Engineering Culture by InfoQ

Latest Episodes:

Nigel Dalton on Taking Back Management Apr 01, 2019

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In this podcast recorded at the Agile India conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Nigel Dalton, Chief Inventor at REA Group about his experiences and the need to take back management as an important practice in today’s organisations Why listen to this podcast: • There is a science of invention – deliberately combining things that you might not have thought of combining before • What matters more than having an agile process is having a resilient organisation – bounce-back-ability • The four elements which need to be present for sustainable success are good management, resilience, creativity and agility • Management as a profession and practice has become tainted and unpopular, yet good management is critical to organisation success • The more organizations that can apply humanistic values, lean principles, value focus, flow of work and continuous improvement the stronger the economy will become More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ hhttps://bit.ly/2HQNoJW You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2HQNoJW

Flint Brenton on the Collabnet/VersionOne merger and Helping Customers Adopt Value Streams Mar 26, 2019

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In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Flint Brenton, CEO of Collabnet/VersionOne on how the organisation is integrating post the merger and supporting customers as they adopt value stream thinking. Why listen to this podcast: • Reflecting on the way the two businesses have come together since the merger of Collabnet and VersionOne • The company is focusing on supporting value stream management in their customers development businesses • You can adopt value stream management without including DevOps, but it’s really hard and doesn’t deliver the expected benefits • Regardless of size, every enterprise is now a software company • The importance of educating customers on the cultures that are found in the best run development organisations and the benefits that are possible More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2HH6uSO You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2HH6uSO

Andrew King of Ocado Technologies on Great Hiring Practices and Designing Culture Mar 19, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Andrew King, Organisational Scientist at Ocado Technologies about the hiring practices they use and how to design the culture you want. Why listen to this podcast: • Context effect says that anything that happens in decision making that is altered by the context in which the decision is made • The compromise effect – when faced with a choice of options we try to avoid the extremes • These types of effects impact hiring processes and culture design and have to be actively mitigated against • Design your interviewing questions very carefully to explore the things that will actually help in the decision-making process • The content of an interview is the candidate’s responses, not the questions that are asked • To implement effective change, follow the principles rather than blindly following a process More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2FfKyuo You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2FfKyuo This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.

Jason Box and Paul Johnston on What Technologists can do About Climate Change Mar 13, 2019

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In this podcast recorded at QCon London 2019, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Jason Box and Paul Johnston about the impact climate change is having, how information technology contributes to greenhouse gasses and what technologists can do to help combat it. Why listen to this podcast: • Climate change is the challenge of our time • Data centers are a real problem IRO global warming and greenhouse gas emissions • Data centers have the same emissions impact as the aviation industry • There is an initiative to have all data centres using sustainable power sources by 2024 • Data center demand is set to increase by 5 times by 2025 • The greenlandtrees.org initiative is planting trees to capture carbon More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2Hi9jt8 You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2Hi9jt8

Kim Scott on Radical Candor Mar 06, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Kim Scott, author of the book Radical Candor about what radical candor is and how it can be applied in teams and relationships. Why listen to this podcast: • Radical candor is the behaviour which comes about when people both care personally and are able to challenge directly in a relationship • Telling each other about problems or praising each other in a way that is productive is difficult and seldom done well • Radical candor is first and foremost about soliciting feedback and criticism - ask the question “what can I do, or stop doing, that will make it easier to work with me?” • It is even more important to give public praise than it is to give private criticism – recognise and encourage positive behaviour • The best way to encourage radical candor is to be open to it yourself – demonstrate the behaviour you want to encourage in others More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2TgZUZu You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2TgZUZu

Anna Obukhova on The Biology of Leadership and Working with Tired Teams Feb 18, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Anna Obukhova about the neuroscience and biology of leadership and what it takes to coach and work with tired teams. Why listen to this podcast: • When we change a process we also impact and cause change to the body and brain of the people involved in the process • Behavioural ethology shows how the perception of being in a “caged environment” impacts hormone production and results in changed attitudes and approaches • Energy levels vary from person to person and over time; maintaining high energy is crucial to leading and adapting to change • Tired teams need different styles of coaching and support, using the same techniques as with energised teams can result in harm • Different agile approaches and frameworks are applicable with companies and teams who have different energy levels, trying to apply a high energy framework in low energy environment will fail and cause stress More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2GV24qn You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2GV24qn

Ash Coleman on Testing, Ethics, Diversity and What it Means To Be an Ally Feb 11, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Ash Coleman . Why listen to this podcast: • Testing is not a simplistic process that can be reduced to automation, although automation helps • Ethics matter in software development I we need to build products that the builders are proud of, that people will use in real life and that is safe for them to use • The lack of diversity in teams producing AI/ML based products results in very biased datasets • Ally-ship is an important role for people who have privilege to support and enable people from disadvantaged communities to overcome the biases in the system • It takes work, money and time to fix the imbalances in our workplaces – it doesn’t just happen because we would like it to More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2MZdZ7j You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2MZdZ7j

Deema Dajani & Shannon Mason on the Women in Agile community and Supporting Women in Technology Feb 05, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Deema Dajani (Advisor Transformation Consulting) & Shannon Mason (VP Product Management, Agile Central) of CA Technologies about the Women in Agile organisation, their own experiences as women in the technology industry and ways to support and increase diversity in organisations. Why listen to this podcast: - Women in Agile is an incorporated not for profit focused on supporting, enabling an empowering women and allies in the agile community - The unconscious bias that comes in to so many aspects of work, particularly as it impacts recruitment - There is data which shows that the more diverse a team is, the better the solutions they come up with are - The need to coach and support women candidates for promotions and new roles to encourage them to overcome their own self-evaluation, which is often more judgemental than it should be - There are pools of qualified people with diverse backgrounds not just a few isolated individuals – helping ensure that the ratios in our organisations match the ratios in society More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2UGu8RW You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2UGu8RW

Chloë Bregman on High Performance Design Jan 30, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Chloë Bregman about high performance design. Why listen to this podcast: • High-performance design is design that fits with the customers needs and is successful • Design is worthless unless it is creating ROI in some way • Design is not “one thing” – there are many aspects which need to be addressed and these aspects have tension between them • All design is human experience design • We’re almost always wrong in what we think will be a good design, so a culture that is comfortable to be wrong and learn is critical for success • Ask “if we changed one thing, what possibilities could that open up for us” and make the change to see what the results are More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ https://bit.ly/2UxxDdj You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/2UxxDdj

Seb Rose on BDD, Cucumber, Cyberdojo, Certification and Testers in Code Reviews Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2018 conference Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Seb Rose, a dispassionate developer, and one of the principals of Cucumber Limited about his work at Cucumber, the Cyber-dojo charity, designing a robust certification program and involving testers in code reviews Why listen to this podcast: • Cucumber is more than a testing tool – it is a collaboration tool • There is a lot of confusion around what Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) is and isn’t • BDD is made up of three distinct practices: Discovery, Formulation and Automation – Cucumber is only about the Automation practice • Provide concrete examples to communicate business needs using BDD to ensure that business rules are defined unambiguously • Cyber-dojo is a place for people to practice their coding skills on many platforms • Ideas around designing a robust certification scheme The value of having testers involved in code reviews goes far beyond reading the code

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