Future State Now: A Business Technology Podcast

When large enterprises make the decision to invest in Agile Transformation they often do so with the expectation that it will have some positive impact on their ability to deliver. In theory, if we can deliver more of the right things in shorter time frames at a higher quality level, that should provide some kind of quantifiable return on investment.

When the conversation turns to the question of “How is the transformation going?” it is common to focus on metrics that center around how many teams or groups within the organization have begun adopting Agile practices, where they are in the journey towards Agile, how individual teams are performing, etc. But what is often harder to understand is what is the benefit, or return on the investment it is making in Agile Transformation.

To put it simply, we’re spending money, we’re doing the things… but what kind of financial (or other) impact is that money having on the organization and on our system of delivery?

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Principal Consultant, Doug Spencer joins Dave for a conversation about some of the ways you can begin to measure and quantify the impact of an Agile Transformation on your organization at the portfolio level.

Contacting Doug Spencer

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/doug-spencer/
• Email: doug.spencer@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Lee Wiesehuegel is a Managing Consultant at LeadingAgile where he helps organizations incorporate an Agile approach by transforming how they work. One of Lee’s primary areas of focus is working with leaders to help them understand how critical their support is at the team level. In this episode of SoundNotes, Lee and Dave discuss some of the things that leadership can do to enable Coaches and ScrumMasters to create and sustain high performing, learning teams that can consistently deliver value.

At the start of the interview, Lee also shares his advice for those who are interested in transitioning to a coaching role and some of the key things he looks for when he interviews potential coaches.

Links Mentioned In the Podcast

Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition by Lyssa Adkins

Contacting Lee Wiesehuegel

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/lee-wiesehuegel/
• Email: Lee.Wiesehuegel@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

At Elevate Agile 2019, LeadingAgile Chief Methodologist, Dennis Stevens gave a presentation called "What Every Agile Organization Has In Common" (link below). In this episode of SoundNotes, Dennis and Dave go deeper on some key themes from the presentation. The interview focuses on how Senior Leadership can create an organizational system that supports Business Agility. This work goes beyond simply adopting Agile practices at a team level, and looks at how the whole organization needs to have a structure and governance model in place that can sustain its ability to respond to rapidly changing market conditions.

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Links Mentioned In the Podcast

• What Every Agile Organization Has in Common - Dennis Stevens at Elevate Agile 2019
• Building an Organization That Can Embrace Change w/ Dennis Stevens - This is the SoundNotes Podcast that discusses how to incorporate market sensing capabilities into strategic planning

Contacting Dennis Stevens

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dennis-stevens/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dennisstevens
• Email: dennis@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

At ElevateAgile, LeadingAgile Principal Consultant, Marty Bradley, led a session called "The Business Value of Agility." The talk focused on the question of how organizations measure and understand the business benefits of adopting an Agile approach. All too often, organizations make a decision to "go agile" without defining the outcome they hope/want/expect from changing their approach to work. Without a solid understanding of the impact you are seeking, deciding whether your approach to creating things, or the things themselves, are delivering desired business value.

In this episode of SoundNotes, Marty and Dave explore some of the key takeaways from Marty's session at ElevateAgile and ways an organization can understand the value Agile provides.

Marty's presentation from ElevateAgile

The Business Value of Agility

Links from the Podcast

Slack by Tom DeMarco

Contacting Marty

You can reach Marty:

• On the LeadingAgile site
• Email: marty.bradley@leadingagile.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martybradley/

Contacting Dave

You can reach Dave:

• On the LeadingAgile site
• On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo
• On his personal site at: drunkenpm.net

Feedback/Questions

If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.

When it comes to Agile Transformation, every organization struggles with managing risks and dealing with dependencies. Identifying the most critical dependencies and finding a way to break them can be challenging. But, depending on your organization’s goals for transformation, there may also be dependencies that just aren’t worth decoupling. 

In this episode of SoundNotes LeadingAgile Senior Consultant, Tom Furland, talks with Dave about how to handle Risks and Dependencies during Agile Transformation. We explore how to understand where decoupling is possible and why orchestration is so critical to creating flow within the organization, regardless of which dependencies remain.

Contacting Tom Furland

If you’d like to contact Tom you can reach him at:

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/tom-furland/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tfurland/
• Email: tom.furland@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

The dilemma of what to do if you don’t have a Product Owner is one of the more commonly recurring questions that I get in the CSM and CSPO classes. In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile’s Sara McClintock and Jeff Streitmatter join me to talk through the challenges of not having anyone acting as a dedicated PO. During the discussion, we explore why the role is so critical, how not having one impact’s the team’s ability to deliver valuable work that is in sync with company strategy and we offer some tips on how to cope with not having someone to fill this critical role.

Contacting Sara McClintock

If you’d like to contact Sara you can reach her at:

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/sara-mcclintock/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramcclintock/
• Email: sara.mcclintock@leadingagile.com

Contacting Jeff Streitmatter

If you’d like to contact Jeff you can reach him at:

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/jeff-streitmatter/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffstreitmatter/
• Email: jeff.streitmatter@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

On October 7th, 2019 LeadingAgile will hold its first-ever conference—Elevate Agile. In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile CEO and Founder, Mike Cottmeyer explains why Elevate Agile exists and how we hope it will shape the conversation around business and organizational Agility moving forward.

The event is sold out, but you can check out the live stream from the conference on Elevate Agile's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/elevateagile/

Also, be sure to follow Elevate Agile on social to find out details for next year's event as they become available.

Elevate Agile on Social 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/19229690/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/elevateagile

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevateagile/

Links from the Podcast

ElevateAgile: www.elevateagile.com

Mindset by Carol Dweck

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
• Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Feedback is tricky.

We all want it, we all need it, but sometimes getting it can be kinda tough. Giving feedback is challenging as well because it can be hard to tell when were are offering it from a place that is truly centered on helping the recipient grow, rather than just helping them be what we want them to be.

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Staff Consultant, Sarah Smith, joins Dave Prior to dig into the idea of "Feedback Is A Gift."  During the podcast, they unpack different ways to receive feedback, tips for giving it as well as how to figure out what to do with it once you get it, and what to do with the feedback that feels like a regifted Fruitcake. And also how to make sure you aren't the one doing the re-gifting.

Agile 2019 Video Podcasts

We're posted a TON of video podcast interviews we shot in the LeadingAgile booth during Agile 2019 and we'd love to get some feedback on them. If you'd like to check them out, you can find them here: http://bit.ly/2k88ucu

Contacting Sarah and Dave

If you have follow-up questions for Sarah or Dave, here is how you can reach them:

Contacting Sarah Smith

• Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/sarah-smith/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahleasmith/

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

In this live keynote episode of SoundNotes live, we talk with Portia Tung about her thoughts on making transformational change fun by embedding play science into your work.

In this SoundNotes live, we talk with Andy Cleff about the process of prioritizing and learning backlog and his thoughts on how to deliver the learnings optimally.