Software Process and Measurement Cast

SPaMCAST 448 features our essay on uncertainty. Al Pittampalli said, "uncertainty and complexity produce anxiety we wish to escape." Dealing with uncertainty is part of nearly everything we do our goal should be to address uncertainty head on. The second column features Steve Tendon talking about Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross (buy a copy here). We tackle Chapter 18. Our third column is the return of Jeremy Berriault and his QA Corner. Jeremy discusses leading in QA. Jeremy blogs at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 10 concludes our re-read of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson which was published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. This week's chapter is titled, The Experience of Holacracy. In this chapter, Robertson wraps up most of the loose ends. Next week we will conclude this re-read with some final comments and thoughts. Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Week 10: Moving Toward Holacracy Week 11: Experience of Holacracy In two weeks we will begin the next book in our Re-read series, The Science of Successful Organizational Change. (I ordered my copy have you?). Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you even got a single new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 449 will feature our interview with Jasveer Singh. We discussed his new book, Functional Software Size Measurement Methodology with Effort Estimation and Performance Indication. Jasveer, proposes a new sizing methodology for estimation and other measurement processes. 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 447 features our interview with Angela Wick on the role of the Product Owner and Business Analyst in Agile efforts. These two roles are critically important for delivering value in an Agile environment. Angela provides a fresh take on the Product Owner role and the Product Owner's relationship to other roles Agile teams. Angela is the founder of BA-Squared, LLC, a training and consulting practice. She is passionate about modernizing requirements practices and helping organizations collaborate on a Product Vision aligned to strategy and guiding them to a meaningful backlog and iterations that keep the customer and organizational value top of mind. She trains, coaches and teaches organizations on Product Ownership and Agile BA! Email: Angela@BA-Squared.Com Web: http://www.ba-squared.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelawickcbap Twitter: https://twitter.com/WickAng This is not the first time the SPaMCAST has featured essays and conversations on the role of product owners ( for exampleSPaMCAST 430 and SPaMCAST 325). Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 9 continues the third section of Holacracy, Evolution Installed: Living Holacracy. Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson was published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. This week's chapter is titled If You're Not Ready To Adopt: Moving Toward Holacracy. In this chapter Robertson softens his if-you-can't-do-it-all-don't-do-anything approach. This chapter begins with a story of Robertson being asked how they can move forward in a limited manner. The person had just intently listened to a talk on Holacracy. The person explained that they could see the value, but did not have to power to change the organization or even their department. Robertson's knee jerk response was that you could not use parts; however, the response felt wrong. So he reached out the larger community of practitioners to gather their field observations for how they handled scenarios in which everything could not be implemented. Whether the story is apocryphal or not matters less than that this chapter softens the all-or-nothing stance stated earlier in the book. Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Week 10: Moving Toward Holacracy In approximately three weeks we will begin the next book in our Re-read series, The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 448 will feature our essay on uncertainty. Al Pittampalli said, "uncertainty and complexity produce anxiety we wish to escape". Dealing with uncertainty is part of nearly everything we do. The second column will feature Steve Tendon talking about Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross (buy a copy here). We tackle Chapter 18. Our third column will be from Jeremy Berriaul.t. Jeremy discusses leading in QA. Jeremy blogs at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ 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 446 will feature our essay on questions. Questions are a coach and facilitator's secret power! But, with great power comes great responsibility. Our second column is from Gene Hughson. Gene and I discussed his essay Go-to People Considered Harmful originally published on his blog Form Follows Function (www.genehughson.wordpress.com). The concept may sound counterintuitive, but it is not. The third column is from Kim Pries, the Software Sensei. In this installment, Kim dives into the topic of servant leadership. Re-Read Saturday News This week we tackle Chapter 8 of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. Chapter 8 is a bit of a bits and bobs chapter but begins to draw in a lot of loose threads. This week we also announce the next book in the re-read series. The envelope please. . . . The next book is The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Remember to use the link to buy a copy in order to support the podcast and blog. The reread will be led by Steven Adams. Steve has been an active participant in many of our previous re-reads and has appeared twice on the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss earlier re-reads. I will provide supplemental comments and highlights. I am looking forward to sitting on the other side of the table during the next re-read! Catch up on the all of the Holacracy entries: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Week 9 Adopting Holacracy Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 447 will feature our interview with Angela Wick on the role of the product owner and business analyst in Agile efforts.The two roles are important and interrelated. This is not first-time the SPaMCAST has featured essays and conversations on the role of product owners ( for example SPaMCAST 430 and SPaMCAST 325). Angela provides a fresh take on the role! 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 445 features the return of a favorite, Capers Jones. It is always fun to talk with someone with their own page in Wikepedia. Capers and I talked about his new book, A Guide to Selecting Software Measures and Metrics. Capers is passionate about software quality and measurement. Capers said, "High-quality software is not expensive. High-quality software is faster and cheaper to build and maintain than low-quality software, from initial development all the way through total cost of ownership." Jones, Caper, Bonsignour, Olivier, and Jitendra Subramanyam, Jitendra, The Economics of Software Quality. As usual, Capers was engaging, educational and controversial. Spending time with Capers is always a learning experience! Capers biography is long and storied. Let it be said that Capers is a serial author, public speaker, pundit, guru and deep thinker. Check out his Wikipedia page or Linkedin. Capers can be contacted at capers.jones3@gmail.com. Capers first appeared on SPaMCAST 3 and last appeared on SPaMCAST 53 Re-Read Saturday News This week we tackle Chapter 7 of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. Chapter 7 shows how to generate alignment between roles, circles, and the overall organization. Lots of inspect and adapt talk this week. Catch up on the first four entries in the re-read Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Week 8: Strategy and Dynamic Control Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening. If you leave a review please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 446 will feature our essay on questions. Questions are a coach and facilitator's secret power! Do you have a favorite go to question you like to ask? Care to share? We will also have columns from Gene Hughson and Jon M Quigley (and maybe more)! 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.

This week's Software Process and Measurement Cast features our essay revisiting the product owner role. The product owner role is hard, often messed up and a great opportunity for improvement. The second column features the return of Steve Tendon talking about Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross (buy a copy here). We tackle Chapter 17 which is titled Challenges of Work-State Work in Process Limits. WIP limits have their plusses and minuses when discussing hyper-productivity. Our third column this week is from Jeremy Berriault. Jeremy discusses how to show the value of QA and why knowing and showing value is important! Jeremy blogs at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ Re-Read Saturday News This week we tackle Chapter 6 of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. Chapter 6, Facilitating Governance, puts the ideas and processes defined in governance to work. Catch up on the first four entries in the re-read Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations Week 7: Facilitating Governance Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 445 features the return of a favorite, Capers Jones. Capers and I talked about his new book, A Guide to Selecting Software Measures and Metrics. As usual, Capers was engaging, educational and controversial. Spending time with Capers is always worthwhile! 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.

The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Brad Clark. Brad and I talked about cost estimation, estimation in government and COCOMO II and what is on the way in COCOMO III. Even if you are firmly in the #NoEstimates camp this interview will give you ideas to think about! Brad's Bio Dr. Brad Clark is Vice-President of Software Metrics Inc. – a Virginia-based consulting company. His area of expertise is in software cost and schedule data collection, analysis and modeling. He also works with clients to set up their own estimation capability for use in planning and managing. He has also helped clients with software cost and schedule feasibility analysis and cost estimation training. Dr. Clark received his Master's in Software Engineering in 1995 and Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1997 from the University of Southern California. He is a co-author of the most widely used Software Cost Estimation model in the world, COCOMO II. This model estimates the effort and duration required to complete a software development project. Email: brad@software-metrics.com Re-Read Saturday News This week we tackle Chapter 5 of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. Chapter 5, Operations, puts the roles and policies defined in governance to work. Next week we will have some VERY exciting news about the next book in the Re-read Saturday feature! Catch up on the first four entries in the re-read Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Week 5: Governance Week 6: Operations (Current Week) Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will our essay re-visiting the product owner role. The product owner role is hard, often messed up and a great opportunity for improvement. We will also have columns from Steve Tendon and Jeremy Berriault. This will be an important cast to start the summer season in the northern hemisphere! 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.

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 442 features our essay on capability teams. The use of teams to deliver business value is at the core of most business models. Capability teams are a tool to unlock the value delivery engine of teams. Gene Hughson brings his Form Follows Function Blog to the cast this week to discuss his recent blog entry titled, Systems of Social Systems and the Software Systems They Create. We live in a complex world and just focusing on social systems or software systems misses the point! Our third column is from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries. The entry this week is titled, Software Quality and the Art of Skateboard Maintenance. This entry is an homage to Robert M. Pirsig the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, who recently died. Re-Read Saturday News And welcome back! For those who are interested, The Frederick Half Marathon last weekend was great. I met my goals: I crossed the finish line, collected my medal and got to hang out with my family in Frederick. This week, we begin Part Two of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015. Part Two is titled Evolution At Play: Practicing Holacracy. In my opinion, Part Two provides readers with the nuts and bolts needed to use Holacracy. Chapter 4, titled Governance, takes all of the building blocks from previous chapters and starts to weave them together. Catch up on the first four entries in the re-read Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action If you got a new idea this week while listening to the podcast, please give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes. Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature interview with Brad Clark. Brad and I talked about cost estimation, estimation in government and Cocomo II and what is on the way in Cocomo III. 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.

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 441 features our interview with John Le Drew. John and I discussed the concept of safety at work, and how safety, or the lack of it, affects the effectiveness of software teams. John's bio . . . In almost 2 decades working in software engineering, John Le Drew has worked as a software engineer, team lead, project manager, product owner, trainer, agile coach, and consultant. Working with clients ranging from small start-ups to multinationals. Through Wise Noodles he has helped organizations solve tough technical problems by untangling their people problems. John hosts The Agile Path Podcast; producing in-depth audio documentaries on the topics that most affect organizations transitioning to agile ways of working. The manifesto for agile software development and the principles behind it is central to how John approaches software and value development. Working with organizations to help them learn to apply the principles has become a passion. There is nothing more exciting to John than seeing a team surprise themselves with potential they did not realize they had. Contact John via email at john@wisenoodles.com. Re-Read Saturday News We are taking a week off from our re-read of Holacracy. We are taking the break because I am participating in the Frederick Running Festival. I will be slowly running my 4th ½ marathon and between the drive and festivities, the editing on this week's entry is incomplete. Please catch up on the first four entries in the re-read Week 1: Logistics and Introduction Week 2: Evolving Organization Week 3: Distribution Authority Week 4: Organizational Structure Next week, we will tackle governance. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action I still need your help. I have observed that most podcasts and speakers at conferences over-represent people from Europe and North America. I would like to work on changing that exposure. I would like to develop a feature featuring alternate software development voices beginning with Africa and Southeast Asia. If this feature works we will extend it to other areas. If you can introduce me to practitioners that would be willing to share their observations (short interviews) I would be appreciative! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature our essay on capability teams. The use of teams to deliver business value is at the core of most business models. Capability teams are a tool to unlock the value delivery engine of teams.

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 440 features our essay on two storytelling techniques: premortems and business obituaries. Almost all work that takes more than a few days is subject to risks that are not immediately obvious without some form of structured process to focus the team's thought process. Teams often use storytelling techniques to generate a big picture/vision to guide a project or to help people frame their thoughts. A story provides a deeper and more nuanced connection between the team and information than most lists of PowerPoint bullets or a structured requirements documents. The same storytelling skill can be used as a risk management tool. Premortums and business obituaries are structured techniques for using storytelling for risk management. Our second column is from Jeremy Berriault. Jeremy discusses the importance of conferences for learning new ideas and for networking. Jeremy suggests that if you are have not learned new ways to test and you are testing the same way you were last year then you are falling behind. Jeremy blogs at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ Jon M Quigley brings his column, The Alpha and Omega of Product Development, to the Cast. In this installment, Jon discusses mental models and their impact on how you develop and deliver value. One of the places you can find Jon is at Value Transformation LLC. Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 3 of Holacracy completes Part 1 by laying out the structure needed for an organization to be able to quickly and continuously evolve how authority is distributed. An organization's structure needs to be conducive to the processes needed to distribute authority. This chapter provides an alternative to the classic pyramid structure of organization design which is typically out of date, irrelevant and difficult to change. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action I need your help. I have observed that most podcasts and speakers at conferences over-represent people from Europe and North America. I would like to work on changing that exposure. I would like to develop a feature featuring alternate software development voices beginning with Africa and Southeast Asia. If this feature works we will extend it to other areas. If you can introduce me to practitioners that would be willing to share their observations (short interviews) I would be appreciative! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature our interview with John Le Drew. John and I discussed the concept of safety at work and how safety, or the lack of it, affects software teams. John is the host of the Agile Path Podcast I recommend you check out his podcast but make sure you are back here for our interview next week! 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.

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 439 features Alex Yakyma. Our discussion focused on the industry's broken mindset that prevents it from being Lean and Agile. A powerful and a possibly controversial interview. Alex's Bio Alex Yakyma brings unique, extensive, and field-based experience to the topic of implementing Lean and Agile at scale. Throughout his career, he has served as an engineering and program manager in multi-cultural, highly-distributed environments. As a methodologist, trainer and consultant, he has led numerous rollouts of Lean and Agile at scale, involving teams in North America, Europe and Asia, and has trained over a thousand coaches and change agents whose key role is to help their organizations achieve higher productivity and quality through the adoption of scalable, agile methods. Alex is a founder of Org Mindset (http://orgmindset.com), a company whose mission is to help enterprises grow Lean-Agile mentality and build organizational habits in support of exploration and fast delivery of customer value. Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 2 of Holacracy tackles why the consolidation of authority is harmful to the ability to nimble, agile (small a), and productive organizations and secondly, why the distribution of authority supports an organization's ability to scale. The argument in Chapter 2 is a central tenant of Holacracy. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. A Call To Action I need your help. I have observed that most podcasts and speakers at conferences over-represent people from Europe and North America. I would like to work on changing that exposure. I would like to develop a feature featuring alternate software development voices beginning with Africa and Southeast Asia. If this feature works we will extend it to other areas. If you can introduce me to practitioners that would be willing to share their observations (short interviews) I would be appreciative! Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will be a big show! SPaMCAST 440 will feature our essay on two storytelling techniques premortems and business obituaries. We will also have columns from Jeremy Berriault, Jon M Quigley, and Steve Tendon. 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.