Engineering Culture By Infoq

In this podcast, recorded at the Agile New Zealand conference in November 2016, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to David West, CEO and Product Owner of Scrum.org, about the history of Scrum, the importance of empiricism and improving the profession of software delivery. Why listen to this podcast: - Between 12 and 15 million people use Scrum on a daily basis - Scrum.org’s mission is about improving the profession of software delivery, not having more people use the Scrum framework - Empiricism and the scientific method are fundamental to being a professional in an industry - The Scrum delivery team needs to include “all the skills you need to deliver working software” into the hands of end users so operations and deployment skills are a crucial part of Scrum - To enable teams to be successful, management needs to provide absolute clarity of the objective, move out of the way of the teams and support the ScrumMaster in removing impediments - The moral responsibility of soft

In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor in the Culture & Methods area, spoke to Richard Kasperowski at the QCon San Francisco conference. Why listen to this podcast: - Agile is not new, and the ideas help organisations focus on building the right thing and building it right - High performing teams have some specific characteristics which can be measured - Over 200 different things have been identified as “the one thing” needed for high performance - All the research shows that the social/cultural factors are more important than technical skills for high performance - The behaviour patterns of the Core Protocols seem to cause high performing teams - To work well as a high performing team, the members must be able to connect with each other effectively More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ http://bit.ly/2mkjFtM You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtub

In our podcast this week Shane Hastie speaks to Michael Lopp, VP of Engineering at Slack, about intentional culture and continuous delivery. Why listen to this podcast: - Leadership is a craft that needs to be learned - Characteristics and common challenges of high-growth startups - Aspects of culture include how do we get things done, how do we treat each other, how do we make decisions, who has power and influence, what are the things that we value? - The importance of making values explicit and experiential - The importance of the small group of influencers in any organisation who spread the culture to others More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ http://bit.ly/2mP3Qjj You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.l

In this podcast Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Ted DesMaisons and Lisa Rowland who spoke at QCon San Francisco on The Improvisor's Code: Engineering Your Best Self Why listen to this podcast: - The skills of improve are applicable outside a theatrical setting - You don’t have to be an extrovert to use these ideas - These are intra-personal skills as well as inter-personal – they help develop mindfulness and awareness at the individual level - The study of improvisation gets us good at agility, adapting to changing circumstances More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ http://bit.ly/2lZBp13 You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq

In this podcast Ben Linders, an InfoQ editor in the Culture & Methods area, spoke to Lianping Chen of Paddy Power about their adoption of continuous delivery. Why listen to this podcast: - An introduction to continuous delivery - It is possible and feasible to go faster while maintaining and improving the quality of the products being built - The benefits from adopting continuous delivery include reduced time from completing development to getting product into production and getting faster customer feedback - The way you elicit and represent requirements also needs to change when adopting continuous delivery - Implementing continuous delivery needs significant investment in time and money – don’t underestimate the costs involved and plan the adoption to deliver benefits early and get some quick wins More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ http://bit.ly/2mgLhA8 You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software dev

In this podcast Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Doug Kirkpatrick, organisational change expert, author and advocate for new ways of working. Why listen to this podcast: • Decentralization is replacing hierarchy and bureaucracy. Organisations need to be directly connected to the outside world and agilely adapt to changes in their ecosystems • The idea of people managing other people will fade and be replaced by people connecting to a mission and meaning, and managing themselves in the same way they manage themselves in their lives • Mandating a change is command and control in a different guise – people need to be part of the change and opt in to be part of the changed organisation • Two simple, yet profound, principles: o No use of force – abandon command and control authority o People keep commitments that they make • Speaking up when something seems wrong is a crucial self-managing competency. If you choose not to speak up about a particular issue, you have chosen to

In this podcast Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Pat Reed of iHoriz about value innovation, adaptive leadership and what’s needed to create real business agility. Why listen to this podcast: - Business agility is about adapting and thriving in extreme uncertainty - Make value visible – really understand who your customer is and how value is derived in your organisation, then focus on only doing things that truly add value - The management practice of “doing more with less” is both delusional and counter-productive - We know about the need for WIP limits and the impact of context switching on productivity, yet somehow some managers believe their organisations are immune from these realities - Value must be measured in terms of making an impactful difference to a customer or to the business - Fast failure and learning are critical to innovation and sustainable organisation success - Being able to adapt quicker than the competition, quicker than the customer’s changing ne

In this podcast Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Matt Sakaguchi about his talk at QCon San Francisco 2016 and the research Google has done on what makes effective teams. Why listen to this podcast: - Psychological safety – people feel comfortable taking a risk or asking a question and know they will be supported by their team mates, they feel safe to share personal and “crazy” ideas - Dependability – the knowledge that team mates will deliver quality outputs and meet their commitments - Structure & clarity – the team has well defined roles and responsibilities, everyone knows what they are supposed to do and they do it - Meaning – the work has personal meaning to the individual team membersImpact – the team members can see the value they bring to the greater good through their work Notes and links can be found on: http://bit.ly/2jNF7H8 You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bi

Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Sara Bayless Da Costa, visual storyteller and design thinking evangelist at Fjord. Bayless Da Costa gave a talk at QCon San Francisco on Rapid Prototyping Methods. They spoke about prototyping, collaborative design, designing for new interfaces and new skills that designers need in order to be successful with new technologies. Why listen to this podcast: - The importance of taking a collaborative design approach with multiple roles involved – design is not just done by designers - Design and development work well together to deliver an exceptional customer experience - The importance of empathy when understanding people’s needsVisual storytelling is a powerful way to convey messages and inform good decision making - Evergreen needs – human needs have not fundamentally changed, but the way we solve them is constantly evolving - Designers need new and different skills to be effective in this new world Notes and links can be found on: http

In this podcast Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Alexandre Freire Kawakami, a Director at Industrial Logic about his talk Enabling Awesome Engineering Teams, the ideas behind Modern Agile and the importance of feedback loops and real usage data for product development. Why listen to this podcast: - Overview of his talk on enabling awesome engineering teamsThe contradiction between values-driven and process-driven change - Modern Agile is designed to help people and organisations get over the process obsession - Working software is not enough – achieving better outcomes for customers is what’s important - By having analytics and usage data available we can learn what works and what doesn’t and make better decisions Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/2j2usrx 6m:15s - Modern agile is about a community sharing ideas and stories about working towards four principles: Deliver value continuously Make people awesome Experiment and learn rapidly Make safety a p

In this podcast recorded at QCon San Francisco 2016, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Mitch Shepard founder of WiRL about her talk at QCon and the challenges around gender diversity in the tech workforce. Why listen to this podcast: - Gender diversity and women leaving tech roles is a real and serious problem - There are compelling reasons to have a more diverse workplace – both ethical and bottom line results - “It’s nobody’s fault, but it is everybody’s problem” - There are physiological differences between the male and female brains - Don’t assume anything about anyone because of who they are or any characteristic they may have – we are all different Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/2jodKmn 4m:34s - “It’s nobody’s fault, but it is everybody’s problem” 4m:49s - There is strong, systematic bias which gives men an advantage which goes long and deep 5m:09s - Things driving the recognition of the issue at a personal level are often related to leaders

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke with Douglas Talbot, Head of Organisational Effectiveness for Ocado Technology, about the challenges and opportunities involved in creating a culture of innovation and agility in “a technology company that also does retail”. Why listen to this podcast: - Differences in the way IT is approached in different parts of the worldApplying ideas from agile, lean and Kanban to making business smarter by looking beyond process and practices to the people factors that make a difference to organisational outcomes - Looking beyond the “latest consultancy model of choice” and taking an evidence-based approach to understand what really drives motivation and behavioural change in teams - Leadership is a game of providing clarity of vision and allowing teams to be self-organising and empowered - Cultural change is not really possible without c

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast recorded at QCon San Francisco 2016, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Amber Case, Cyborg Anthropologist. Case explains why VR is an important step along the way to Augmented Reality, how technology needs to fit in with social norms, and why calm technology is so important. Why listen to this podcast: - We are all cyborgs now - There is a clear sequence for a technology to be accepted in society, and trying to leapfrog the steps results in failure - The value of calm technology to overcome the shock of so many devices competing for our attention in different ways - The importance of security and safety in the always connected technology world - The risks, downfalls and benefits of technology in human lives Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/amber-case 1m:40s - Starting with VR to create new experiences and use them to learn about the pot

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, recorded at Agile 2016, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Michael de la Maza and David Benz about their minibook Why Agile Works, which is available at InfoQ.com. Why listen to this podcast: - In a startup you have to use an Agile approach – it just makes sense - It’s easy to teach practices, but with a foundation in the core values of agile then practice drive adoption of agile can be hell - There has been a recent resurgence in the recognition of the importance of the values - This can be a way to explain agile approaches to executives - Cutting through dysfunction requires addressing culture and assumptions Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/why-agile-works 7m:30s - The book has lots of dimensions and plenty of examples of why values matter, and how they make a difference 7m:50s - The audience includes managers who want to adopt a va

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast recorded at the Agile 2016 conference, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, talks to five of the leading minds of Agile Management: Steve Denning, Ray Arell, Todd Little, Hendrik Esser and Steve Holyer. They explore the question “Is agile still agile?”, look at the challenges around agile development and product management, and what is needed for large scale agile transformation. Why listen to this podcast: - Agile is a mindset, not a set of processes or practices - The risks and dangers of packaged implementation of “agile” using process checkboxes without understanding why - Agile adoption is hard – simple but not easy - When agile practices are adopted for the wrong reasons it causes stress levels to go up and drives unsustainable behavioursIt’s not “twice the work in half the time”; it should be about twice the value with half the work - The Scrum role of Product O

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, talks to Melissa Perri, a UX and Product Management expert and founder of Produx Labs. Why listen to this podcast: - Put value first – it’s not about building more stuff but making sure we build the right thing for the right people - Product ownership is about optimising value for the organisation - Managers need to understand their role in product management - Identify outcomes and define pirate metrics for success - Empower teams to achieve the outcomes, not deliver features Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/melissa-perri 3m:45s Management should communicate the metrics and goals to the product owner and let them work with the delivery team(s) to figure out how to achieve them 4m:20s Product owners told to make decisions but not actually empowered to do so 4m:35s Focus on training the managers on what they n

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, talks to David Hussman, founder and “The Dude” from DevJam and CardBoard It!, a tool for story mapping. Why listen to this podcast: - Put value first – it’s not about building more stuff but making sure we build the right thing for the right people - Dude’s Law: Value = Why / How - Identify the impact that a product needs to make on someone’s life - Constrain complexity using thin slicing and “minimum viable learning” - Have an intentional discovery-delivery cadence to speed up the learning cycles – design and delivery sprints tightly coupled - “Done” is not enough – value is only delivered when the item has been validated with real customers - Validation can happen in both discovery and delivery Notes and links can be found on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/2eegjYf - 1m 41s Introducing “Dude’s Law”: Value = Why divided by How. - 3m 05

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, talks to Phil Brock, Rebecca Parsons, Paul Hammond and Victor Hugo about the state of the Agile Alliance, new initiatives being worked on around the world and the future of agility in the workplace. Why listen to this podcast: - The Agile 2016 conference was the largest ever with nearly 2500 people attending - The Agile Alliance is spreading around the world with events and through affiliates - The Agile Alliance has responded to the criticism about the main conference having less technical content and ran a Technical Conference in 2016 with another scheduled for 2017, as well as having technically focused initiatives which are exploring new technical practices in response to the changing technical landscape - Member driven initiatives are receiving more focus and more funding to engage the agile community The Agile Alliance website

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, Shane Hastie, InfoQ Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, talks to Kent McDonald, Steve Adolph and Ryland Leyton about the state of business analysis and product management in agile product development. They were participants in a weekend workshop where the Agile Alliance and the International Institute of Business Analysis were collaborating to produce a revised version of the Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. Why listen to this podcast: - Analysis skills are necessary for successful product development - We don’t question and challenge the rationale and strategic alignment of projects enough, which results in lots of waste from doing the wrong projects or building the wrong features in a project - The best return on investment that you can get is to stop wasting your money - Value is hard to define but crucial to identify; the definition of value will be different in

This is the first in a new series of podcasts from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences - the Engineering Culture Podcast. In this podcast, Wes Reisz, chair of the QCon conferences in San Francisco, London and New York talks to Phil Haack, an Engineering Director at GitHub focused on software pushed mostly to the desktop. He’s shipping software like GitHub Desktop, GitHub Extensions for Visual Studio and the Atom text editor. Haack joined GitHub in 2011 and is a prominent member of the .Net community. At Microsoft Phil was core to shipping NewGit and ASP.NET, MVC.NET. Why listen to this podcast: - There is often too much focus on the nitty-gritty details of software development practices but as you scale out to larger projects and teams the challenges are not technological- they are sociological. - Research shows that teams which are more diverse are more effective. - Engineers shifting to management should consider it a discipline like any other technical field; it’s not something t