DevOps East 2016 - Personal Improvement

When we want to produce more product with the same number of staff, we normally think about adding more process. David Hussman believes we don’t necessarily need to do that. Instead of talking about scaling agile, David focuses on scaling product learning—while avoiding process inflation along the way. Topics he addresses are: moving from Scrum teams to product team to focus on product success, mapping teams to product(s), interconnecting product discovery and product delivery techniques, and the challenges associated with cross team dependencies and constraints...

It’s as true today as it was in 1986 when W. Edwards Deming published Out of the Crisis and wrote, “Remove barriers that rob people … of their right to pride of workmanship.” Companies everywhere implement processes, hire staff, and install tools to help them meet their business objectives. Many organizations strive to have engaged workers, efficient processes, and effective tools. However, Bob Jarvis says that, rather than doing the real work they were hired to perform, workers often end up spending too much time each day fighting obstacles related to...

Imagine you’re on an agile development team—and something feels weird. People disagree constantly, and when they finally do agree, no one commits to deliver the solution. Vocal team members dominate the conversation. You don’t trust your teammates. They don’t trust you. This isn’t a team. It’s just a group of people. Does this sound familiar? Because people are people—not interchangeable robots—building high-performing, self-organizing teams takes specific skills and a lot of work. In his experience working with agile teams, Robb Pieper has often taken on the role...

Have you ever been on a team and said, “We should try [insert crazy idea here]” only to immediately hear “No!” from a team member, manager, or coach? Talk about stifling innovation. To prevent this, Anthony Crain says that their teams are adopting a new philosophy. Stop saying No … start saying Throwdown! Using this idea, they can distinguish between a favorite way and a better way. “My story writing technique is better than yours.” Oh yeah? Prove it! “My estimation technique is better than yours.” Oh yeah? Prove it! “SAFe is better than traditional...

One of the most consistent concerns expressed by project teams everywhere is: We don’t have enough time! The stress of having too much to do and not enough time to do it is overwhelming. In this interactive session, Andy Kaufman shares practical lessons to help you get a better handle on what it takes to more successfully manage your time and commitments. Topics include understanding the importance of taking care of yourself (including getting more sleep and exercise), factors that drive procrastination (with approaches to overcome them and help you manage your...

Scaling agile across the enterprise can create challenging organizational conflicts as groups accustomed to working in their own silos struggle to collaborate effectively and identify their shared interests. Join Ellen Grove to learn useful models for considering conflict supported by games teams can use to develop and practice conflict resolution skills. The models address underlying drivers of conflict, modes for responding to conflict, ways to assess conflict severity to determine appropriate interventions, and patterns of principled negotiation. The games...