Rick Waters, CST

Mike Marchi and Rick Waters sit down with Joshua Jack, from Matrix Resources, and talk about the partnership approach to finding great talent in the Agile world.

Matt Beam and Mike Marchi sit down with Matt Vuckov of Talent Craft to discuss the fine art of matching agile practitioners to client needs in the digital marketplace.

Rick, Mike, and Matt talk with Jack Walser about his new book The Agile Thinker. The Agile Thinker takes Agility and introduces it to the layperson, so they can use the benefits of Agility not only at work, but also in their personal lives. And, honestly, nowadays, it’s difficult to tell the difference between work and personal lives.

Mike Marchi and Matt Beam host this episode, with Jeff Singleton talking about the behaviors of traditionally managed organizations and their tendencies toward ruling with a clock-shaped fist. To find out what we mean, have a listen.

Rick, Matt and Mike invite Marcelo Lopez to join a conversation about what Agile Coaching is, what it used to be, and what it has become. Marcelo joins about half-way into the discussion, and this one is a long one. So, buckle in, this will definitely have some opinions you do not agree with.

Rick, Matt and Mike return after almost 9 months off the air. Without any set subject, the guys talk about everything (Agile and not) that comes to mind.

I recently sat down with Kelly Weyrauch (Agile Quality Systems) and Jeff Lee (AgilityIRL) to talk about their new certification offering called CARS, or Certified Agile Regulatory Specialist.

Lots of interesting information here, about how Agile the FDA is becoming, or more to the effect of, allowing other organizations to be.

Give it a listen. You can access AAMI TIR 45 by going to aami.org and searching for TIR 45

You can find this course, and others, at… Show more

I recently sat down with Kelly Weyrauch (Agile Quality Systems) and Jeff Lee (AgilityIRL) to talk about their new certification offering called CARS, or Certified Agile Regulatory Specialist.

Lots of interesting information here, about how Agile the FDA is becoming, or more to the effect of, allowing other organizations to be.

Give it a listen. You can access AAMI TIR 45 by going to aami.org and searching for TIR 45

You can find this course, and others, at AgilityIRL.com

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This is just a short video with some tips on becoming an Agile Coach. This is definitely NOT a comprehensive guide to becoming an Agile Coach.

When asked by Anthony Mersino (Vitality Chicago founder) to provide a few short tips for aspiring Agile Coaches, this is what I came up with.

Enjoy 🙂

A great friend of the show, Jim Sammons of Loop Agility, joins us to talk about dysfunctions we’ve seen in immature teams. In between Rick telling long-winded stories, we discuss coaching approaches, how we inspire change, letting teams solve their own problems, empowerement and dis-empowerment. We discuss estimation, coaching at the team level – my favorite! We share some stories about customers suffering because of internal beuracracy. I relate experiences where timing is everything –… Show more

A great friend of the show, Jim Sammons of Loop Agility, joins us to talk about dysfunctions we’ve seen in immature teams. In between Rick telling long-winded stories, we discuss coaching approaches, how we inspire change, letting teams solve their own problems, empowerement and dis-empowerment. We discuss estimation, coaching at the team level – my favorite! We share some stories about customers suffering because of internal beuracracy. I relate experiences where timing is everything – getting coaches involved at the right time can make all the difference in your Agility efforts.

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Erin Perry joined the show to to talk about the most recent experiment in the Expert Engineering program at JP Morgan Chase. They allow people to self-form into teams that work together to collaboratively solve problems, over a period of 9 months. Since the beginning of the program, they have applied for approximately 6 patents. We also talked about several other topics that you may be interested in.

You can find more about Erin at http://bit.ly/erinperry

Mike Marchi returns to the show with Jeff Singleton. Both are board members of the Agile Professional Learning Network – Chicago Chapter.

We talk about a recent discussion at the APLN meetup, how the Agile Community sustains itself. We also talk about how internal organizations may sabotage their own efforts to create sustainable communities.

Also, the APLN is hosting their 3rd Annual Conference on May 16th, 2019. They are still accepting speaker proposals. Checkout their… Show more

Mike Marchi returns to the show with Jeff Singleton. Both are board members of the Agile Professional Learning Network – Chicago Chapter.

We talk about a recent discussion at the APLN meetup, how the Agile Community sustains itself. We also talk about how internal organizations may sabotage their own efforts to create sustainable communities.

Also, the APLN is hosting their 3rd Annual Conference on May 16th, 2019. They are still accepting speaker proposals. Checkout their website for more info. Show less

Maria Matarelli (Woman-of-all-trades) and I talk about some visualization techniques we’ve used in the classroom. Both of us discovered Neuland markers at different times, and put off learning how to use them to their full potential. Using Bikablo examples and techniques, we’ve learned that art will engage the learner much more readily.



In the second half of the episode, Maria and I tackle some Coaching questions for the Troubleshooting Scrum book:

The Team is just not… Show more

Maria Matarelli (Woman-of-all-trades) and I talk about some visualization techniques we’ve used in the classroom. Both of us discovered Neuland markers at different times, and put off learning how to use them to their full potential. Using Bikablo examples and techniques, we’ve learned that art will engage the learner much more readily.



In the second half of the episode, Maria and I tackle some Coaching questions for the Troubleshooting Scrum book:

The Team is just not estimating right
We can’t POSSIBLY get anything done in a 2-week timebox!
There are a ton of Process Cops already, why do we need a ScrumMaster too? Show less

Paul Madison stops in to chat at the APLN Chicago 2017 Conference, and gets roped into helping produce the rest of the podcasts for the conference.

Before that, though, Paul and I shoot the breeze about the current market temperature on experimentation and how to handle violations of Team Working Agreements.

Danielle Pollard stops to chat before going on stage at the APLN Chicago May 2017 Conference. Danielle explains about The Trust Factor and the Three Conditions for Collaboration. During the presentation she shared her High Performance Hierarchy of Needs.

For more on The Trust Factor, please check out her soon-to-be-published book The Trust Factor: 3 Keys to Unlocking the Power of Trust to Build the Perfect Agile Team.

At the Agile Professional Learning Network - Chicago Chapter's 2017 conference, Paul Madison and I had the opportunity to talk with Ahmed Avais 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
1. Focus on Value
2. Deliver Value
3. Optimize Value
4. Optimize for Systems

Agile Fluency is different than Maturity… Show more

At the Agile Professional Learning Network - Chicago Chapter's 2017 conference, Paul Madison and I had the opportunity to talk with Ahmed Avais 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
1. Focus on Value
2. Deliver Value
3. Optimize Value
4. Optimize for Systems

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 @paulrmadison
You can catch up with Ahmed Avais on Twitter at @ahmedavais Show less

At the Agile Professional Learning Network - Chicago Chapter's 2017 conference, I caught up with Dave Saboe and talked with him a bit about ScrumMasters. Paul Madison joined in and we talked about how personality traits in ScrumMasters evolve over time.

At the Agile Professional Learning Network - Chicago Chapter’s first Conference, I caught up with Doc Norton. He spoke about the Host Leadership model and its role-based examples, instead of character based traits of Servant Leadership.

From national elections to ditch digging, Matt and Rick use the recent US Presidential election results, to springboard into some great examples of how national politics and business events can mirror each other. Moreover, how do we, as Agile professionals, react to internal politics.

It’s no shock that there is turmoil in the populace, after the recent US Presidential Election. But, the fact that Agilists are criticizing each other prompted this 2 part discussion. In this first discussion, Rick, Mike and Sandie talk about how certain demographics have historically been under-represented, and targeted unfairly in politics and our national culture - and how the recent election has brought that normally covert part of the culture into the spotlight.

Trying to draw… Show more

It’s no shock that there is turmoil in the populace, after the recent US Presidential Election. But, the fact that Agilists are criticizing each other prompted this 2 part discussion. In this first discussion, Rick, Mike and Sandie talk about how certain demographics have historically been under-represented, and targeted unfairly in politics and our national culture - and how the recent election has brought that normally covert part of the culture into the spotlight.

Trying to draw parallels to the Agile world, Rick points out that the corporate world is not immune to the turmoil we’ve see in the nation this month. Show less

If you've been around Chicago long enough, at least in the Agile community, you would know that the company currently known as HERE (formerly NAVTEQ and then Nokia) has a great reputation for being an Agile organization through and through. The truth is, the Agile movement there started as an experiment - as most things in Agile should.

I tag along while Allen Rutzen and Jorgen Hesselberg describe the best example of a true Agile Transformation and an organizational Agile Mindset.

The ever-controversial Tom Mellor discusses the differences between ‘Being Agile’ and ‘Doing Agile.’ Tom talks quite a bit about Frederic Laloux’s organizational paradigms (categorized by a color spectrum), and gets us started down a road that leads to differences in what we are taught about the basic elements of Scrum – or at least what we thought we were taught.

Tom also qualifies and stands by his statement “I think the ScrumMaster was the worst thing ever created in Scrum” by… Show more

The ever-controversial Tom Mellor discusses the differences between ‘Being Agile’ and ‘Doing Agile.’ Tom talks quite a bit about Frederic Laloux’s organizational paradigms (categorized by a color spectrum), and gets us started down a road that leads to differences in what we are taught about the basic elements of Scrum – or at least what we thought we were taught.

Tom also qualifies and stands by his statement “I think the ScrumMaster was the worst thing ever created in Scrum” by answering the question “If you don’t have a ScrumMaster, how do you expect [a new Scrum Team] to become a team that practices Scrum?” — You have to listen to get his answer :) Show less

An analogy and a personal message to management about how to work with Agile teams.

I recently got the most wonderful opportunity to talk with a couple of legends in the Agile Community – Chet Hendrickson and Ron Jeffries! They’re partnering with Brian Levy to bring a 5-Day, dual certification, public CSD class to Chicago for the week of 14-18 March, 2016.

Ron, Chet and Brian discuss many of the XP Practices we grown to love and integrate into our Scrum implementations. Brian also adds a dash of SAFe to the conversation.

The class, in downtown Chicago, combines… Show more

I recently got the most wonderful opportunity to talk with a couple of legends in the Agile Community – Chet Hendrickson and Ron Jeffries! They’re partnering with Brian Levy to bring a 5-Day, dual certification, public CSD class to Chicago for the week of 14-18 March, 2016.

Ron, Chet and Brian discuss many of the XP Practices we grown to love and integrate into our Scrum implementations. Brian also adds a dash of SAFe to the conversation.

The class, in downtown Chicago, combines a 3-day Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) class and a 2-Day SAFe ScrumXP class. Class attendees will be awarded the CSD via Scrum Alliance (assuming they already have other pre-requisites covered), and the Scaled Practitioner (SP) via Scaled Agile. Show less

Join me as I query Jack Walser, of AIM Consulting, on DevOps. Before Jack spoke to the Agile Professional Learning Network (APLN - Chicago) in June, I didn't have a great idea of what DevOps, in the Agile space, really was.

Jack breaks down what the components of a DevOps environment need to to succeed.

In July 2015, Maria Matarelli and Harvey Wheaton presented the results of Scrum Alliance’s State of Scrum 2015 survey. The survey returned 4400+ responses that led to some very interesting results.

I was able to get Maria and Aakash Srinivasan (both veterans of this podcast) to discuss some of the more interesting analysis of these results.

Aakash Srinivasan is an Agile Coach and Trainer, in the Washington DC area, who speaks quite often at Agile events, conferences and Gatherings. Aakash and I sat down last month and talked about a great range of topics.

Besides name-dropping (Mike Cohn, Dhaval Panchal, Roger Brown, Catherine Louis, Maria Matarelli, Dave Prior, Mike Vizdos, Arlen Bankston, Tom Mellor), we actually talk about topics like why Agile Coaches are needed when ScrumMasters are intended to be the team coaches;… Show more

Aakash Srinivasan is an Agile Coach and Trainer, in the Washington DC area, who speaks quite often at Agile events, conferences and Gatherings. Aakash and I sat down last month and talked about a great range of topics.

Besides name-dropping (Mike Cohn, Dhaval Panchal, Roger Brown, Catherine Louis, Maria Matarelli, Dave Prior, Mike Vizdos, Arlen Bankston, Tom Mellor), we actually talk about topics like why Agile Coaches are needed when ScrumMasters are intended to be the team coaches; ‘Pure Scrum’ vs Reality; DAD, Scrum, Scrumban, and Kanban comparisons and where/when they fit; training, co-training, and being CST candidates; Scrum Gatherings and Agile conferences. Show less

Vivek and Rick discuss many different topics in this conversation ranging from Governance to Training certification, Agile industry diversity to Release Planning, etc. We briefly touch on our career goals of CST and CSC, and where we are at in our journeys.

In some organizations, just addressing Technical Debt is a heady subject. Consider using a public information radiator to track and burn down Technical Debt. Here's one technique.

Recently, I had a wonderful time talking with Angela Johnson about modifications to Scrum that make us cringe. Sprint 0 and Story Authors topped the list. Please give Angela’s article Are You Transforming the World of Work, or Confusing It? for more on these subjects.

In this episode, please excuse the hacked up sound quality. I didn’t realize it while Dave and I were speaking, but I entered into this discussion with preconceived ideas of what scaling Agile orgs meant, and it was well reflected in my part of the discussion. At times I derailed the conversation, and at others, I slowed Dave down from getting his point across. I believe I’ve been able to edit the audio back into a semblance of coherent conversation, almost simply by editing out some large… Show more

In this episode, please excuse the hacked up sound quality. I didn’t realize it while Dave and I were speaking, but I entered into this discussion with preconceived ideas of what scaling Agile orgs meant, and it was well reflected in my part of the discussion. At times I derailed the conversation, and at others, I slowed Dave down from getting his point across. I believe I’ve been able to edit the audio back into a semblance of coherent conversation, almost simply by editing out some large portions of me talking. So, please enjoy Dr. Dave Sharrock speaking about scaling Agile organizations. It’s not necessarily all about making your Agile footprint bigger, ideally it’s about making it better (and then bigger later). Show less

Mike Marchi, Agilist, and I (re)talk about his experiences in Scrum, XP, and Agile in general. Mike, VP and co-founder of Agile Professional Learning Network Chicago chapter, runs the gamut of all things Agile – books, Scrum Gatherings, team experiences, motivating teams, etc. Please listen for some great examples of real-life Scrum success stories, and a few funny stories too.

I sat down with Angela Druckman (CST) last week and discussed a few topics that greatly concern us both. Angela is a Certified Scrum Trainer, from the Pacific Northwest, who trains in several major markets in the USA, and abroad. She authored 30 Days to Better Agile, and is currently working on a new book about Agile Coaching. Her new book will be a companion to an Agile Coaching course that she plans on offering for the first time, this Spring.

Tune in to this episode of the Agile… Show more

I sat down with Angela Druckman (CST) last week and discussed a few topics that greatly concern us both. Angela is a Certified Scrum Trainer, from the Pacific Northwest, who trains in several major markets in the USA, and abroad. She authored 30 Days to Better Agile, and is currently working on a new book about Agile Coaching. Her new book will be a companion to an Agile Coaching course that she plans on offering for the first time, this Spring.

Tune in to this episode of the Agile Chicago Style Podcast to hear what Angela calls Stealth Scrum, Progressive Independence, “The Homework”, and her arguments and opinions on Prioritized Backlogs vs. Ordered Backlogs, and Methodologies vs. Frameworks. And listen for one great quote from Angela “Good is the enemy of great.” Show less

How failure can strengthen a team, and cement good Scrum practices.

Recalling the presumptions of a new Agile Coach and finding those presumptions wrong. Fast forward a few months and you realize that you never really know who will be your biggest allies.

Maria Matarelli, president of Formula Ink, Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), and author, talks with me about her experience in a recent CSM class where she brought in Suzanne Oliver, of Heart of a Fighter, to act as a real-life Product Owner of/for her non-profit organization.

Maria’s idea to have the CSM class focus on a real non-IT organization to help them realize their goals, yielded some very interesting results. Listen to our conversation to learn more.

Mentioned in this… Show more

Maria Matarelli, president of Formula Ink, Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), and author, talks with me about her experience in a recent CSM class where she brought in Suzanne Oliver, of Heart of a Fighter, to act as a real-life Product Owner of/for her non-profit organization.

Maria’s idea to have the CSM class focus on a real non-IT organization to help them realize their goals, yielded some very interesting results. Listen to our conversation to learn more.

Mentioned in this episode:
Maria Matarelli, from Formula Ink
Suzanne Oliver, from Heart of a Fighter
Blaine Blanchard, from Camp Kids are Kids Chicago
Jan Mosier, from Lightreach
Boy Scouts of America Show less

A seemingly ordinary team lunch turns into an event that strengthens team bonds far greater than expected.