The Software Process and Measurement Cast 2020 In Review

Happy 2021!  As I reflect back on my goals for the podcast for 2020 I am reminded of the old saying “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” Overall we delivered a podcast every week but during the early days of the pandemic, fewer listened than before.  My gut is that when people stopped commuting, they stop listening. In response, we moved to a more interview-driven show, added panels, and multi-guest shows.  On the guest front, we had a number of guests back from previous years, such as Alan Kelley and Jeff Dalton. At the end of the year, the numbers were back up despite that lack of commuters – three of the most downloaded shows were first aired in late November.  The ten podcasts with the most downloads were:

 

2018 – Software Process and Measurement Blog, A Year in Review and Plans

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As mentioned earlier, the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog featured approximately 212 entries in 2018 (about the same number as 2017).  What was astounding was that the traffic was up 68% over last year

The top six entries published this year were:  

Life Cycle of A User Story: Hierarchy

Turn the Ship Around! By L. David Marquet Re-read Saturday Week 7, Chapters 8 – 9: Change, In a Word and Welcome Aboard Sante Fe

Agile Where Agile Fears to Tread: Commercial Off The Shelf Packages

Life Cycle of A User Story: States

Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability by Daniel S. Vacanti, Re-read Saturday Week 11: Introduction to Cycle Time Scatterplots

Guest Post: Why an Agile Center of Excellence is a Really Bad Idea

 

Note – the data is for direct page views – the home page of the blog gets the lion’s share of the views, therefore, it is difficult to attribute the data to a single blog entry.

 

2018 – Software Process and Measurement Cast: A Year in Review

Nothing Says Celebration Like Fireworks!

I enjoy looking back over the previous year to assess what we have accomplished on the blog and podcast. This was quite a year. Susan Parente and Wolfram Müller joined the podcast as columnists.  Anthony Mersino wrote a guest blog entry that was one of the highest traffic entries on the blog. We had year-over-year growth on both the blog and the podcast. We also got the podcast on Spotify. At the same time, I changed jobs this year. While this was positive from a work perspective, the change reduced the amount of time for blogging and podcasting.  During the year, we also had some technical issues causing the temporary loss of a few interviews. They have been recovered and we are catching up – I learned how to use a Linux distro to recover a drive. Overall we (it really is “we”) delivered 52 podcasts beginning with an interview with Kyle Siemens discussing The Case for Certifications and ending the year with essays and discussions covering Story Maps and Agile Risk Management. All 52 podcasts provided great content and there is not one of them I would not do again in a heartbeat.  We also delivered 212 blog entries.

The 10 most downloaded podcasts of the year were.

 

PodCamp Toronto 2018

We will take a break from our re-reading of Daniel S. Vacanti’s Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability: An Introduction (buy a copy today) this week.  I am spending the weekend learning and getting new ideas to improve the Software Process and Measurement Cast at PodCamp.  While I am sitting in lecture halls at Ryerson University in Toronto this weekend please take the time to weigh in on the poll to choose the next book in the Re-read Saturday Series.  You can vote for two books.  I will cut off the poll next Friday.

 

SPaMCAST 475 – Annual Round Table – Agile Not Just For Software Anymore

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 475 features the majority of the SPaMCAST Crew in a round robin discussion.  The recording session covered three topics; however, today we tackle the first topic: Whether agile can be used in other parts of the business.  We will return to the next two topics in February!  Six people with strong opinions. It is a pretty amazing discussion.

Voices you often hear on the SPaMCAST include this cast of incredible minds:

• Gene Hughson (Architecture)
• Jeremy Berriault (Quality Assurance)
• Kim Pries (Software Development)
• Steve Tendon (Lean and Kanban)
• Jon Quigley (Product Development) – not on this week’s cast
• Steven Adams (Agile Practitioner)

Re-Read Saturday News

This week we take a break from our re-read of Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability: An Introduction by Daniel S. Vacanti. Remember to buy your copy today and read along, and we will be back next week!

 

Celebrating 2017!

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With 2018 on the horizon I want to spend a few moments to showcase the most popular podcasts and blog entries published in 2017.

For those of you who read the blog and don’t listen to the podcast, a quick reminder — the Software Process and Measurement Podcast explores the varied world of software process improvement and measurement, providing solutions and advice on how to improve value delivery effectiveness. SPaMCAST combines essays, commentaries, interviews, question and answer sessions, and your feedback to serve up ideas, options, opinions, and advice that can be applied in the real world. In a nutshell, the cast provides advice for and from practitioners, methodologists, pundits, and consultants!

The podcast is published every Sunday, 52 times a year (except when we have equipment failure). We publish two types of podcasts. The first type features an interview, and the second is more of a magazine and includes an essay from the blog and two or three columns from a great group of contributors. The current cast of incredible minds include:

• Gene Hughson (Architecture)
• Jeremy Berriault (Quality Assurance)
• Kim Pries (Software Development)
• Steve Tendon (Lean and Kanban)
• Jon Quigley (Product Development)
• Steven Adams (Agile Practitioner)

Are you interested in participating? Pitch me! The more voices the better!

 

Holacracy: Re-read Week One, Logistics and Introduction

This week we begin our read of Holacracy with a few logistics and a review of the introduction.  We have a short entry this week that will give you time to buy a copy today and read along!  If you have not listened to my interview with Jeff Dalton on Software Process and Measurement Cast 433, I would suggest a quick listen. Jeff has practical experience with using the concepts of Holacracy in his company and as a tool in his consultancy.  

 

2016 Podcast and Blog Highlights in Review

With 2017 just beginning I want to spend a few moments to showcase the most popular podcasts and blog entries published in 2016.

 

SPaMCAST 390 – Vinay Patankar, Agile Value and Lean Start-ups

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 390 features our interview with Vinay Patankar.  We discussed his start up Process Street and the path Vinay and his partner took in order to embrace agile because it delivered value, not just because it was cool.  We also discussed how Agile fits or helps in a lean start-up and the lessons Vinay wants to pass on to others.

Vinay’s Bio:

Vinay Patankar is the co-founder and CEO of Process Street, the simplest way to manage your teams recurring processes and workflows. Easily set up new clients, onboard employees and manage content publishing with Process Street.

Process Street is a venture-backed SaaS company and AngelPad alum with numerous fortune 500 clients.

When not running Process Street, Vinay loves to travel and spent 4 years as a digital nomad roaming the globe running different internet businesses. He enjoys food, fitness and talking shop.

Twitter: @vinayp10

Re-Read Saturday News

We continue the read Commitment – Novel About Managing Project Risk by Maassen, Matts, and Geary.  Buy your copy today and read along (use the link to support the podcast). This week we tackle Chapters Three which explores visualization, knowledge options and focusing on outcomes. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Blog to catchup on past installments of Re-Read Saturday.

Upcoming Events

I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd.  I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th.  Register now!

I will be speaking at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 Conference in Annapolis, Maryland, May 10th and 11th. Register Now!

Next SPaMCAST

The next three weeks will feature mix tapes with the “if you could fix two things” questions from the top downloads of 2007/08, 2009 and 2010.  I will be doing a bit of vacationing and all the while researching, writing content and editing new interviews for the sprint to episode 400 and beyond.

Shameless Ad for my book!

Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: “This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team.” Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.

 

SPaMCAST 376 – Women In Tech, Microservices, Capabilities and More

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This week we are doing something special. Right after the New Year holiday, all of the regulars from the Software Process and Measurement Cast gathered virtually to discuss the topics we felt would be important in 2016.  The panel for the discussion was comprised of Jeremy Berriault (The QA Corner), Steve Tendon (The TameFlow Approach), Kim Pries (The Software Sensei), Gene Hughson (Form Follows Function) and myself. We had a lively discussion that included the topics of women in tech, microservices, capabilities, business/IT integration and a lot more.

Help grow the podcast by reviewing the SPaMCAST on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcatcher/player and then share the review! Help your friends find the Software Process and Measurement Cast. After all, friends help friends find great podcasts!

Re-Read Saturday News

We continue the re-read of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter Four, we focused on two questions. The first is getting the reader to answer what is the decision that measurement is supposed to support. The second is, what is the definition of the thing being measured in terms of observable consequences?

Upcoming Events