conferences
My notes from conference sessions I have attended.
AgileIndy 2019
April 26th, 2019
Indianapolis
Morning Keynote: Business Agility, what else?
with Arie Van Bennekum
On the cost of delay: “If you’re late? Don’t worry, your competition will be on time.”
50% of the cost of a software system is due to misunderstanding.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and yet we keep writing documentation!
Paradigms define our reflexes under stress.
Afternoon Keynote: Personal Agility
with Maria Matarelli
What Really Matters?
Satir Change Model
Status Quo ->
Foreign Element ->
Chaos ->
Transforming Idea ->
New Status Quo
Direction is more important than Speed.
Personal Agility
Columns:
What Really Matters? Up to 4 major life themes
What is Important? Possibilities for advancing what matters
What is Urgent? Something bad might happen if these don’t get done
Done this Week
Done Done (Journal what actually happened, planned and unplanned–visibility!)
Promoted mypersonalagility.org
Value stream maps: the secret weapon
with Chris Daily and Michael Denk
#slinkythink
Lean
Continuously deliver value, improve, and eliminate waste
Gemba Walk
“Go to where the work is done”
Managers walk the production floor to observe and engage with the workers
A value stream is all of the steps that it takes to produce something of value. A value stream map is a flowchart of a value stream.
- Boxes represent tasks or milestones
- Diamonds represent decision points
- Arrows between these indicate flow
- Must have clear start and end points
Add metrics to map elements to see their impact on the value stream.
Lead Time
Value Add Time
% Complete/Accurate
Don’t introduce metrics you don’t need to improve the flow–that would be adding waste.
Scrum Masters, Let’s Get Technical!
with Marcy Elhamidi
The Problem
Non-technical Scrum Masters have difficulty communicating with and leading a team of nerds.
Find champions–developers who are fanatic about something (TDD, Pipelines, Database, etc.)–and build your teams around them. Get them to lead and teach others.
Read software development books (e.g., Refactoring, Clean Code, Extreme Programming Explained), blogs, and listen to podcasts
Learn about Extreme Programming–the technical side of agility!
Don’t just assume that the developers you’re working with truly understand concepts like iterative development, TDD, and CI/CD.
Assess your team based on a CI/CD maturity model
Get developers to come prepared for backlog refinement meetings–indicate the stories to be discussed ahead of time, and have them look at the code involved before the meeting.
Fakes & Bullies: Taming your impostor syndrome to find your inner thought leader
with Kat Daugherty
Shu (How to spot an Agile Bully)
Faces of Imposter Syndrome
from Valerie Young’s The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women
Perfectionist. Setbacks crush my self-worth because people expect me to be good at things. I may avoid trying things because I might fail.
Soloist. I hesitate to ask for help or work with others, because it might appear I don’t have the right skills.
Expert. I feel self-conscious when someone calls me an expert.
Natural Born Genius. I feel ashamed when it takes me a long time to learn something no matter how difficult or complex.
Superhero. I feel guilty whenever I’m not working. I struggle to find work-life balance.
Ha (How not to be an Agile Bully)
An agile bully might actually just have been excited to share an idea, not intending to do harm.
Radical Hero. The persona that cheers you on, who counteracts your imposter syndrome. Strengthen this part of you by being a Radical Hero for other people!
Ladder of Inference
In response to a disagreement, ask what information the other person has that you don’t.
5:1. Ask for feedback 5x more often than you offer suggestions.
Gottman’s Four Horsemen
Empathy is the key to all of this. And you only get it by giving it.
Agile is about a new way to work where we actually respect each other.
Work by Invitation
No MAS (Meeting Acceptance Syndrome)
Make all meetings optional!
Ri (Thought Leadership)
It’s not about me, and there is no BAD or WRONG Agile.
Thought Leadership
I learned something
I tried something
I shared something
Thought and Servant Leadership are related
“Champion” vs. “Mentor”
When sharing an idea, frame it in your experience and your humility (not as an absolute).