Future State Now: A Business Technology Podcast

Adam Asch and Dave Prior discuss how to build and refine a well formed product backlog. Adam also shares some techniques for determining which elements of the Product Backlog need to be prioritized to the top of the list and how much of those top priority items need to be worked on up front. Show Notes Podcast Intro 00:08 Topic Intro 01:00 Advice on getting started with building your backlog 1:36 Focusing on Epics and Themes 02:18 Where do User Stories fit in with Epics, Themes and Feature Sets? 03:54 What about things we need that don’t fit into the User Story Format? (non-functional stories) 05:19 I’ve got the list of stuff I want… what now? 7:58 Story mapping 9:10 Focusing on Strategy10:16 Define your desired outcome first, not what you want to build 11:48 Mapping and Prioritizing Features and Functionality for Impact 13:05 Capability Mapping 15:20 Understanding customer wants and mapping it back to strategy16:00 Product Owner means Customer Representative 17:50 Getting a deeper understanding the actual problem 19:00 Sacrificing innovation in order to get ALL THE THINGS 21:00 Can an organization do this alone, or do they need a coach? 21:55 How often you need to revisit the work you’ve done on the backlog 22:48 Developing the internal capability to do this without an external coach 24:42 How to get in touch with Adam 26:19 Contacting Adam Twitter: @adamasch Email: adam@Leadingagile.com Agile 2016 Video Podcast Interviews If you’d like to check out the Video Podcast interviews we shot at Agile 2016, you can find them at https://vimeo.com/leadingagile

For the last several months 30%-40% the folks attending LeadingAgile’s CSM and CSPO courses have come from Digital Agencies. Nearly all the attendees have questions about how to implement Agile practices in a Digital Agency Model. In this episode of Sound Notes, Brett Harned, who runs the Digital PM Summit, and Rachel Gertz from LouderThanTen, took some time to share what they’ve seen work, and not work, with Agencies who are trying to apply Agile. Show Notes: Interview Start and introductions 1:48 What makes Digital Project Management a complicated fit with Agile 3:44 What is a Digital Agency 6:17 How the historical relationship between Client’s and Agencies complicates integrating Agile in Digital 7:56 The importance of building strong relationships with your client 11:22 What practices from Agile have you seen implemented that work? 13:12 Do typical contracts between Agencies and Clients allow for backlog grooming throughout the project… is that possible ? 14:24 Adapting Digital contracts for Agile18:12 What work does Digital agency do for free when bringing Agile to a client that a consulting company would be getting paid to do 21:32 Using Agile practices effectively in different areas of the project 23:40 When your Product Owner doesn’t have final say 25:39 Should we have “approval debt” (like technical debt) for POs’ who aren’t empowered to give approval 27:55 Is it really about developing an Agile way of interacting with the client 30:22 What Agile practices just don’t work in Digital 31:14 Can you actually have stable teams in Digital? Have you seen an Agency do that? 33:14 Do we need a new type of Agile that is better suited to Digital work 38:46 A MOTORCYCLE! 40:52 Advice for those trying to use Agile in Digital 42:16 Getting in touch with Rachel and Brett 46:55 You can reach Rachel Gertz here Twitter - https://twitter.com/louderthanten Website - https://louderthanten.com COAX (the magazine) https://louderthanten.com/coax You can reach Brett Harned here Twitter - https://twitter.com/brettharned Website - http://brettharned.com For information on the Digital PM Summit Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitalPMsummit Website - http://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm/

In this episode of SoundNotes, Liana Dore, the Agile Governance Lead for eVestment explains why eVestment chose to establish a group focused on Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO. Liana explains how Agile Governance works at eVestment, what she does day to day and the positive impact it has had on the Agile teams. Show Notes: Intro and background on eVestment 1:48 What is an Agile Governance Lead 3:30 Making the choice to establish Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO 3:56 What does an Agile Governance Lead do all day 5:02 How Agile Governance works differently than a traditional PMO 7:40 The benefits of training the team all at once 13:30 Understanding Team Health in an Agile organization 16:05 Creating a space for the teams to thrive 18:44 Establishing an entrepreneurial culture that can scale 20:43 Agile Governance is not about control. It has to be light touch 23:32 How to get in touch with Liana 24:35 If you’d like to get in touch with Liana, you can reach her via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lianadore

In this iteration of SoundNotes, Devin Hedge and Dave Prior talk about how to get prepare for Agile 2016. If you’ll be heading to the conference for the first time, the Agile Conference is a big, awesome, exhausting week. You need to prepare, you need to pace yourself and you need to know what you want to get out of the conference. In this podcast you’ll get some tips from seasoned conference veterans on how to make the best of your week in Atlanta. The podcast is only 18 minutes long, so we’re not providing show notes this week. Instead, here is a list of the LeadingAgile events taking place at Agile 2016. Mike Cottmeyer "The Executives Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Large-Scale Agile Transformation" Monday at 10:45 Jann Thomas "2020: The State of Agility" Tuesday at 10:45 AM Jeff Howey "Practicing Agility in Human Resources" Wednesday at 11:30 Collective Soul June 27 at 7 PM. To learn more, please visit: http://collectivesoul.leadingagile.com If you'd like to contact Devin on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/agiledevin If you'd like to contact Dave on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/mrsungo

“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” A few weeks ago we posted an interview with Katrina Coker on having an accountability partner and how transformative that can be. The post got a great response and so in this episode of SoundNotes Katrina’s actual accountability partner, Olga Kraynova shares her thoughts on accountability partnerships, how they work, and why they are valuable. In the interview Olga shares how she coped with the challenges she faced in moving to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas and how she makes sure she is always surrounded by people she is motivated by and able to learn from. If you’d like to get in touch with Olga to learn more about her story and her approach to being an accountability partner, you can reach her via LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kraynova/en And if you’d like to check out the initial interview with Katrina Coker, you can find that here: https://soundcloud.com/leadingagile/the-power-of-accountability-partnerships Show Notes: Interview Start 1:47 Olga’s Background in Startups and Project Management 2:25 Why Olga liked working at Startups and how it prepared her for PM work 4:15 How Olga got started with Personal Accountability 5:53 How Olga defines Personal Accountability Partner 7:09 How Olga and Katrina communicate on a daily basis 7:33 How Olga approaches Goal Setting 8:16 Staying motivated 10:03 Experimenting until you get the result you are looking for 11:17 How Olga and Katrina work the Accountability Partnership 11:43 The very essential thing 13:47 Tracking the plans you make for yourself and making daily updates 14:36 Olga’s journey to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas 17:27 Managing stress and coping challenges and not giving up 20:51 Prioritizing your needs and finding the opportunities to get them addressed 22:51 When you can’t see the whole path, taking on one challenge at a time and saying “Yes” 23:04 Having the courage to take just one step and letting the next thing arise 24:37 The benefit of not having the luxury of just shutting down and giving up 26:06 Being driven for the things you have to fix and finding people to help keep you motivated 27:57 “If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” 28:42 Olga’s explains why you should find an accountability partner 29:17 If you don’t trust you will not be able to be open 31:56 How you can reach Olga if you have any follow up questions 32:02

In this SoundNotes interview, LeadingAgile’s Tom Churchwell explains what it’s like to stick with an Agile transformation all the way through, the Agile and Beyond conference, and the fundamental questions that lead to craftsmanship of the self. Tom Churchwell Notes Interview Begins 1:48 Background on Tom 2:14 Tom’s path to Agile 3:23 The long haul of transformation 4:20 I lost my cube, but I got this shirt 5:05 The long haul 6:05 I trust you implicitly from right out of the gate 7:16 Creating a safe space to make it work 8:00 Change is slow 8:30 Agile Beyond 9:55 Reorienting around excellence 10:45 Ae we still pushing the boundaries? 13:35 Creating the Safe Space 14:15 Increased focus on the human side of Agile 16:00 What do you do when excellence fails? 17:45 I don’t believe that there are dark places 18:38 If your team is in the doldrums, it is the fault of leadership 19:24 Enroll and Inspire, nor command and control 19:40 Craftsmanship and art are a part of what high technology people do 21:00 Bob Hoover - an amazing scary story about trust 23:00 We need a safe space where people can make mistakes 24:25 On volunteering and how it can inspire you 26:30 The fundamental questions of the self 32:30 Tom’s mission and craftsmanship of the self 33:18 Volunteering for Agile and Beyond 35:30 Getting in touch with Tom 37:15 Tom can be reached at tchurchwell@twitter.com

In this podcast, Dr. Dan Greening is back to follow up in the earlier podcast interview about Agile Base Patterns. This time, Dan and Dave Prior discuss leading indicators you can study to assess Agile Portfolio Health. During the podcast, they dig in to metrics that can be used to assess Lead Time, Abandoned Work and Fitness Functions.

An Accountability Partnership can be a powerful thing. At a very basic level, this is a relationship you establish with another person who agrees to keep watch and support you in defining and realizing your goals. The goals may be of a professional nature, though they may extend beyond this into other areas of your life. In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Engagement Analyst, Katrina Coker and Dave Prior discuss the role that an Accountability Partnership can play in providing support in your professional, and personal life. Dave and Katrina talk about how to find an Accountability Partner that is right for you, how to establish working agreements and how to prepare yourself for having someone play that role in your life. Katrina Coker - Personal Accountability Podcast Show Notes Interview Start 1:48 Katrina’s role at LeadingAgile 2:12 Katrina and the Personal Agility Canvas 5:22 Dave’s story on having an Accountability Partner 5:58 Katrina’s background 7:02 How Katrina ended up with an Accountability Partner 8:00 How it works 9:26 Personal Accountability Retrospectives 11:15 How Personal Goals fit in 11:55 Why it helps to have someone to share your goals with 12:25 Prioritizing your goals and getting support from your Personal Accountability Partner 13:10 “Oh, let me know when you start achieving.” 14:51 How to approach someone about being your Accountability Partner 15:31 Finding the right person to be your Accountability Partner 17:47 Establishing working agreements with your Accountability Partner 19:36 Setting Boundaries and Goals 21:39 The value of having a Professional Counselor 22:43 Including spiritual goals in the Personal Agility Canvas 24:26 How Katrina finds accountability and support in non-work areas of her life 25:10 How Katrina’s accountability partner helps her prioritize her goals 27:44 “If it’s not a HELL YES, it’s not gonna happen” 28:20 Katrina’s advice on three things you need to do in order to prepare to have an Accountability Partner 28:55 Getting in touch with Katrina 32:00 If you'd like to check out the Personal Agility Canvas mentioned in this podcast, here are some links: Personal Agility Canvas 2.0 - http://bit.ly/1tdzSF6 PMP Rehab: Personal Agility Canvas slideshare from the 2016 Scrum Gathering - http://bit.ly/214vv9R

In this version of our podcast, IHG Product Owner, Rebecca Williamson and LeadingAgile Consultant, Russ Pena discuss how the role of Product Owner has played out on the hotel room redesign project at IHG. From there, Rebecca and Russ share how applying agile outside of technology has led to some interesting process modifications.

LeadingAgile is working with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) to apply Agile in a project that is completely outside of technology. In this interview, LeadingAgile’s Enterprise Transformation Consultant, Russ Pena and IHG Project Manager, Daniella Huang discuss how they’ve been using Agile in a project to redesign guest rooms for the Holiday Inn brand. This is the first of four podcast interviews we will be posting on how IHG is using Agile outside of IT to deliver value for their customers.