Author Archives: Victor Bonacci

In this second episode of Agile Coffee podcast, Vic (@AgileCoffee) is joined by Jon and they use the lean coffee format to discuss the following topics: what motivates people making a difference body of work coddling teams are we overly idealistic? 50 new Agile coaches hired We mention the following books: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Daniel H Pink The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable (J-B Lencioni Series) – Patrick M. Lencioni Software for Your Head – Jim McCarthy Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives – Henry Kimsey-House, Laura Whitworth, et al. Plus we take a look…

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Our first AgileCoffee podcast, recorded live at the Knollwood restaurant in Irvine, CA, on March 13th, 2014. Victor Bonacci (@AgileCoffee) is joined by Brett Palmer, Jon Jorgensen and Curtis Gilbert. We can be reached at: Jon: @waterscrumban Brett: @brett_palmer Curtis: Vic: @agilecoffee Links: Southern California Agile User Group Agile Open California 2014 Items mentioned in this podcast: Pentel Color pens, sticky notes (multi-colored), a chime and a timer. Also, have you seen the Prime Directive? In this particular episode, you will learn: Who was on a boat? What to expect from future AgileCoffee podcasts When is Jon going to use…

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Agilists are everywhere. We come in all stripes. Combine these two observations and you realize that at any time the opportunity can present itself to broaden your perspective on Agile practices.  When we meet other practitioners, it’s routine to ask a few basic questions; but if we take a disciplined approach to our inquiry, the encounter becomes a powerful learning experience for both parties – and one that frames the shared memory of the relationship’s inception. I’ve recently come up with a list of 20 questions. The list isn’t static – it changes often. The questions themselves can range from the…

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Great news for those of you in sunny SoCal: expert agilist Diana Larsen is holding an Advanced Retrospectives workshop in San Diego on March 6th. The full title of the workshop is “Advanced Practices for Leading Agile Retrospectives: New Techniques and Activities”, and full details can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/advanced-retrospective-techniques-with-diana-larsen-tickets-8807454333 from her abstract: “Agile Retrospectives improve any project or process — building on a team’s immediate past experience of success and failure. Smart teams and organizations hold Retrospective meetings iteratively, throughout the work cycle and at important release milestones. With effective meeting design and facilitation, Retrospective leaders help team members systematically evaluate…

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In November I presented at SoCal Code Camp (USC) on the topic of my company’s history with Agile (from start-up to 200+ employees and 160B emails). It was my first time to present this topic, and it was tailored for an audience without much Agile experience. (For those interested, here’s a link to the slides: http://www.slideshare.net/VictorBonacci/agile-for-startups-sendgrids-history-with-agile-2013-bonacci# (If you’re interested, you can also view the full hour-long presentation here: http://www.screencast.com/t/WNwufLDPh01) In December I presented the topic again, this time to a roomful of practitioners at Agile San Diego. The audience there gave terrific feedback, including questions such as: which metrics were introduced when? to what effect…

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Just got back from a relatively relaxing Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Ohio for family and football. While there I hopped over to Starbucks to host a LeanCoffee in Ohio (I’d posted it on Meetup a few weeks prior). As I’d expected, attendance was nil. Not sure if that speaks more to the fact it was a holiday weekend or that Ohioans don’t use meetup. I ruled out there being no love for Agile/Lean, for within a couple minutes of sitting there with my post-its and sharpies, the guy next to me (Robert) started asking me what I had? We talked about the…

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I’m excited to be heading to Nashville in only a few days, and not just because it’s a fun-sounding place that I’ve yet to visit. Agile2013 is a 5-day event that kicks off on Monday August 5th. I’ll be looking to connect with very smart people and share stories of successes (and failures). It’s also a great opportunity to learn and be exposed to new ideas that will add zest to my role as a scrummaster / project manager / coach. And did I mention five days in Nashville?

Just read @zxed‘s post on skills you don’t have which had me reflect on my own style. I believe there are many skills (an unknowable amount and always in flux) essential to elite leadership. More than this, I believe that to become a great leader, everyday must be oriented toward greatness, no matter the increment. In my current role (technical project manager / agile coach) I have many opportunities to be great, breaking out like so: competency: It sounds like a minimum requirement, but I feel I’m deficient more often than not. I feel that if off the cuff I can…

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I just scheduled our next meetup and threw these two questions out: How many teams is too many for one roving scrummaster? How many members before a team is too large? What’s great is that the group can discuss / debate the question. Despite being in Scrum environments for over six years, I don’t have THE answer, but I DO have some opinions based on solid experiences. Without playing too much of my hand prior to the actual meet-up, here’s what I’m thinking: Roving ScrumMaster I was hired here at SendGrid as an Agile Coach tasked with leading the transformation…

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Recently we encountered a large-enough issue that required a postmortem (like a retro). One of the teams involved asked if they should put that into the sprint and give it points (ie. size it). This reminded me of a debate we encountered in our earliest days of implementing Agile. One side insists that we only point planned stories that provide immediate, direct business value to the company. Therefore, things like defects, chores, and meetings should not get points assigned. The reasoning here is that these activities are typically not included because they may occur without consistency and predictability across iterations;…

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