The Standup Podcast

Agile as a framework is focused beyond just the team, but the system as a whole. Your system might be on a more macro level as your department, or even your entire company. In this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast we discuss the concept of Systems Thinking and how Agile Coaches can pull their mindset to the macro level to look at their Agility at the Systems level. We sincerely hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during the current COVID-19 pandemic. While we have some episodes in the can ready to go, we're not sure when we'll be able to record more. Because of that, expect new episodes to be spaced out a little until life returns to back to normal.

We're diving right into the first episode of 2020 with a hot button topic in the Agile community: No Estimates. Agile Coaches and Scrum teams are starting to adopt a "No Estimates" mentality when it comes to planning and building out their backlog. How does it work? How will it impact the organization? We tackle these questions and give our guidance as well to this controversial topic.

Agile Teams are very much a community, and it's the Scrum Masters job to make sure that the community is interacting and communicating in a healthy manner. But what happens when your team has a toxic team member? Jennifer Nusbaum, CSP joins The Standup this week to discuss the different types of toxic team members, and strategies to help these individuals as well as the team.

Backlog Refinement is one of those ceremonies in Scrum that often gets looked over, but honestly it's the one ceremony you can have that will make literally every other ceremony easier. It gives the Delivery Team an opportunity to see work coming down the pipes and a venue for discussions to be had with the Product Owner about the work.

We talk a lot on The Standup Podcast about developing software and delivering features to our customers in an Agile methodology, but what happens in Agile prior to actually writing software? What does the Product Development side of an Agile process look like? Join us this week on The Standup Podcast where we take a deep dive on Agile Product Development!

There are so many electronic tools out now that organizations use to track and organize their Scrum teams, but sometimes what they don't realize is they've molded their process around the tool and not the team. It's time for them to go Unplugged! This week on the Standup Podcast we discuss the topic of Scrum Unplugged, and the benefits of taking things back to basics and materializing Scrum artifacts in physical forms. Physical Burndown Charts, 3x5 and note card planning walls, and more! Join us and let us know your thoughts!

An important part of having values is our willingness to defend them, to actually stand for what we believe in. Agile is no different, and if you truly value the Agile principles you will, at some point in your career, have to take a stand. This week on The Standup Podcast we cover what this means and what it looks like to take a stand in your organization for Agile values.

An Anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive. You run into a lot of these in the Scrum and Agile community, with some of these actually being considered a "best" or "standard" practice. This week on The Standup Podcast we call out some of these Anti-patterns that have worked their way into our community.

It's not always perfect, and STUFF happens. Your team could find itself one day without a Scrum Master, or perhaps you lose your Product Owner to another project. What do you do? Obviously these are very important roles and the ultimate long term success of your team relies on your ability to backfill this role, but what about short term?  In this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast we talk about strategies teams can take short term to temporarily fill empty team roles like Product Owner or Scrum Master to make sure the team is still productive in their absence.

In physics, the hardest friction to overcome is static friction, or the friction from first starting motion. Same goes for Scrum and Agile in that there's a lot of work and effort that goes into successfully starting a new team. Today on The Standup Podcast we talk about what goes into starting a new team and strategies for you to be successful.

Some folks view Kanban as "Scrum Lite", or something you can do if you just don't like all the ceremonies or "rules" in Scum. These are common, and incorrect misconceptions about Kanban. Kanban is a great Agile framework which is often abused, this week we aim to talk about some of these misconceptions and how you can use Kanban successfully.

A T-Shaped Developer is someone with a broad skill set, but perhaps one or two skills that run particularly deep. A specialist in an area, versus a proficient generalist. Companies run into the pitfall of stacking their teams with experts in an area they think the team will be working, and run into a major issue: A T-Shaped Team! This week on The Standup Podcast we talk about the concept of T-Shaped teams, and how organizations can avoid forming their Agile or Scrum teams around this concept while focusing on the goal of cross functional teams.

Sizing is an important topic in Scrum and other Agile Frameworks. While it's important for planning, the most critical piece of Sizing is the team coming to a shared, common understanding of the work. In this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast we revisit the topic of Sizing and how teams can continue to improve on this very important ceremony.

When we talk about our "Users" in Agile or Scrum, who are we talking about? It's too easy for companies to unintentionally capture their stakeholder voice as their user, so in this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast we talk about how to identify your end user when we discuss the User Voice within a User Story and how to best synthesize their feedback as part of your product features.

We learn lessons as we progress through life and our careers. Some large, some small, some easy, and some hard. This week on The Standup Podcast we wanted to share some of the hard lessons we had to learn both in Leadership and Agile in the hope that others don't have to learn these lessons the hard way as well.

Every Agile team, regardless of what framework they're using, should have a Working Agreement. At its very core, the Working Agreement is the team coming to a common understanding of how the team will operate and agree upon the methods they will use to be successful. On this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast, we will be discussing Working Agreements in depth, what they are, how you create them, and what they are best used for. We also advise on common misconceptions or traps you might fall into while writing your working agreements.

How do you know when your User Story is ready to start? How do you know when a User Story is done? These questions should be defined in your Teams working agreement as your Definition of Ready and Definition of done. This week on The Standup Podcast we discuss these two important definitions and why they're critical to the success of a team.

Being Proactive in general is a great habit to be in, but you specifically start to see real benefits from Agile frameworks when you're proactive. Specifically Scrum, where being proactive helps us be better prepared and tighten those feedback loops with stakeholders. This week on The Stand Podcast we discuss the benefits of being proactive in Scrum and what benefits you can start seeing. This drives home Nande's mantra of "Come prepared", but explains how folks can start to be proactive around the ceremonies specifically.

Hey Everyone! This week on The Standup Podcast we're celebrating our One Year Anniversary! It was on July 11th, 2018 we put out our first episode as an experiment thinking nobody would probably listen. A year later, we still think that but the stats tell us otherwise! Thank you again everyone for your continued support and listenership. This week we pull back the curtain a little bit and give everyone insight into how we started the Podcast, our process for recording, our history together, favorite episodes, and much more looking back on the past year!

How can a company that is "Date Driven" still be an Agile organizations? Some companies are in lines of business that have date which need to be met. Your business can be seasonal, you can have contractual obligations, or you need to meet regulatory deadlines. So how can you have both? How can you drive to meet dates and still be Agile? This week on The Standup Podcast we cover the topic of what we're calling, "Scrum on A Schedule" where we discuss the idea of still maintaining value driven prioritization while still meeting hard calendar deadlines.

Everyone looking to drive an Agile transformation within an organization needs an Agile Champion who has the authority or the purse strings to make things happen. Who is your Agile champion and how can you find them?  Join The Standup Podcast this week where we discuss the topic of finding an Agile champion to help you drive your Agile transformation within your organization.

If you're the only Scrum Master or Agile Coach at your organization and you don't have a community or practice or folks at your company who are familiar with Scrum or Agile, how do you assess how well you're doing?  This week on The Standup Podcast we're covering the topic of performing a Self-Assessment as a Scrum Master in order to determine how you're doing serving your team and your organization. This is a situation many Scrum Masters find themselves in as smaller companies are adopting Agile and you might be the only trained Agilist in the building. If this is the case, you're really the only person qualified to judge your progress... so how do you do it? Join us this week at The Standup to learn how!

Burnout is now a recognized medical condition because it is to widespread in relation to people and their jobs. How can we as fight burnout from happening to the individuals on our Scrum teams? Scrum as a framework is, at its core, about fighting burnout and finding a sustainable pace. In this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast we talk about what burnout is, how you can identify if you or a member of your team is being impacted by it, and how you can start to address it to pull that individual or team back from the brink.

Dependencies are a tricky subject in Scrum: They're impediments that can hold back your team but can originate from both outside and inside the Scrum team. What are these different types of impediments and how can you identify then address them? We cover this and more on this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast!

This week on The Standup Podcast we talk about the various metrics you can use within Scrum. From the burn down, the burn up, and velocity to name a couple, there are many ways for you to measure various things within a Scrum team, but what do these metrics actually mean? While metrics are important, the story to accompany them is more important. We use the example of the oil pressure gauge on your car dash; without context of the situation, the measurement itself isn't of much use. 

This week on The Standup Podcast we continue our discussion from last week where we talked about how to describe Agile to someone with no Agile experience. This week we're covering Scrum as a Framework, and how you can describe it to someone who has either no experience in Agile methodologies or even no experience in software development whatsoever.

On this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast we cover a question we've all been asked by folks who might be unfamiliar with Agile, or unfamiliar with what we actually do on a day to day basis: What is Agile? Describing Agile itself can sometimes be difficult without using the word Agile. I mean Agile... is Agile, right? Hopefully by the end of todays Standup you'll have a great answer for this question and the ability to really help guide someone on their quest to learn more about iterative, empirical software development.

We've discussed previously strategies for interviewing Agile talent, but where do you find the people in the first place to get them in the door? Everyone has to start somewhere and where do great entry level Scrum Masters or Product Owners come from? In this week's episode of The Standup Podcast we discuss some non-traditional sources of great Agile talent which have the right personality fit for the given positions. Would you believe someone who was previously a Nurse, Counselor, or Teacher would make a great Scrum Master? Well they do!  Join us this week as we go deep, shedding light on careers that are complementary to the roles within Agile and how you can use them to help grow some really fantastic talent.

Some people call themselves a Scrum Master, others refer to themselves as an Agile Coach. But what's the difference? The Scrum Guide doesn't define the role of an Agile Coach at an organization and it's one that has organically grown in the industry as Agile implementations have scaled.  On this weeks episode of the Standup Podcast we talk about the specific role of the Agile Coach and how it compares to a traditional Scum Master. We also give a roadmap of how current Scrum Masters can begin growing into an Agile Coaching role.

Humans are more effective and efficient when communicating and collaborating in a collocated environment. Face to face, in person communication is always the best. BUT, these days it's almost ignorant to assume all the talent you need to be successful is in your town/city, so how can you make Agile work with a distributed team? This week on The Standup Podcast we're diving into the topic of distributed teams and how you can make sure you're operating at peak efficiency with distributed team members on a Scrum team. Hopefully by the end of this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast you'll have a better insight into common issues distributed or remote teams run into, and strategies you can pursue to ensure your distributed Scrum team is successful.

In Agile always talk about prioritization in Agile. Like it or not, there's always something on the bottom of the list. While at dinner prior to recording, we were talking about how it's a great trust building exercise to not ask a waiter what the BEST thing on the menu is, but what they feel the WORST thing on the menu is. We took the same approach this episode to the Scrum ceremonies, where both Eric and Hernande answer the question as to both their FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE Scrum ceremony and why. An honest discussion around reasons for both.

This week on The Standup Podcast we're going to be taking an in-depth look at why some Agile adoptions fail. It's important as a community of Agile practitioners that we have the courage to have an honest discussion and do true postmortems around Agile adoptions that failed. Learning from lessons from failed Agile adoptions is just as important as learning from our failures within a Sprint, so doing a retrospective on those failures to better understand what happened better equips us to tackle the next challenge. As we discussed in a previous episode, our most impactful lessons come from our failures so having an honest discussion around those failures as it pertains to Agile adoptions is crucial.

This week on The Standup Podcast we're going to be talking about the cornerstone of Agile and any Scrum team: Trust. Trust is an interesting topic because people can view it one of two ways, and neither way is wrong. You can either view Trust as something that is to be lost, or Trust is something that is to be gained. It's important when talking to your teams or another individual about trust that you both have a common understanding of how everyone views it so you can properly communicate expectations.  In this episode of The Standup Podcast we talk about the two ways of viewing trust, ways trust is lost, and methods to build trust between individuals and teams.

This week on The Standup Podcast we're talking about the catch slogan of "Fail Fast", and how many companies want to "Fail Fast", without actually realizing that to Fail Fast you first have to actually fail. There are so many risk aversion and risk mitigation frameworks out there and at the end of the day, companies who are unwilling to take risks are only using "Fail Fast" as a slogan not an embraced value. On The Standup Podcast this week we'll dive into this topic to help people understand what it really means to embrace "Fail Fast", obstacles many organizations face while trying to get there, and how you can be successful in guiding your organization to a "Fail Fast" value.

Hey Everyone! We're on Vacation this week and we'll be back next week with all new episodes! In the meantime, we invite everyone to dig back into the archives and enjoy some of our past shenanigans. We'll see you next week! 

Hey Everyone -- This week on the Standup Podcast we're talking about Stakeholders! We love asking the question of Agile practitioners, if we value our users feedback and our users should drive the value.... what role do the stakeholders play? The old joke in the Agile world is the Chicken and the Pig, right? Well, if Stakeholders are just involved, what is that involvement? How do you know who your stakeholders are and how their feedback/priority items should be synthesized into the product backlog. Join us this week on The Standup Podcast where we give clarity around the role of Stakeholders in an Agile environment.

Hey Everyone! Welcome to The Standup Podcast where this week we'll be talking about tough conversations that are needed from time to time within a team. We expect Agile teams to be self organizing and for individuals to be self managing, but there are occasions where a member of the Scrum team needs guidance, help or to be corrected which are all hard conversations to have. As a receiver, you have to always start with the concept of positive intent. The person speaking with you isn't coming at you from an attacking stance, but a supportive stance. As a someone who is leading the conversation, it's always important to be Open, Honest and Respectful. So join us this week where we take a dive into this tough topic and give you strategies and guidance on how to navigate these difficult waters.

Hey Everyone! Sorry for getting this episode out late today! This week at The Standup we're going to be talking about False Sense of Urgency.  In Agile, the ability to prioritize your backlog based off value both to your customers and the business is key. But there are times, and there are people, who try and bypass this process by generating a sense of panic and false urgency around perhaps an item that is only important to them. At this week's episode of The Standup Podcast we're diving into the topic of False Sense of Urgency, what it is, how it happens, how you can identify it, and how you can combat it.

Hey Everyone and welcome to this weeks episode of The Standup Podcast where we're going to to be covering the topic of Self Organization.  You hear it everywhere in the Agile community, that Scrum teams should be "Self Organizing"... without anyone actually giving you guidance on what that means or how to get there. You'd think something as critical to the framework as that would be spelled out a little better, but alas. So this week on The Standup Podcast we actually go deep on the topic of Self Organization, what it means, what's involved, and how you start to get teams there. It doesn't just happen, and Self Organization doesn't just mean "no rules". After this weeks Standup, you should have clear direction on next steps to get your teams to a true state of Self Organization.

Hey Everyone and welcome to The Standup Podcast where this week we're going to be diving into the topic of Prioritization, specifically problems many Product Owners or companies face and methods which you can use to be successful when prioritizing your backlog. It's all too common that companies lack the bandwidth to get everything they want done, so having smart, concise prioritization is the key to success for any Agile adoption. The reason prioritization is important is because it forces the conversation of value to the end customer, be they internal or external. One common issue early Agile adoptions face is just a flood of new User Stories in the backlog of a new Scrum team or new Agile program with no real strategy to begin chopping that pile of wood. This week on the Standup Podcast we cover these problems and more and give you strategies to resolve these problems.

Hey Everyone! Welcome to The Standup Podcast this week where we're diving deep into the topic of Impediments. There are many different kinds of Impediments that might be impacting your team, and as a leader or ScrumMaster it's your job to help remove these impediments. But how frequently is your team getting stuck in the cadence in the daily standup of giving their update and ending with "... no impediments". User Stories aren't being completed on time though? "... no impediments." We're unable to get builds out to environments as quickly as we'd like? "... no impediments." At the Standup this week we dive into the multitude of different types of Impediments teams face and how you can proactively identify them and help your team resolve them. Ultimately your ability to remove your teams impediments directly impacts their ability to succeed. 

Hey Everyone - Welcome to another weekly episode of The Standup Podcast! While we've discussed User Stories in the past, we feel there's an important part of the User Story that always gets little love, but honestly, is THE most important part of the User Story: User Voice.   AS A... I WANT TO... SO THAT I CAN User Voice is the whole reason for the User Story's existence. It's the USER part of a User Story. Who are we building this for? Why is it important? What will it help them do? It build a share understanding and empathy with your end user. Easily abused, frequently misunderstood, but we hope through todays episode we give more clarity around this vital component of Scrum.

Hey Everyone! We're back! Sincerely apologize about ghosting on everyone last week, but Nande and I had a scheduling conflict we couldn't avoid. That being said -- we're back again this week with another fantastic episode of The Standup Podcast.  A core tenant of Agile and Scrum is the idea of sustainable pace, and the reason for this is it prevents the team of burning out. Burnout is still a concern even outside of the team itself in how we interact and work at the office. On this week's episode of The Standup Podcast we dive into the topic of "Work-Life Balance". There's a great article recently that talked about the idea of "Millennial Burnout" (linked below) and how today's modern office environment almost feels like you have to be connected to work 24/7, which can have some very negative results. Making sure you're able to disconnect from work and take personal time is important to your mental health and your overall productivity as a worker.  We cover how you, as a leader, can help set the tone for a healthy work/life balance within your organization. Also items within your control to help maintain a healthy balance for your own sanity.

Hey Folks! Welcome to this week's episode of The Standup Podcast where we dive into the topic of Scrum Team Building! A team is so much more than just a matrix of skills or technical knowledge, it's also the amalgam of the individual personalities and backgrounds. At The Standup this week we go beyond just skillset and begin talking about the various personality types and how they each deliver an important ingredient to the team. Hopefully by the end of the podcast you'll understand why having a great cross-section of not just technical ability but personality types are critical to the success of your Scrum team. Cheers!

Hey folks and welcome to the first episode of The Standup Podcast for 2019! We felt a strong start to the New Year would be taking the opportunity of the annual "time of renewal" to sit back, inspect, and adapt how we can hit 2019 hard and make the most impact. At The Standup Podcast this week we embrace the Agile process of inspect & adapt by looking back at 2018, using our experience as lessons, and then set resolutions headed into 2019. New Years itself is a an inflection point for people in their personal lives, why not our professional lives as well! Use this as an opportunity to set some impactful resolutions to maximize your 2019. We hope you enjoy and we look forward to hearing about YOUR New Years resolutions! Cheers!

As a Scrum Master the more effective you are at your job the more efficient your teams will be. On The Standup Podcast this week we wanted to end 2018 with giving folks tips to help them hit the ground running in 2019. We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Holidays this year! This will be our last episode for 2018 (we're taking next week off!) and we'll see everyone with our inaugural episode of 2019! Thank you to everyone who has supported us in getting this Podcast started in 2018 and to our our listeners. We hope to continue delivering value to our audience in 2019.

Commitment, a word that means different things to different people. It's a word that often gets misused as a weapon, so much so that Scrum.org changed their use of the word Commitment and now use Forecasting instead. Sprint Commitment is the final artifact of Sprint Planning where teams are asked if they're confident in committing to delivering the Spring Backlog. This commitment helps the product owner with planning and is the team coming to a common understanding as to the goal of the sprint. That being said... On the Standup Podcast this week we dive into the concept of the Sprint Commitment and what it is and most specifically is not. At the highest level, the Sprint Commitment (or Forecast) is the teams best guess and confidence level on what they'll be able to finish within the time-box for the sprint. What it is not, is a weapon to beat the team up with if they do not complete the entire sprint. Listen in this week as we dive deep into this topic!

Hey Everyone! Welcome to The Standup Podcast this week where we're going to be talking about Budgeting for Agile Teams and strategies companies can use when trying to budget in an Agile fashion.  Many companies still carry their budget process over from a previous waterfall model and get frustrated with cost estimation and budgeting for Agile projects. In this episode of The Standup Podcast we talk about how the budget process should be focused around the fixed cost of the team (which SHOULD be rallying around a single product) and then you back the projects into the team capacity. Imagine how much your CFO would love to hear that you won't be over budget this year unless you decide to go hire more people. A complicated topic to be sure, but I hope we give you some clarity and some additional pointers to take into your 2019 budget! Cheers!

Hey Everyone! This week on The Standup Podcast we wanted to dive into the topic of team and cultural health at your organization.  The health of your culture for a team or a company really is a great bellwether for other metrics you're measuring. Poor productivity? Poor retention? Poor engagement? I'd wager these things are happening hand in hand with poor organizational health. On this week's episode we'll help you see the underlying currents of your team's health, the impact of your team's health on the organization, and give you specific tips and guidance on how to begin fostering an environment where good team health can flourish. Tune in this week and let us know YOUR thoughts! Cheers!

Hey Everyone, welcome to this week's Standup Podcast where we're taking a moment and looking back on our careers and giving thanks to those who helped us get to where we are today. Success doesn't happen in a vacuum and we're made better by those around us, so we wanted to break down our career into three segments. Who helped us with our "big break", who helped us reach the next level, and what leaders have left a lasting impact on how we operate in a professional environment. Great episode for Thanksgiving! We hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday!

He everyone and welcome to this week's Standup Podcast where we're diving into the topic of Growing and Scaling Agile teams. Growth is something every company wants to do, but you have to make sure you're doing it intelligently. When growing a Scrum team you have to know at what point that team is too large to sustain itself as a single unit. Additionally, when you do have multiple teams how can you ensure those teams are cross collaborative and sharing a single vision or goal. We answer these questions and more! Tune in and let us know your thoughts.