Agile for Humans with Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller

90: Walking the Spine Model

Mar 19, 2018
Danie Roux, Agile practitioner and co-creator of the Spine Model, helps teams align around needs and principles. Kevin Trethewey, Agile coach and co-creator, applies systems thinking and XP-influenced approaches. They explain the Spine levels (needs, values, principles, practices). They show how to surface misalignment, move debates to principles, and choose tools by tracing back to values.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
ANECDOTE

Weeklong Room Experiment Got A Stalled Team Moving

  • Kevin used the Spine in a week-long room-bound experiment to get a stuck team moving.
  • He defined the week system, set three optimizations (whole person, whole team, value) and the team progressed after aligning needs.
ADVICE

Always Define The System Boundary First

  • Draw a clear boundary around the system you're addressing before anything else.
  • Kevin applied this by declaring "the system for a week" and setting outcomes (whole person, whole team, value) to align behavior quickly.
INSIGHT

Alignment Flows From Needs To Tools

  • The Spine runs top-down: Needs then Values then Principles then Practices then Tools.
  • Starting at needs prevents conversations stuck at tools like Jira and helps select principles that guide better practices.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app