaMCAST 425 features our annual tune-up ideas. We need to strive to be more effective and efficient every day or the world will pass us by!  These are suggestions that have worked for me and might be useful for you.

We will also have columns from Steve Tendon with another chapter in his Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban, published by J Ross (buy a copy here).  Steve and I talked about Chapter 14 which covers kanban, flow, and throughput.  

Anchoring the cast is Gene Hughson’s Form Follows Function Blog with an entry in his theme of leadership patterns and anti-patterns.  This week we talk about The Great Pretender.

Remember that Penny Pullan in SPaMCAST 424 offered listeners a great offer!  Penny provided a coupon for her new book  Virtual Leadership for 20% off.  Use the code  VLF20 at www.koganpage.com, which includes post and packing in the UK and the USA.

 

SPaMCAST 417- Six Elements of Business Stories, QA Corner, Herbie and Tame Flow

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 417 discusses the six elements of business stories.  These six elements are required for effective business stories.  We also tackle whether each of those elements are equally important in telling the different types of stories spun in a business environment.

Steve Tendon joins the SPaMCAST this week to discuss Chapter 12 in Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban, published by J Ross (buy a copy here).   We discussed the Herbie and Kanban. The story of Herbie provides a great metaphor for the flow of work through an organization and how it can be improved. Visit Steve at www.tendon.net.

We cap this edition of the Software Process and Measurement Cast with a visit to the QA Corner with Jeremy Berriault. Jeremy and I discussed the Samsung Note 7 and testing. While we may not have to test lithium ion batteries professionally, we can extract lessons from this scenario on risk and testing! Connect with Jeremy on Linkedin.

Re-Read Saturday News

We continue the read/re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (published by Jossey-Bass).   As we move through the first part of the book we are being exposed to Lencioni’s model of team dysfunctions (we get through most of it this week) and a set of crises to illustrate the common problems that make teams into dysfunctional collections of individuals. Today we re-read the three sections titled Deep Tissue, Attack and Exhibition.  

Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads.

Next SPaMCAST

 

SPaMCAST 414 – Marcus Hammarberg, Agile In the Real World

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Marcus Hammarberg. We often think of Agile as a tool to build or maintain software. In some cases, people have recognized the applicability of Agile and lean techniques in other parts of the business.  In even rarer circumstances, people like Marcus have found a way to use Agile techniques to have a huge impact in the real world. Marcus tells use how he was able to use Agile and lean techniques and philosophy to save a clinic and more importantly to change lives of real people.  It is an amazing and uplifting story.

 

Two Teams or Not: First Do No Harm (Part 2)

WIP limits are needed to stop waiting in queues.

Recently a long-time reader and listener came to me with a question about a team with two sub-teams that were not participating well together. In a previous entry we began describing how kanban or Scrumban could be leveraged to help teams identify issues with how they work and then to fix them.  We conclude with the last two steps in a simple approach to leveraging kanban or Scrumban: