Software Process and Measurement Cast

One my favorite serial interviewees, Dr. Mark Bojeun, returns to the Software Process and Measurement Cast for a third time (we may need to get him a permanent seat at the table soon). Mark and I discussed the role and impact of project and product visions on the ability to effectively deliver value. The vision is an important directional statement that can't be left to chance! Mark has last visited the Software Process and Measurement Cast on SPaMCAST 388 to discuss PMOs as a strategic tool and before then on the SPaMCAST 280 to discuss his book, Program Management Leadership: Creating Successful Team Dynamics (Kindle version). Mark's Bio: Dr. Bojeun has more than 20 years of experience in providing strategic management and leadership through portfolio, project and program management. His experience includes developing and managing multi-million dollar portfolios, programs, and projects, facilitating the achievement of strategic objectives, and creating best practice processes for program and project management efforts. Dr. Bojeun has designed and implemented multiple Enterprise Program Management Offices (EPMOs) for domestic and multinational firms and has extensive experience in organizational change management through transformational leadership, strategic support and staff empowerment to management professionals in the development and implementation of organizational vision, mission, objectives, and goals. Contact Mark on LinkedIn Re-Read Saturday News We missed this week due to work! I was teaching Test Driven Development. It was an intense class with a great group. We will get back in the swing of things next week! Remember to buy a copy of Carol Dweck's Mindset and read along! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 429 will be something very special. Ryan Ripley (who appeared on SPaMCAST 404 and is the host of the Agile for Humans Podcast) recently connected virtually to discuss the role and impact of certifications on the Agile movement. It was a pretty intense discussion! We are going to release the audio on both our podcasts concurrently on Monday February 6th! Make sure both Agile for Humans and the Software Process and Measurement Cast are part of your weekly rituals! 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 427 begins with an essay on the Post-Agile Age, titled Onward to Post-Agile Age. The Post-Agile Age is coming and it is a bed that human nature and commercial pressures have created. Next Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the Cast to discuss how he views the role of product owner in Agile testing . Visit Jermey's new blog at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ The Software Sensei, Kim Pries, discusses requirements and weird tools like the Z notation. Reach out to Kim on LinkedIn. Jon M Quigley, brings his column, the Alpha and Omega of Product Development to the cast. In this installment, Jon concludes a three part series on configuration management. This week Jon puts all of the pieces together. One of the places you can find Jon is at Value Transformation LLC. Re-Read Saturday News This week we start to get into the nitty gritty of our re-read of Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. This week we discuss Chapter one and then explore some the applications of the mindset concepts to coaching. Remember to buy a copy of Carol Dweck's Mindset and read along! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 428 features an interview with Dr Mark Bojeun. We discussed the concept of project visions, their use and why they make sense in the Agile or Post-Agile age! 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 426 marks a milestone! SPaMCAST 426 is the end of Year 10. The Cast features our second annual roundtable. Almost all of the SPaMCAST contributors gathered virtually to discuss a number of topics, including: Is software quality really one of the most important focuses in IT in 2017? Even though people are adopting agile, is agile a principle-driven movement over? In 2017 will security trump quality and productivity? The multiway discussion was exciting and informative! This was a great way to finish year 10 and get the motor primed for year 11! Re-Read Saturday News This week we begin the re-read of Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. We will start slowly as I read ahead and give you time to find or buy a copy of the book. I am reading the 2008 Ballantine Books Trade paperback edition version of the book (I had to re-buy the book as my first copy seems to have a new home). I was excited that the Software Process and Measurement Blog readers selected Mindset for Re-read Saturday. I am looking forward to refreshing my understanding of the powerful ideas Dweck identifies as growth and fixed mindsets. Mindsets are very useful for understanding why some people grow and others don't and why some teams excel and other less so. Also, Mindset is easily the single most quoted book I have seen in presentations at conferences for the past few years. Next week we start in on Chapter One of the re-read of Carol Dweck's Mindset, buy a copy this week. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 427 begins Year 11 with an essay on the Post-Agile Age. It is coming and it is a bed that human nature and commercial pressures has created. (Not sure what I mean? Tune in, stream or download ) We will also have columns from Jon M Quigley, Jeremy Berriault, and Kim Pries. SPaMCAST 427 will celebrate the new SPaMCAST year in style! 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.

Happy New Year! SPaMCAST 425 features our annual tune-up ideas. We need to strive to be more effective and efficient every day or the world will pass us by! These are suggestions that have worked for me and might be useful for you. We will also have columns from Steve Tendon with another chapter in his Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban, published by J Ross (buy a copy here). Steve and I talked about Chapter 14 which covers kanban, flow, and throughput. Anchoring the cast is Gene Hughson's Form Follows Function Blog with an entry in his theme of leadership patterns and anti-patterns. This week we talk about The Great Pretender. Remember that Penny Pullan in SPaMCAST 424 offered listeners a great offer! Penny provided a coupon for her new book Virtual Leadership for 20% off. Use the code VLF20 at www.koganpage.com, which includes post and packing in the UK and the USA. Re-Read Saturday News In this week's re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing), we deliver final thoughts with three final takeaways. Next week we begin the re-read of Carol Dweck's Mindset, buy a copy this week. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 426 features our second annual roundtable. Almost all of the SPaMCAST contributors discussed a number of topics, including: Is software quality really one of the most important focuses in IT in 2017? Even though people are adopting agile, is agile as principle-driven movement over? In 2017, will security trump quality and productivity? The multiway discussion was exciting and informative! 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.

Happy New Year! SPaMCAST 424 features our interview with Penny Pullin. Penny returns to the SPaMCAST to discuss her new book Virtual Leadership: Practical Strategies for Getting the Best Out of Virtual Work and Virtual Teams. Virtual teams and therefore the need for virtual leadership is a critical success factor for delivering value in the 21st Century. Penny's Bio: Dr. Penny Pullan's latest book is Virtual Leadership: Practical strategies for getting the most out of virtual teams and virtual work. Writing it involved immersing herself in the virtual world and listening to countless stories of success and, all too often, disaster! Penny works with people in multinational organizations who are grappling with tricky projects: uncertain, with ambiguous requirements, stakeholders who need to be engaged and teams dispersed around the world. When they work with Penny, clients notice that communication, collaboration, and confidence grow and projects don't seem quite as tricky as before! Penny is a Director of Making Projects Work Ltd. in the UK and tweets at @pennypullan. Penny has offered SPaMCAST listeners a great offer! Virtual Leadership coupon for 20% off VLF20 at www.koganpage.com which includes post and packing in the UK and the USA. Re-Read Saturday News In this week's re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing), we review the chapter titled Understanding and Overcoming The Five Dysfunctions. This chapter is the most hands-on portion of the book, and I suggest spending time with the wide range of ideas Lencioni peppers throughout this section. Next week we will conclude this Re-Read with final thoughts. If you are new to the re-read series buy a copy and go back to week one and read along! I am running a poll to decide between Carol Dweck's Mindset, Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) and Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). I have also had suggestions (in the other category) for Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (Adam Grant) and Management Lessons from Taiichi Ohno: What Every Leader Can Learn from the Man by Takehiko Harada. I would like your opinion! (last day 1/1/2017) [polldaddy poll=9605629] Takeaways from this week include: Exercises are a great way to teach theory, but practical application makes it stick. Build trust or nothing else will work for long. Experiment with ideas to overcome dysfunctions and measure their impact on RESULTS. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 425 will feature the ideas from our annual tune-up blog entries. We need to strive to be more effective and efficient every day or the world will pass us by! Next week I have some suggestions that have worked for me. We will also have columns from Gene Hughson with more on leadership. Gene's ideas dovetail nicely with the concepts Penny talked about this week. We will also talk with Steve Tendon about Chapter 14 from his book Hyper-Productive Knowledge Work Performance. Chapter 14 is all about Kanban, flow, and throughput. 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 423 builds on our interview from last week with Philip Lew. This week we lead with a discussion of measuring quality. Quality is related to risk, productivity and customer satisfaction. Next Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the Cast to discuss the impact of certifications in software testing. Want a bit of foreshadowing? The answer is not cut and dry. Visit Jermey's new blog at https://jberria.wordpress.com/ The Software Sensei, Kim Pries , answers a question he was recently asked by one his students, "why do we have so many computer languages?" This a question I have often asked, usually when I have to learn the basics of a new language. Reach out to Kim on LinkedIn. Jon M Quigley, brings his column, the Alpha and Omega of Product Development to the cast. In this installment, the 2nd in a 3 part series on configuration management, Jon continues the cycle of configuration management which begins with requirements and travels across the whole lifecycle. One of the places you can find Jon is at Value Transformation LLC. Re-Read Saturday News In this week's re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing), we talk about two sections, An Overview of the Model and Team Assessment. There are two more weeks left before moving to the next book. If you are new to the re-read series buy a copy and go back to week one and read along! I am running a poll to decide between Carol Dweck's Mindset, Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) and Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). I have also had suggestions (in the other category) for Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (Adam Grant) and Management Lessons from Taiichi Ohno: What Every Leader Can Learn from the Man by Takehiko Harada. I would like your opinion! [polldaddy poll=9605629] Takeaways from this week include: Real teamwork is rare. The five dysfunctions are inter-related. Assessment are as useful as those taking them want them to be! Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 424 will post on New Year's Day. SPaMCAST 424 will feature our interview with Penny Pullan. Penny returns to the SPaMCAST to discuss her new book Virtual Leadership: Practical Strategies for Getting the Best Out of Virtual Work and Virtual Teams. Virtual teams are the norm in today's business environment. We need to learn the best ways to maximize the value from distributed teams. Penny sets a really high bar to begin the year! 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 422 features our interview with Phil Lew. Phil and I talked about the topic of Agile risk management. We explored how risk can be managed in Agile projects and the barriers to effective risk management. As important as the mechanics of Agile risk management are, Philip and I also explored the relationship between quality and risk, which may be more important in the long run. Phil's Bio Philip Lew is the CEO at XBOSoft. XBOSoft's software QA and software testing services help their clients deliver products to market faster and with higher quality; an ever increasing challenge as software becomes more complex and platforms increase. As a Corporate Executive, Development Manager, Product Manager and Software Engineer, Philip has managed teams to tackle broken processes, develop solutions to difficult problems, and coached others be leaders, managers, and experts. He leverages his academic background in operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science combined with hands-on work experience with programming, predictive modeling and algorithm development to work with clients and colleagues around the world. For kicks, he rides a bicycle and travels the world to quench his thirst for exploration and learning. Contact Data LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philiplewEmail: philiplew@gmail.comTwitter: @philiplew Re-Read Saturday News In this week's re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing), we conclude Part Four with the sections titled Harvest, Gut Check, and March. I suspect we have 2 or 3 weeks left before moving to the next book, BUT we still have a number of ideas to extract from this book. If you are new to the re-read series buy a copy and bo back to week one and read along! I am running a poll to decide between Carol Dweck's Mindset, Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) and Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). I have also had suggestions (in the other category) for Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (Adam Grant) and Management Lessons from Taiichi Ohno: What Every Leader Can Learn from the Man by Takehiko Harada. I would like your opinion! (see the poll below) [polldaddy poll=9605629] Takeaways from this week include: Progress is rarely linear (think two steps forward and one step back). Good teams can debate and then be friends. The good of the organization is important (Spock got it right). Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 423 will post on Christmas Day. SPaMCAST 423 will build on our interview from this week with Mr. Lew and discuss measuring quality. Quality is related to risk, productivity, and customer satisfaction. We will also have columns from Kim Pries, Jon M Quigley, and Jeremy Berriault. A big show to end the year! 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 421 features our essay on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics make people feel good, but are less useful for making decisions about the business. The essay discusses how to recognize vanity metrics and the risks of falling prey to their allure. We will also have columns form Steve Tendon with another chapter in his Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban, published by J Ross (buy a copy here). Steve and I talked about Chapter 13. Finally, Gene Hughson will anchor the cast with an entry from his Form Follows Function Blog. Gene and I started talking about leadership patterns and antipatterns. Re-Read Saturday News In this week's re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing), we conclude Part Three with the sections titled the Last Stand, Flack, Heavy Lifting, and Rally. I suspect we have 3 or 4 weeks left before moving to the next book, BUT we still have a number of ideas to extract from this book. If you are new to the re-read series buy a copy and go back to week one and read along! I have not heard any nay sayers on the idea of re-reading Carol Dweck's Mindset next; however, just be to fair I am going to include a poll at the end to decide between Mindset, Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) and Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). I would like your opinion! Takeaways from this week include: You are responsible for the atmosphere that you create. Leaders and teams bear the consequence of not dealing with bad attitudes. When someone leaves a team everyone will mourn to some extent. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 422 will feature our interview with Phil Lew. Phil and I talked about the topic of Agile risk management. We explored how risk can be managed in Agile projects and the barriers to effective risk management. 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 420 features our interview with John Hunter. John is a SPaMCAST alumni; John first appeared on SPaMCAST 226 to talk about why management matters. In this podcast John returns to discuss building capability in the organization and understanding the impact of variation. We also talked Deming and why people tack the word improvement on almost anything! John's Bio John Hunter has served as an information technology program manager for the Office of Secretary of Defense Quality Management Office, the White House Military Office and the American Society for Engineering Education. In 2013, he published his first book - Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. John created and operates one of the first, and still one of the most popular, management resources on the internet. He continues to aid managers in their efforts to improve their organizations with an emphasis on software development and leveraging the internet. His blog is widely recognized as a valuable resource for leaders and managers with a focus on improving the practice of management in organizations. Re-Read Saturday News In this week's re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing), we tackle the sections titled Accountability, Individual Contributor, and The Talk. We are getting close to the end of the novel portion of the book but over the next few weeks, we have a number of ideas to extract from the book before we review the model. (Remember to buy a copy and read along.) We are well over halfway through this book and I am considering re-reading Carol Dweck's Mindset next. What are your thoughts? Takeaways from this week include: Team members hold other team members accountable. Be aware of how you affect the people around you or suffer the consequences! Try to step back and reduce the stress when confronted by tough negotiations. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 421 will feature our essay on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics make people feel good, but are less useful for making decisions about the business. The essay discusses how to recognize vanity metrics and the risks of falling prey to their allure. We will also have columns form Steve Tendon with another chapter in his Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban, published by J Ross (buy a copy here). Finally, Gene Hughson will anchor the cast with an entry from his Form Follows Function Blog. 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 419 features our essay on eight quick hints on dealing with stand-up meetings on distributed teams. Distributed Agile teams require a different level of care and feeding than a co-located team in order to ensure that they are as effective as possible. Remember an update on the old adage: distributed teams, you can't live with them and you can't live without them. We also have a column from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries. In this installment, Kim talks about the Fullan Change Model. In the Fullan Change Model, all change stems from a moral purpose. Reach out to Kim on LinkedIn. Jon M Quigley brings the next installment of his Alpha and Omega of Product Development to the podcast. In this installment, Jon begins a 3 part series on configuration management. Configuration management might not be glamorous but it is hugely important to getting work done with quality. One of the places you can find Jon is at Value Transformation LLC. Anchoring the cast this week is Jeremy Berriault and his QA Corner. Jeremy explored exploratory testing in this installment of the QA Corner. Also, Jeremy has a new blog! Check out the QA Corner! Re-Read Saturday News The read/re-read of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (published by Jossey-Bass) continues on the Blog. Lencioni's model of team dysfunctions is illustrated through a set of crises used to illustrate the common problems that make teams into dysfunctional collections of individuals. The current entry features the sections titled Leaks through Plowing On. Takeaways from this week include: Partial information leads to misinterpretations. Executives need to be ultimately loyal to the executive team rather than their siloed organizations. Productive conflict requires facilitation to learn. Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads. Next SPaMCAST The Software Process and Measurement Cast 420 will feature our interview with John Hunter. John returns to the podcast to discuss building capability in the organization and understanding the impact of variation. We also talked Demining and why people tack the word improvement on almost anything! 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.