SPaMCAST 383 – Peer Reviews, Responsibility without Authority, Shared Visions

Software Process and Measurement Cast 383 features our essay on peer reviews.  Peer reviews are a tool to remove defects before we need to either test them out or ask our customers to find them for us. While the data about the benefits of peer reviews is UNAMBIGUOUS, they are rarely practiced well and often turn into a blame apportionment tool.  The essay discusses how to do peer reviews, whether you are using Agile or not so that you get the benefits you expect! Our second segment is a visit to the QA Corner.  Jeremy Berriault discusses a piece of advice he got from a mentor that continues to pay dividends.  This installment of the QA Corner discusses how a QA leader can generate and leverage responsibility without formal authority.            Steve Tendon anchors this week’s SPaMCAST discussing Chapter 8 of Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban published J Ross. Chapter 8 is titled “Creating A Shared Vision At The Team Level”.  We discuss why it is important for the team to have a shared vision, the downside of not having a shared vision and most importantly, how to get a share vision.  Remember Steve has a great offer for SPaMCAST listeners. Check out https://tameflow.com/spamcast for a way to get Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach, and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban at 40% off the list price. Re-Read Saturday News This week we are back with Chapter 10 of How to Measure Anything, Finding the Value of “Intangibles in Business” Third Edition by Douglas W. Hubbard on the Software Process and Measurement Blog. In Chapter 10 we visited how to use Bayesian Statistics to account for having prior knowledge before we begin measuring.  Most common statistics assume that we don’t have prior knowledge of the potential range of what we are measuring or the shape of the distribution.  This is often a gross simplification with ramifications!   Upcoming Events I am facilitating the CMMI Capability Challenge. This new competition showcases thought leaders who are building organizational capability and improving performance. Listeners will be asked to vote on the winning idea which will be presented at the CMMI Institute’s Capability Counts 2016 conference.  The next CMMI Capability Challenge session will be held on March 15th at 1 PM EST.  http://cmmiinstitute.com/conferences#thecapabilitychallenge   I will be at the QAI Quest 2016 in Chicago beginning April 18th through April 22nd.  I will be teaching a full day class on Agile Estimation on April 18 and presenting Budgeting, Estimating, Planning and #NoEstimates: They ALL Make Sense for Agile Testing! on Wednesday, April 20th.  Register now!  Upcoming Webinars Budgeting, Estimation, Planning, #NoEstimates and the Agile Planning Onion March 1, 2016, 11 AM EST There are many levels of estimation, including budgeting, high-level estimation and task planning (detailed estimation). This webinar challenges the listener to consider estimation as a form of planning. Register Here Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features our interview with Gwen Walsh.  Gwen is the President of TechEdge LLC. We discussed leadership and why leadership is important.  We also discussed the topic of performance appraisals and how classic methods can hurt your organization. Gwen’s advice both redefines industry standards and provides you with an idea of what is truly possible. 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.