Future State Now: A Business Technology Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Agile 2019 Day 2: Mob Programming w/ Woody Zuill Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

Last week, the biggest conference in the Agile industry took place in Washington DC at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. We were proud to be a sponsor of this event and we were even more excited about catching up with friends—both old and new. For those of you who couldn't make it to the conference, we wanted to give you a little taste of what it's all about, so we decided to live-stream our podcast out of our booth in the Prince George Exhibitor Hall.

We had a chance to talk to a lot of really smart and interesting people while we were there; some who were speaking at the conference, others who were simply attending, and even a few who were involved in turning this event into a reality.

Here are some of the highlights from day two.

In this live talk, we’re chatting with Woody Zuill about Mob programming. We’ll discuss the problems it solves, who can do it, and how it works.

Agile 2019 Day 2: What’s Unique About Enterprise Agile Transformation? w/ Marty Bradley Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

Here are some of the highlights from day two.

In this live talk with LeadingAgile’s Marty Bradley, we’ll dig into the topic of Enterprise Transformation and discuss how it’s different from a traditional Agile PMO.

Agile 2019: Day 2 The Evolution of Business Agility w/ Dean Leffingwell Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

Here are some of the highlights from day two.

In this live talk with Dean Leffingwell, creator of SAFe, we discuss his Agile 2019 talk focus: increasing people’s understanding of what Business Agility really encompasses, and the evolution of its tenets.

Agile 2019 Day 2: Think Better—Fast and Slow w/ Linda Rising Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

Here are some of the highlights from day two.

In this live talk with Linda Rising, we discuss learnings from the book Thinking Fast and Slow, and how to use Daniel Kahneman’s research-supported approach to do a better job of thinking as an individual as well as working better together to think in groups.

Surviving Agile 2019 with Priya Setuhuraman Jul 31, 2019

Show notes

We're just days away from the start of the biggest Agile event of the year. Agile 2019 begins in Washington D.C. on August 5th and LeadingAgile will be there in full force. In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Executive Talent Lead Priya Sethuraman joins Dave Prior to share some tips and advice for those attending the conference who want to make the most out of their time.

The Agile Conference is an intense week filled with hundreds of sessions and events focused on helping attendees level up their Agile game. Whether you're attending for the first time, or you're a seasoned conference pro, this podcast will offer valuable recommendations to help you maximize the value you get from the time you spend in D.C.—and survive the conference intact.

If you're attending, LeadingAgile has two sessions you won't want to miss:

Mike Cottmeyer - Organizational Transformation
Monday, August 5 at 3:45 PM

Dennis Stevens - Assumptions and Ambiguity be Damned.
Develop a Strategy to Embrace Change.
Tuesday, August 6 at 9:00 AM

And please stop by our booth to say hi! If you are interested in joining the LeadingAgile team, make sure to connect with Priya and Rachel Howard who will be in the booth recruiting all week.

If you aren't able to make it to the conference, we'll be live streaming video podcast interviews with speakers and Agile thought leaders who are attending the show. So keep an eye on our Facebook channel throughout the week for live interviews from the exhibit hall floor of Agile 2019!

Contacting Priya Sethuraman

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/priya-sethuraman/
Email: priya@leadingagile.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyasethuraman/

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Advice for New ScrumMasters and Product Owners w/ Kaely Hall Jul 24, 2019

Show notes

And now for something completely different…

Kaely Hall has been working in the capacity of ScrumMaster and Product Owner for the last 16 months. She recently took LeadingAgile’s Certified Scrum Product Owner training and in this episode of SoundNotes, Kaely shares how her work as a Product Strategist for Big Nerd Ranch requires her to play the role of ScrumMaster for some clients, Project Manager for some clients, and Product Owner for others. During the interview, Kaely also offers advice and tips or those just stepping into a client-facing an SM or PO role, and how important it is to raise your EQ and develop a rapport with your client as quickly as possible.

Blog Post

Kaely’s blog post is here: https://bit.ly/2JKVNOW

Contacting Kaely Hall

Email: kaelyhall33@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaely-hall/

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Student QA: Can the ScrumMaster take on additional work? Should you re-estimate unfinished work? w/ Sarah Smith Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

This episode of SoundNotes features 2 questions recently submitted by students from our CSM and CSPO classes. LeadingAgile’s Sarah Smith and I respond to the questions, sharing our thoughts, recommended practices, and things to watch out for.

The two questions are:

1. Is it okay for the ScrumMaster to take on additional (non-ScrumMaster) work during the Sprint?
2. When you have unfinished work at the end of a Sprint, does it automatically carry over into the next Sprint, and should you re-estimate it before you begin working on it again?

In responding to the first question we discuss the potential impact of planning for the SM to take on non-SM work during the Sprint, how that can impact the team’s ability to deliver and, if the SM takes on additional work, what should that work be?

The second question focuses on the situation where you get to the end of the Sprint, you have partially completed work and many teams will automatically push that into the next Sprint. If you have partially completed work, let’s say it is a User Story that was originally estimated using Story Points, and it was an 8. If there are only a few minutes of work needed to complete that item in a future Sprint, why do some teams feel the urge to give it a new Story Point estimate (based on work remaining) and what impact does that behavior have on the Scrum Team’s velocity?

If you have follow-up questions for Sarah or Dave, here is how you can reach them:

Contacting Sarah Smith

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/sarah-smith/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahleasmith/

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Should You Limit the Size of Work Brought Into a Sprint? w/ Scott Sehlhorst & Andrew Young Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of SoundNotes, we tackle the question of whether or not it's a good idea for the Development Team to limit the size of work brought into a Sprint. Many teams consider this to be a valuable practice during Sprint Planning or when creating a Definition of Ready. The goal is to make sure that the Development Team is not committing work into a Sprint that they cannot complete during the course of a Sprint. This often shows up as something like “Nothing bigger than an 8” (for teams using Fibonacci to estimate User Story Points). While this practice can be valuable for the Development Team, it also has an impact on the Product Owner and how they prepare work for Sprint Planning.

During the podcast, LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant, Scott Sehlhorst and Senior Consultant Andrew Young talk with Dave about whether or not this practice actually helps and how it can become an impediment for the Product Owner who is trying to plan out work for the Release.

Note from Dave:

This conversation was very impactful for me in terms of how I think about “ready” and how I think about the work done by the PO in getting ready for the Sprint. Limiting the size of work brought into a Sprint has always been something I have advocated for because I think it helps the Development Team, but I’ve never taken the time to think about how it might create challenges for the PO, who may be far more concerned about the Release than the Sprint.

Links from the Podcast

Ron Jeffries on Story Points and Ideal Time https://ronjeffries.com/articles/019-01ff/story-points/Index.html
Mike Cohn on Story Points https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/what-are-story-points
Kenny Rubin on Definition of Ready https://innolution.com/blog/definition-of-ready
Why We Use Fibonacci Number to Estimate Story Points (Jeff Sutherland) https://www.scruminc.com/why-do-we-use-fibonacci-numbers-to-estimate-user-stories/
Probabilistic Forecasting Interview with Troy Lightfoot https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/54062/Probabilistic-Forecasting-with-Troy-Lightfoot
No BS Estimation Cards https://estimation.lunarlogic.io

Contacting Scott Sehlhorst

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/scott-sehlhorst/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sehlhorst
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sehlhorst/
Blog: http://tynerblain.com/blog/

Contacting Andrew Young

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/andrew-young/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atyoung/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/exclamation101
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

The Benefits of Volunteering w/ Julianne Jones Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

Julianne Jones is a Principal Consultant with LeadingAgile. Her work includes interfacing with the leaders of high profile organizations and pairing with them in order to help Transform their organization to achieve true Business Agility. She's also someone who believes in giving back to the Agile community. Recently, Julianne spent a week serving as the ScrumMaster for the volunteers that helped put on the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering.

In this episode of SoundNotes, Julianne shares some details about her experience volunteering for the Scrum Alliance. She talks about the work she did in Austin acting as a servant leader for the many people who gave their time in order to make the North American Global Scrum Gathering one of the most valuable Agile events to take place each year. During the interview, Dave and Julianne discuss why volunteering for professional organizations is so important, the benefits you receive as a reward for your time, and what it’s like to spend a few days coming together with dedicated people who want to commit their time to ensure that the people who come to the Scrum Gathering have the best possible experience.

Note from Dave:

Volunteering for professional organizations like the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance is one of the most powerful things you can do to develop your career. By offering your time, you get the opportunity to engage with people who are truly dedicated to Transforming the world of work. It's also one of the best ways you can develop a large network of like-minded individuals who you can turn to for support when you face challenging situations in Agile or when you are looking for a new gig.

Volunteering

For information on Volunteering for the Scrum Alliance:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-involved

For information on Volunteering for the Agile Alliance:
https://www.agilealliance.org/the-alliance/volunteer-signup/
(AgileAlliance membership is required)

To contact Julianne Jones

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/julianne-jones/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianne-jones-4042264/
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo

Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Getting Stakeholders to Attend Your Sprint Review w/ Sara McClintock May 30, 2019

Show notes

In this week’s episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Senior Consultant Sara McClintock and Dave take on two topics submitted by students from our CSM and CSPO classes:

1. What can I do in an organization to grow and promote our Sprint Reviews?

2. Stakeholder demand for timelines or deadlines being an impediment for the team.

Sara and Dave discuss different approaches to helping leadership understand the importance of Sprint Reviews and why their participation is so necessary for delivering a successful product. They also explore different techniques for responding to requests/demands that include unrealistic timelines and ways to begin coaching leadership into prioritizing the work, so that if a date commitment is established, the team can maximize the value they can deliver by the deadline.

Contacting Sara McClintock

If you’d like to contact Sara you can reach her at:

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/sara-mcclintock/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramcclintock/
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

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