11. The Art of Throwing Ice Water on Reality
Vic (recently iced) is joined by Jon Jorgensen (@waterScrumBan) and Brett Palmer (@Brett_Palmer) for another morning of Agile and Coffee. In this episode, our Agile heroes discuss the following topics: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge – Jon and Vic both participated. Vic’s video is here. pre-review of Jeff Sutherland’s new book Scrum: the Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time Wall Walks with chairs Fresh Training and Book Updates Fantasy Football Draft parallels to Agile/Lean Reach out to Vic (@AgileCoffee) on Twitter – and use the hashtags #askAgileCoffee or #tellAgileCoffee to interact with us on an upcoming episode.
5. Creativity in Agile? Use Your Imagination
Live from Paradise Perks, Dr. Dave Cornelius (@DrCorneliusInfo) and Arielle Caron join Jon and Vic use the lean coffee format to discuss the following topics: 1. XScale 2. Kill Agile 3. koans, problem solving and goose in a bottle 4. brainstorming / inceptions … worthwhile? 5. Creative Inc’s model of brainstorming 6. Greenhousing and Jesse’s Lasso Reach out to Jon (@waterScrumBan) and Vic (@AgileCoffee) on Twitter – and use the hashtags #askAgileCoffee or #tellAgileCoffee to interact with us on an upcoming episode.
4. Coffee is Done When it’s Done
Live from Paradise Perks, Jon and Vic use the lean coffee format to discuss the following topics: Agile Games and Gamification Scrum as a gamification platform techniques used by people like Bryan Beecham (@BillyGarnet) at Iceberg Ideas Agile in Japan referenced The New New Product Development Game by Takeuchi and Nonaka, 1986 Training, Taboos and Readiness Jon’s favorite book: Training from the Back of the Room by Sharon L Bowman Recursion: Use it or Lose it Jim McCarthy (Software for your Head, the Booted, etc.) Jon brought up the movie Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp, but I thought he said “Elwood” and completely missed…
3. Lean Coffee for Two: Minimally Viable Agile
Vic (@AgileCoffee) and Jon use the lean coffee format to discuss the following topics: Minimally Viable Agile Transparency between POs, SMs and teams Non-IT Agile Safe environments and the Soup Plus we take a look ahead to the following agile/lean events both in California and across the USA: Scrum Day San Diego – June 13 Interact with local executives, ask why they went with Scrum and Agile and hear the benefits they received from this new way of working. Agile2014 – Orlando, FL — July 31 – Aug 1 AgileAlliance’s annual conference will reinforce our understanding of proven methods and will illuminate some of the exciting…
2. We’re Here and We’re Motivated
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…
20 Questions
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…
presenting “Agile for Start-ups: SG’s History with Agile”
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…
LeanCoffee in Ohio
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…
Scaling Me, Scaling You
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…
Now with more Meetups
Introducing the newest meetup: Agile Coffee – OC. I’ve been meaning to start this group since Stuart & I went up to San Fran for the SF Agile conference last May. There we met Jim Benson (Personal Kanban) and were introduced to Lean Coffee as a forum for discussing Lean, Kanban, Agile, limiting WIP, visualizing workflow, and just about anything else. A self-organized pull-system of learning / sharing. (Jim helped create Seattle Lean Coffee and has run it at dozens of conferences before the SF Agile event.) So that’s the goal here, in Orange County, is to get us together and start forming…