Podcasts about agile fluency project

“When blame is our focus rather than understanding what happened, people spend as much or more energy avoiding the blame and less time to be productive, creative, and energetic." Diana Larsen is the co-founder of Agile Fluency Project and co-author of the latest book “Lead Without Blame”. In this episode, we discussed insights from her book about building resilient learning teams by moving away from blaming culture. Diana first described the definition of blame and its characteristics, and explained the negative impacts it can bring to an organization and its culture. Diana advised that instead of a blaming culture, organizations should build a learning culture by adopting the 3 essential motivators (team purpose, autonomous teams, co-intelligence) and the 4 resilience factors (collaborative connection, embracing conflict, inclusive collaboration, minimizing power dynamics). Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:05:30] Understanding Blame - [00:08:58] Blaming Habit - [00:11:50] Leaders & Accountability - [00:18:12] 3 Essential Motivators - [00:21:21] Essential Motivator: Team Purpose - [00:27:19] Essential Motivator: Autonomous Teams - [00:31:21] Essential Motivator: Co-Intelligence - [00:35:36] Resilience Factor: Collaborative Connection - [00:39:55] Resilience Factor: Embracing Conflict - [00:42:55] Resilience Factor: Inclusive Collaboration - [00:46:40] Resilience Factor: Minimizing Power Dynamics - [00:48:48] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:59] _____ Diana Larsen's Bio Visionary pragmatist Diana Larsen is a cofounder, chief connector, learning leader, and principal coach, consultant, and mentor at the Agile Fluency Project. Diana coauthored the books Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great; Liftoff: Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams; and Five Rules of Accelerated Learning. She co-originated the Agile Fluency model and coauthored the book The Agile Fluency Model: A Brief Guide to Success with Agile. For more than 20 years, she led the practice area for agile software development, leading and managing teams, and guiding agile transitions at FutureWorks Consulting. Through the Agile Fluency Project's programs, Diana shares the wisdom she's gained in over 35 years of working with leaders, teams, and organizations. To serve her communities, she delivers inspiring conference keynotes, talks, and workshops around the world. Follow Diana: Website – DianaLarsen.com Twitter – @DianaOfPortland LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dianalarsenagileswd Agile Fluency – AgileFluency.org _____ Our Sponsors Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones. Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it's free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/118.

This week, Dan Neumann is delighted to be joined by a new guest, James Shore, the author of The Art of Agile Development and co-creator of the Agile Fluency Project with Diana Larsen. His contribution is invaluable to the Agile field.   In this episode, James talks about the second edition of The Art of Agile Development, which was published in 2021. This edition is a fully rewritten version that shows the influence of the Agile Fluency Model, including the different zones Agile Teams can occupy, such as Focusing, Delivering, Optimizing, and Strengthening, and practices for Teams to become fluent in each area.   Key Takeaways ● James rewrote The Art of Agile Development for its second edition. ○ He rewrote the book around the ideas of the Agile Fluency Model. ○ It includes updated practices. ○ In the book, you can find out how to influence people to make a change, to try Agile ideas, and even advice when you are in a situation where you are not very Agile. ● What is the Agile Fluency Model? ○ There are four different zones that teams or organizations can occupy: Focusing, Delivering, Optimizing, and Strengthening. A Team can exhibit fluency in any of these zones. ○ A behavior is fluent when you can perform it unconsciously, naturally, as a default behavior. ○ A Team can demonstrate fluency but only the Organization can make it possible. ○ It is not a maturity model, you can be fluent in one of the zones and not the others. ● The Agile Goal: ○ For many organizations, it may be Focusing plus Delivering together. ● James talks about the structure of the book. ○ The first part of the book is about how to introduce Agile ideas. ○ Most of the book is about the practices for the Focus and the Delivery zone. ○ Alternatives and experiences can be found at the end of every practice. ● Learn the rules, break the rules, and then, ignore the rules. ○ After learning the rules you have to experiment because every Agile Team goes through a unique situation and process. ● How long does it take to achieve a level of fluency? ○ It takes time to become fluent. ○ In general, it takes two to six months to reach Focusing fluency. Have under consideration that there is a one-to-four-month period of decrease in performance while people learn. ○ During two to six months, performance will be affected while trying to reach fluency in Delivering in an expected period from three to 20 months. ○ When Optimizing fluency it takes one to two months of performance affectedness and three to nine months for reaching fluency in this area. ○ It takes one or two years to deliver reliably. ○ All these time frames overlap.   Mentioned in this Episode: Follow James Shore. Check the second edition of The Art of Agile Development. Agile Fluency Project FAST Agile   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

The 12th principle of the Agile Manifesto reads as follows: “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” This principle has traditionally been observed through what are called retrospectives. In many cases, the true intentions of the retrospective are lost as we approach them as nothing more than meetings we hold because we‘ve been told they're necessary. We show up, make a list of what we did and what we can do better and go on with the same ole routine spring after sprint. However, a meeting is just a meeting and a list is just a list without intentionality and further action. The purpose of a retrospective is to bring your team together, be transparent with one another so that you can align your goals, and make concrete decisions regarding how your next sprint can be even better than the last. Today we sit down with author, speaker, and professional Agile leader, Diana Larson and deep dive into Agile retrospectives, discussing topics such as the purpose of a retrospective, the 5-step retrospective framework and how to make good retrospectives great. Our Speaker: Diana Larson When it comes to Agile retrospectives, Diana Larson literally helped write the book. Her publication, “Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great” is world-renowned and has helped countless Agile leaders fully embrace the power that the 12th Agile principle has to offer. Presently, Diana dedicates her time to the company she co-founded: The Agile Fluency Project. Here, her goal is to help new and experienced Agilists make the most of Agile practices within the needs of their businesses and teams. In her free time, Diana enjoys staying connected with the Agile community, speaking at meet-ups and going on podcasts like the one you're hearing today! We are proud to welcome Diana Larson. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theagilecoach/support

Diana Larsen is the Chief Connector at the Agile Fluency® Project and the author of multiple books about Agile. Diana's books Agile Retrospectives: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0977616649/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_AeDMFb00XC3EG Liftoff: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IQ2FLY8/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_BeDMFbANKDG0Q Join professor Barhoum's monthly sales training: https://www.conduitconstruct.com/training

In this episode, Richard interviews Diana Larsen. Diana is a true agile pioneer, a visionary pragmatist, and one of the highest authorities on agile retrospectives. She co-authored several books, including Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great; Liftoff: Start and Sustain Successful Agile team; and Liftoff: Launching Agile Projects and Teams. Diana currently acts as a chief connector for the Agile Fluency Project. Building on her unique experiences working with an extraordinary number of successful teams, Diana shares with us a few tips on how to achieve compatibility within your team. When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Diana on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DianaOfPortland and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianalarsenagileswd/, and check out the Agile Fluency Project at https://www.agilefluency.org. Read the full transcript of the episode at https://kasperowski.com/podcast-49-diana-larsen/

Today, we're asking the question: What is the best Agile? To help us answer that question, we have invited Diana Larsen to join us for today's episode. Diana is the co-founder of FutureWorks Consulting in Portland, Oregon, and she partners with leaders around the world to design work systems, improve team performance, and transition to Agile methods. She is also the author of a number of books about Agile and, in this episode, we start with the best ways to approach Agile depending on what it it you're trying to accomplish. Diana takes us through the limits and constraints a team might encounter, how to avoid a backlog of work, and how Agile has focused our attention on necessary software, meeting budgets, and keeping deadlines. We also discuss the different zones needed for a successful product, from optimizing to strengthening, and Diana shares a bit about what the Agile Fluency Project does and the tools that they use. For all this and more, tune in today!

Diana and I were kicking around a few topics for this episode, and we ended up selecting “Agile and Leadership, friends or foes?” The idea is to talk about how Agile and Leadership play together (or not) In this episode, we talk with Diana Larsen and Jutta Eckstein about what problems Leaders try to fix with Agile, what challenges they have when they try to adopt Agile, and we will do this with the focus on the Scrum Master role, and what they can do by working with the leaders of the organizations they work within. Full show notes are available at https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/. About Diana Larsen and Jutta Eckstein Diana Larsen co-founded and collaborates in leadership of Agile Fluency™ Project. Diana co-authored the books Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great; Liftoff: Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams; Five Rules for Accelerated Learning; and the seminal “Agile Fluency Model: A Brief Guide to Success with Agile” article. You can link with Diana Larsen on LinkedIn and connect with Diana Larsen on Twitter.    Jutta Eckstein works as an independent coach & consultant.  As a developer, she started with XP in 97/98, started scaling agile in 2001 (and published about that in 2004), and am now Jutta focuses on company-wide agility. You can link with Jutta Eckstein on LinkedIn and connect with Jutta Eckstein on Twitter.  You can learn more at Jutta Eckstein’s website, and check out Jutta’s books on Amazon and LeanPub. Jutta’s Agile Bossanova book is available here. 

In this SoundNotes live with Diana Larsen, co-founder of The Agile Fluency Project. We’ll chat about The Agile Fluency Project’s mission to help organizations measure how or if their Agile teams are achieving the outcomes they need, and how they can get insight on additional ways to invest to get the benefits they want.

Sponsors Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan CacheFly Host: Charles Max Wood Joined By Special Guest: James Shore Episode Summary James Shore, the author of the book, “The Art of Agile Development” and a thought leader in the Agile software development community, talks about his journey in Agile development. James and Charles discuss how Agile has transformed software development process and the traits that a good software developer should have. James talks about his contributions to the developer community, his CSS testing tool quixote and the Agile Fluency Project. Links JavaScript Jabber 360: Evolutionary Design with James Shore JavaScript Jabber 349: Agile Development – The Technical Side with James Shore My Angular Story 061: James Shore The Art Of Agile Development By James Shore James Shore’s Website   James Shore Twitter James Shore’s GitHub  https://www.agilefluency.org/ Agile Fluency Join The Conversation https://www.facebook.com/DevChattv Picks James Shore: Neil Killick Twitter http://vihart.com Charles Max Wood: ng-conf Ready Player One (2018)    

Sponsors Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan CacheFly Host: Charles Max Wood Joined By Special Guest: James Shore Episode Summary James Shore, the author of the book, “The Art of Agile Development” and a thought leader in the Agile software development community, talks about his journey in Agile development. James and Charles discuss how Agile has transformed software development process and the traits that a good software developer should have. James talks about his contributions to the developer community, his CSS testing tool quixote and the Agile Fluency Project. Links JavaScript Jabber 360: Evolutionary Design with James Shore JavaScript Jabber 349: Agile Development – The Technical Side with James Shore My Angular Story 061: James Shore The Art Of Agile Development By James Shore James Shore’s Website   James Shore Twitter James Shore’s GitHub  https://www.agilefluency.org/ Agile Fluency Join The Conversation https://www.facebook.com/DevChattv Picks James Shore: Neil Killick Twitter http://vihart.com Charles Max Wood: ng-conf Ready Player One (2018)    

Sponsors Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan CacheFly Host: Charles Max Wood Joined By Special Guest: James Shore Episode Summary James Shore, the author of the book, “The Art of Agile Development” and a thought leader in the Agile software development community, talks about his journey in Agile development. James and Charles discuss how Agile has transformed software development process and the traits that a good software developer should have. James talks about his contributions to the developer community, his CSS testing tool quixote and the Agile Fluency Project. Links JavaScript Jabber 360: Evolutionary Design with James Shore JavaScript Jabber 349: Agile Development – The Technical Side with James Shore My Angular Story 061: James Shore The Art Of Agile Development By James Shore James Shore’s Website   James Shore Twitter James Shore’s GitHub  https://www.agilefluency.org/ Agile Fluency Join The Conversation https://www.facebook.com/DevChattv Picks James Shore: Neil Killick Twitter http://vihart.com Charles Max Wood: ng-conf Ready Player One (2018)    

Panel: Charles Max Wood Alyssa Nicholl Joe Eames Special Guests: James Shore In this episode, the Adventures in Angular panel talks about Agile Fluency with James Shore. James is one of Charles’ favorite people to talk to about Agile development because he is one of the people who really understands how people work, instead of the methodology proliferation that is more common. They talk about how Agile got started, the Agile Fluency Project, and how Agile has changed over the years. They also touch on TDD, the things people can do to solve the problems with Agile misconceptions, and more! Show Topics: 1:10 – James has been on the shows previously on Ruby Rogues Episode 275 and My Ruby Story Episode 48. 2:00 – He does a lot of work with agile, but actually got started with something called Extreme Programming. 3:14 – When Agile started, it was a reaction to the management belief that the right way to develop software was to hire armies of replaceable programmers and a few architects to design something that was then sent off for these programmers to work. 4:34 – Agile is turning into the “everything” thing. It is being used in many different spaces and leaving developers behind in the process. This goes along with “the law of raspberry jam.” 6:55 – The agile manifesto states that they value “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” 7:28 – The Agile Fluency Project is focused on software teams and they created the Agile Fluency Model, which is a way to describe how teams tend to learn Agile over time. They want people to be able to see what all they can really get out of Agile through this project. 10:05 – Alyssa is more confused on the subject of Agile development and is interested more in what people lost by not using Agile anymore. 11:45 – Agile changed from a grassroots movement driven by developers to a management structure that programmers ignore unless it affects their day-to-day. 14:18 – Test driven development is a way of writing your code so that you have confidence to change it in the future not a way you can get unit test code coverage. 17:36 – Joe defines TDD as a way to help him design better code and he finds value in using TDD and then once the code is done, throwing out the test and still find value in it. 19:50 – TDD creates better code by forcing you to think about the client who will be using it and it forces you writing code that is inherently testable, and therefore, better code. 22:22 – The values of Agile development have not been communicated to the programmers who are forced to use it, which accounts for the push back against it. 24:40 – The issue across the board is when people take and idea and think they can read a headline and understand it fully. 28:17 – The way to combat this problem is to dig into some of the things that was happening 15-20 years ago and you can look into DevOps. You can also look into the Agile Fluency Project and the Agile Fluency Model. 31:24 – To get started with talking about how you should do Agile from the trenches, you can look into the books Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns and More Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns to help you to learn how to make change within your organization. 35:18 – Planting seeds allows you to make change within your organization and make a difference in a small way. 36:10 – The easiest way to remove some of these obstacles is to get together with your team and get them to agree to a trial period. There are more ways as well to get over obstacles. 43:07 – The reason he became an Agile developer is because after his first job working with it, he never wanted to work any way else. So, he decided to start teaching Agile in order to keep working with it in his career. Links: Ruby Rogues Episode 275 My Ruby Story Episode 48 Extreme Programming Agile Fluency Project Agile Fluency Model Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns by Kent Beck Refactoring by Martin Fowler UML Distilled by Martin Fowler Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns More Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns The Art of Agile Development by James Shore jamesshore.com @jamesshore James’ GitHub Sponsors Angular Boot Camp Digital Ocean Get a Coder Job course Picks: Charles Get a Coder Job Course DevChat Merchandise Code Badges DevChat.tv YouTube Joe Framework Summit Pluralsight James Deliver:Agile Testing Without Mocks: A Pattern Language Jake (build tool) The High-Performance Coach The Expanse by James S. A. Corey

Panel: Charles Max Wood Alyssa Nicholl Joe Eames Special Guests: James Shore In this episode, the Adventures in Angular panel talks about Agile Fluency with James Shore. James is one of Charles’ favorite people to talk to about Agile development because he is one of the people who really understands how people work, instead of the methodology proliferation that is more common. They talk about how Agile got started, the Agile Fluency Project, and how Agile has changed over the years. They also touch on TDD, the things people can do to solve the problems with Agile misconceptions, and more! Show Topics: 1:10 – James has been on the shows previously on Ruby Rogues Episode 275 and My Ruby Story Episode 48. 2:00 – He does a lot of work with agile, but actually got started with something called Extreme Programming. 3:14 – When Agile started, it was a reaction to the management belief that the right way to develop software was to hire armies of replaceable programmers and a few architects to design something that was then sent off for these programmers to work. 4:34 – Agile is turning into the “everything” thing. It is being used in many different spaces and leaving developers behind in the process. This goes along with “the law of raspberry jam.” 6:55 – The agile manifesto states that they value “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” 7:28 – The Agile Fluency Project is focused on software teams and they created the Agile Fluency Model, which is a way to describe how teams tend to learn Agile over time. They want people to be able to see what all they can really get out of Agile through this project. 10:05 – Alyssa is more confused on the subject of Agile development and is interested more in what people lost by not using Agile anymore. 11:45 – Agile changed from a grassroots movement driven by developers to a management structure that programmers ignore unless it affects their day-to-day. 14:18 – Test driven development is a way of writing your code so that you have confidence to change it in the future not a way you can get unit test code coverage. 17:36 – Joe defines TDD as a way to help him design better code and he finds value in using TDD and then once the code is done, throwing out the test and still find value in it. 19:50 – TDD creates better code by forcing you to think about the client who will be using it and it forces you writing code that is inherently testable, and therefore, better code. 22:22 – The values of Agile development have not been communicated to the programmers who are forced to use it, which accounts for the push back against it. 24:40 – The issue across the board is when people take and idea and think they can read a headline and understand it fully. 28:17 – The way to combat this problem is to dig into some of the things that was happening 15-20 years ago and you can look into DevOps. You can also look into the Agile Fluency Project and the Agile Fluency Model. 31:24 – To get started with talking about how you should do Agile from the trenches, you can look into the books Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns and More Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns to help you to learn how to make change within your organization. 35:18 – Planting seeds allows you to make change within your organization and make a difference in a small way. 36:10 – The easiest way to remove some of these obstacles is to get together with your team and get them to agree to a trial period. There are more ways as well to get over obstacles. 43:07 – The reason he became an Agile developer is because after his first job working with it, he never wanted to work any way else. So, he decided to start teaching Agile in order to keep working with it in his career. Links: Ruby Rogues Episode 275 My Ruby Story Episode 48 Extreme Programming Agile Fluency Project Agile Fluency Model Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns by Kent Beck Refactoring by Martin Fowler UML Distilled by Martin Fowler Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns More Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns The Art of Agile Development by James Shore jamesshore.com @jamesshore James’ GitHub Sponsors Angular Boot Camp Digital Ocean Get a Coder Job course Picks: Charles Get a Coder Job Course DevChat Merchandise Code Badges DevChat.tv YouTube Joe Framework Summit Pluralsight James Deliver:Agile Testing Without Mocks: A Pattern Language Jake (build tool) The High-Performance Coach The Expanse by James S. A. Corey

Panel: Charles Max Wood Alyssa Nicholl Joe Eames Special Guests: James Shore In this episode, the Adventures in Angular panel talks about Agile Fluency with James Shore. James is one of Charles’ favorite people to talk to about Agile development because he is one of the people who really understands how people work, instead of the methodology proliferation that is more common. They talk about how Agile got started, the Agile Fluency Project, and how Agile has changed over the years. They also touch on TDD, the things people can do to solve the problems with Agile misconceptions, and more! Show Topics: 1:10 – James has been on the shows previously on Ruby Rogues Episode 275 and My Ruby Story Episode 48. 2:00 – He does a lot of work with agile, but actually got started with something called Extreme Programming. 3:14 – When Agile started, it was a reaction to the management belief that the right way to develop software was to hire armies of replaceable programmers and a few architects to design something that was then sent off for these programmers to work. 4:34 – Agile is turning into the “everything” thing. It is being used in many different spaces and leaving developers behind in the process. This goes along with “the law of raspberry jam.” 6:55 – The agile manifesto states that they value “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” 7:28 – The Agile Fluency Project is focused on software teams and they created the Agile Fluency Model, which is a way to describe how teams tend to learn Agile over time. They want people to be able to see what all they can really get out of Agile through this project. 10:05 – Alyssa is more confused on the subject of Agile development and is interested more in what people lost by not using Agile anymore. 11:45 – Agile changed from a grassroots movement driven by developers to a management structure that programmers ignore unless it affects their day-to-day. 14:18 – Test driven development is a way of writing your code so that you have confidence to change it in the future not a way you can get unit test code coverage. 17:36 – Joe defines TDD as a way to help him design better code and he finds value in using TDD and then once the code is done, throwing out the test and still find value in it. 19:50 – TDD creates better code by forcing you to think about the client who will be using it and it forces you writing code that is inherently testable, and therefore, better code. 22:22 – The values of Agile development have not been communicated to the programmers who are forced to use it, which accounts for the push back against it. 24:40 – The issue across the board is when people take and idea and think they can read a headline and understand it fully. 28:17 – The way to combat this problem is to dig into some of the things that was happening 15-20 years ago and you can look into DevOps. You can also look into the Agile Fluency Project and the Agile Fluency Model. 31:24 – To get started with talking about how you should do Agile from the trenches, you can look into the books Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns and More Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns to help you to learn how to make change within your organization. 35:18 – Planting seeds allows you to make change within your organization and make a difference in a small way. 36:10 – The easiest way to remove some of these obstacles is to get together with your team and get them to agree to a trial period. There are more ways as well to get over obstacles. 43:07 – The reason he became an Agile developer is because after his first job working with it, he never wanted to work any way else. So, he decided to start teaching Agile in order to keep working with it in his career. Links: Ruby Rogues Episode 275 My Ruby Story Episode 48 Extreme Programming Agile Fluency Project Agile Fluency Model Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns by Kent Beck Refactoring by Martin Fowler UML Distilled by Martin Fowler Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns More Fearless Change by Mary Lynn Manns The Art of Agile Development by James Shore jamesshore.com @jamesshore James’ GitHub Sponsors Angular Boot Camp Digital Ocean Get a Coder Job course Picks: Charles Get a Coder Job Course DevChat Merchandise Code Badges DevChat.tv YouTube Joe Framework Summit Pluralsight James Deliver:Agile Testing Without Mocks: A Pattern Language Jake (build tool) The High-Performance Coach The Expanse by James S. A. Corey

Diana Larsen is the Chief Relationship Builder at the Agile Fluency Project and she has a simple compelling message: software development is learning work. Knowledge work is what everyone is talking about - but Larsen argues that learning is really what we need to be doing today. She talks about "heroic learners" - people who have the courage, compassion and confidence to learn everywhere and all the time, because as Larsen puts it, "We have to get good and learning - or we get left behind." And this goes beyond just individuals - she discusses how teams need to learn together. Accenture|SolutionsIQ's Howard Sublett hosts at Mile High Agile in Denver, Colorado. Podcast library: www.agileamped.com Connect with us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/AgileAmpedFacebook: www.facebook.com/agileampedInstagram: www.instagram.com/agileamped/

At the Agile Professional Learning Network - Chicago Chapter's 2017 conference, and I had the opportunity to talk with about the Agile Fluency Project. Ahmed had almost literally just finished his presentation on the Agile Fluency Model when Paul sat him down and asked him about it. Ahmed told Paul about the 4 zones of Fluency Focus on Value Deliver Value Optimize Value Optimize for Systems The Agile Fluency is different than Maturity Models in that one team cannot be compared to another (therefor weaponizing the model) Ahmed also explains Fluency through the Tarzan example. Tarzan matured relative to his environment - swinging on vines hanging from trees, etc. But, his language fluency never quite developed, and his vocabulary very limited - “Me Tarzan. You Jane.” With a larger vocabulary and more practice at speaking to other humans, Tarzan has a chance to communicate with humans. Without the necessary practice he will either continue at his current fluency level, or his fluency could even diminish. You can catch up with Paul Madison on Twitter at @ You can catch up with Ahmed Avais on Twitter at @

At Agile 2017 Diana Larsen sat down with Dave Prior to talk about the Agile Fluency model. In this interview she explains what it is (a way of thinking about what benefits an organization needs to get from it’s teams) and how she and James Shore co-founded the Agile Fluency Project with the hope of moving past the question of whether or not a given team, practice, etc. was Agile or not. They wanted to shift the focus to a more positive approach that would help teams develop routine, skillful ease as they move further down the path of adopting agile practices with the ultimate goal of providing enough benefit to the organization so that they, in turn, receive the organizational support for continuous improvement. If you’d like to learn more about Agile Fluency, please check out the following:Your Path through Agile Fluency https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/agileFluency.htmlThe Agile Fluency Project http://agilefluency.orgAnd if you’d like to learn more about Diana Larsen check out:FutureWorks Consulting - https://www.futureworksconsulting.comHer books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Diana-Larsen/e/B002BM7U7QDiana on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DianaOfPortland

SPaMCAST 453 features our interview with James Shore.  We began with a discussion of the Agile Fluency Model, including the concepts and ideas that led to the model and then got into topics such as whether Agile can ever be method agnostic. James’s bio: James Shore teaches, writes, and consults on Agile development processes. He is a recipient of the Agile Alliance's Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile Practice, co-creator of the Agile Fluency™ Model, co-author of /The Art of Agile Development/, and host of “Let's Code: Test-Driven JavaScript.” InfoQ has named him one of the “most influential people in Agile.” You can find his screencasts at letscodejavascript.com, essays at jamesshore.com, and more about the Agile Fluency Project at agilefluency.org. Re-Read Saturday News Today we continue re-reading The Science of Successful Organizational Change led by Steven Adams.  This week Steven addresses the introduction to Part 1 and Chapter 2. In the introduction to Part 1 Gibbon’s tells us that we live in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)  and in Chapter 2 that we have to transition from change fragility to change-agility. Remember to buy your copy.    Previous installments: Week 1: Game Plan Week 2: Introduction    Week 3: Failed Change Week 4:  Introduction to Part 1 and Fragility to Change-Agility A Call To Action We are often asked how listeners can help the Software Process and Measurement Cast.  The simplest and effective way you can help is to give the SPaMCAST a short, honest review in iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you are listening.  If you leave a review, please send a copy to spamcastinfo@gmail.com.  Reviews help guide people to the cast! Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 454  will feature our essay and checklists for iteration planning. Starting well and ending well are highly related!  We will also have columns from Gene Hughson (Form Follows Function)  and Jeremy Berriault (QA Corner). Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: “This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, for you or your team.” Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.