Agile Software Development

#9 - Establishing Effective Agile Teams

"Establishing Effective Agile Teams" by Ben Linders at www.BenLinders.com Episode 9 of the Agile Software Development podcast where we talk about ways in which you can develop effective agile teams. We cover some of the fundamental guiding principles for establishing effective teams, those set out in the agile manifesto, and we've pick up several more that include belonging, psychological safety and trust. As Ben points out - 'imposing change on people isn't just ineffective, it's also unethical and inhuman'. Quite a statement but there's a lot to be said for encouraging your agile teams to travel their own agile journey. If you're interested in learning more building your agile teams then Ben runs various workshops, training, and webinars. You'll find more details about these at https://www.benlinders.com/services/

#8 - The 5 Skills You Need For Managing Complex Projects

"The 5 Skills You Need For Managing Complex Projects" by Elizabeth Harrin from www.GirlsGuideToPm.com Episode 8 of the Agile Software Development podcast where we're looing into some of the skills you'll need to develop for managing complex projects. Elizabeth takes us through why Adaptability, Collaboration, Communication, Expertise and Leadership as so critical. l And whilst this is a project management orientated blog post these 5 skills are equally critical in Agile projects. There can be no excuses for not.... having a willingness to adapt actively collaborating with your client or customer Being transparent and share, share, share. seeking out a mentor to improve your skill set leading your team by making the complex tangible If you're interested in learning more about developing your project management skill set you might like to investigate Elizabeth's Project Management Rebels training and coaching program.

#7 - Daddy, Where Do Product Backlog Items Come From?

"Daddy, Where Do Product Backlog Items Come From?" by Chris Sims from https://agilelearninglabs.com/ In Episode 7 of the Agile Software Development podcast we're delving in to some of the concepts behind the "product back log" with a post from Chris Sims. Chris takes us back to some fundamentals as we talk about the Product Backlog. Now every Agile team will have their own, slightly different, approach to managing the back log. What I like about Chris' approach is the simplicity and the clarity. Managing the inbound requests with the Protobacklog and pushing the rejected items to the Icebox. For those lucky enough to make it to the backlog we're organising by order, work estimates, and value estimates. If topics like 'work estimates' and 'Business value estimates', intrigue you, you might be interested in learning more from Chris with one of his Certified Scrum Product Owner or Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner workshops.

#6 - Imperfect Agile or Fit for Purpose

"Imperfect Agile or Fit for Purpose?" by James King from https://kingsinsight.com/ “Why batch value when you can deliver it continually?” - James King In this episode James King takes us through some of his thoughts around the philosophy of value and patterns for 'agile release approaches'. We cover a bit of philosophy around Kanban lacking a bit of imagination and being a bit self-absorbed and then we get to the point. Or rather three ideas around the patterns we can look to recognize, and practices we might want to move towards. We also find out how James' fitness instructor's mantra applies to agile. That mantra being, "Small amounts of effort applied consistently will eventually overcome large burst of effort applied sporadically". You'll find numerous hidden gems in this episode in the way of quotes from James. What you'll also find useful from this episode is the list of tools, approaches and techniques that James has collated. Resources covering topics like 'Defining the purpose of the team' and 'games to help people learn agile'. You'll find this invaluable list on his web site at https://kingsinsight.com/kings-guide-links-to-tools-and-approaches-in-this-blog/

#5 - The Errors of Estimation

"The Errors of Estimation" by Vasco Duarte from his blog at http://softwaredevelopmenttoday.com In this episode we find out why Vasco sees estimation as a failure point in agile development projects. We look at a number of different estimation approaches and explore their flaws. Vasco is a big advocate of the alternative 'No Estimates' approach to agile software development. If you'd like to learn more about this approach then Vascos book, 'No Estimates' and accompanying videos, are a great place to start. You'll find more information at https://oikosofyseries.com/no-estimates-book-order