Episode 29 With Peter Measey

In this episode Peter Measey, one of the founders of Radtac, draws on his vast experience of implementing agile across the globe to look at things like the essential pre-requisites for successful transformation, the role of the framework in the transformation (ever heard of the JAD framework?) and why business agility is what’s most interesting him at the moment. Get in touch with him if you want to find out more!

Episode 28 With John Barratt

In this episode, John takes a look at the practice of agile coaching, the good, the bad and the value-judgement-relevant-to-organisational-context. Do we know what agile coaching really is? How can organisations starting out with agile tell an experienced coach from an agile consultant? Can you really learn to be a Scrum Master in two days and an agile coach in three?

Check out the project John’s working on here, www.whatisagilecoaching.org

Episode 27 With Helen Meek

Helen Meek approaches agile transformations with perspectives from both Scrum and Kanban, so in this episode we discuss why calling them evolutions might be better than calling them transformations, the pay offs between autonomy, scaling and distributing, why insights are better than metrics, the need for honesty and whether Kanban needs you to have a PhD in mathematics.

Episode 26 With Andy Spence

Andy Spence is doing something genuinely transformative in the agile space, taking agile into the world of audit. For those that don’t work in regulated industries, this may mean little. For those that do, it means a lot.

In this podcast, Andy talks through what he’s been doing and how it’s been working. We look at introducing Scrum without Scrum, how your audit team might actually become your transformation team, whether fixed scope is actually just unexamined scope and whether all the pain you’re experiencing in the name of regulations is actually just something you’re doing to yourself.

If you want to find out more about this space, click here to join Andy’s Agile In Audit meetup group in London.

Episode 25 With Simon Paynter

Simon Paynter’s a veteran of agile transformations both big and small, and knows better than most some of the problems or pitfalls they can encounter, or indeed not. In this episode we discuss what failure really means, how even ‘failed’ transformations may contain their successes, why your transformation programme shouldn’t be a programme, the concept of an agile nimbys and how you get whole departments whose job is to protect the status quo. You can also find out exactly what percentage agile Simon has managed to become.

Episode 24 With David Smith

David Smith explores an area we’ve not covered as much yet in these podcasts, the importance of product owning in all of this, specifically the mechanism of value points as devised by Jim Highsmith.

What effect do they have on whether to start small of go large with your agile transformation, and how value relates to cost? Is your transformation about reducing cost or maximising value? How should your vision be tied to your calculations of value? What if your product backlog isn’t a function of democracy? Can you name the fourth attribute the Scrum Guide says a product backlog item must have? If not, have a listen…

Episode 23 With Portia Tung

In this episode, Portia Tung looks at agile transformation from the personal perspective, looking at how we support individuals in transformations, rather than seeing people as one amorphous blob to be transformed. What memories of other experiences does change and transformation trigger in people, and why does that matter?

To find out more about Portia’s School of Play, click here.

(incidentally, I didn’t take the usual photograph with Portia for the podcast as there was a professional photographer taking photos of us whilst we were recording. When I got sent the photos, they were all of me and the back of Portia’s head. Not exactly the look I was going for, hence the above photo, which is better.)

Episode 22 With Jose Casal

A podcast episode that raises some of the difficult questions around agile transformations that other podcasts have yet to ask. As an agile person, should you take the day rate anyway when you know the transformation is not going to work?What are the metrics you should look at when considering your transformation? What if the most difficult yet most important thing to transform is yourself, because you’re right, and every other muppet is wrong? Jose also suggests a fantastic metaphor for transformations actually being metamorphses.

For more information on the Snowbird Collaboratory that Jose mentions, click here.

Episode 21 With Helen Lisowski

Helen Lisowski has been a huge inspiration to me over the last year or so, so it was great to get her take on things for this podcast. We discuss whether you need your senior management to buy in or buy out, the importance of journal keeping, why you don’t have to like people but you do have to respect them, and a great team building game called ‘lie to me’ which you could well run with your senior execs… .

I strongly recommend you find out more about Helen and her ideas at www.fluidworking.com

Episode 20 With Lisette Sutherland

There are so many facets to agile transformation, and a huge one is location. Whether you’re a startup wanting to maintain the benefits of bedroom working as you expand, or a huge enterprise transforming globally, being able to build non-collocated working into the mix is hugely more possible now than in 2001 when principle 6 of the Agile Manifesto said:

“The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”

At the forefront of this movement is Lisette Sutherland, who even runs the introductory workshops for what she does remotely. In this episode, we discuss why working remotely means you need rocking Internet, why to organise from north to south not east to west, why there’s no substitute for a bowl of nachos now and again and why the biggest risk when people work from home is that they work too much and burn out.

To find out more about Lisette’s work and get in touch with her, visit www.collaborationsuperpowers.com