Faster Than A Standup

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  • Episode 124: Opportunities Where Learning Is A Good Thing

    Brent, Jesse, Klaus, and Mike talk about “Continual Learning and Relentless Improvement,” which is a Cloud Culture Principle. Our experts define what this idea means and why it’s important. They talk about psychological and technological safety, the ability to grow and adapt, and having a common language. They answer the question how does earning your…

  • Episode 123: That’s A Bottom Line Issue

    In anticipation of Cloud Culture Day on May 24; Brent is joined by Agnieszka and Mike on one of the most important principles of Cloud Culture, which is to “Earn Your Customer Every Day.” Our experts define who the customer is, how the steps are now a bit different than they had been, and what…

  • Episode 122: Spoiler – It’s All About The Customer

    In anticipation of Cloud Culture Day at SAP on May 24, Brent has a conversation with friends of the podcast Agnieszka, Markus, Dirk, and Robin. In anticipation of Cloud Culture Day at SAP on May 24, Brent has a conversation with friends of the podcast (or sooner to be friends) Agnieszka, Markus, Dirk, and Robin.…

  • Episode 121: Behavior And Mindset Changes Are More Important

    In this eighth iteration in this series of DevOps fundamentals, Sunny, Jessie, and Dominik wrap up the series talking about CALMS, TOIL, and how DevOps is the trend the world is moving towards. They offer advice to new people starting out and some characteristics that managers and independent contributors should have. They also reflect on…

  • Episode 120: They Just Focus On Their Customer

    In the seventh discussion in the DevOps fundamentals series, Sunny, Jesse, and Dominik have a parking lot conversation about outcomes and metrics. Our experts discuss a quick timeline of DevOps history, and then share that the successes of the companies who used DevOps. They look at some things to measure and affect change, some of…

  • Episode 119: How To Start A Learning Culture

    The DevOps Fundamentals series continues with iteration six and a discussion on a having “learning culture.” Until this point, we discussed optimizing the performance of a system from end to end, and then giving time to learn by amplifying feedback loops. Now comes the culture of continual experimentation and learning to take advantage of the…

  • Episode 118: Making Sure You Have Good Code Quality

    This discussion could not be contained to 15 min or less, so here’s the parking lot on feedback loops, from the last iteration with Sunny, Jesse, and Dominik joined by Brent. They introduce the topic of feedback loops with a discussion about musical instruments and buying unbroken eggs from the store. Our experts discuss several…

  • Episode 117: The Best Engineers Will Leave

    In this fourth iteration of a series of DevOps fundamentals, Sunny, Jesse, and Dominik discuss the technical aspects of how we get things going inside teams. They discuss improving the Developer experience by “shifting left”, value stream mapping, and the three ways of DevOps.  They also discuss the “claim your 20% campaign,” which allows engineers…

  • Episode 116: They Thought They Could Do A Better Way

    In this third iteration of a series of DevOps fundamentals, Sunny, Jesse, and Dominik discuss culture and change. They define culture, and discuss ways to the shift culture in DevOps. They share some microsteps to affect behavior change as well as some actions that are never effective at promoting change. For more information, check out…

  • Episode 115: This Is Also Something We Had To Learn

    In this second iteration of a series of DevOps fundamentals, Sunny, Jesse, and Dominik discuss the theory and the important contributors to the origins of DevOps. They discuss the difference between being complicated versus being complex, the importance of customers (and competitors), and the DevOps mindset.

  • Episode 114: See The Impact Of When You Fail

    In this first iteration of a series of DevOps fundamentals, Sunny is joined by Jesse and Dominik, who share how they got into DevOps and how failure was part of that journey. There are many reasons why failure can exist, and our experts share some things that are important to make failure a growth opportunity.

  • Episode 113: Discover A Dependency And Now You’re Stuck (or ‘There Will Be Pizza’)

    Brent, Sunny, and Justin continue the conversation from the last iteration. They discuss a variety of topics, such as backlog refinement and the characteristics of good Product Owners. They also discuss what happens to teams that don’t do a backlog refinement, and why Scrum Masters could bring snacks to sprint planning.

  • Episode 112: A Better Understanding Of What Size A Story Is.

    In this fifth iteration of a series of scrum fundamentals, we discuss backlog refinement. Brent, Justin, and Sunny give their definition of backlog refinement and discuss if it should be considered an event. They share an interesting example of a team that had a unique way of handling refinement, and they discuss the Product Owner role.

  • Episode 111: How We Get Better, Not How You Get Better.

    In this fourth iteration of a series of scrum fundamentals, we discuss retrospectives. Brent, Danielle, Sunny, and Justin share their thoughts on retrospectives. They talk about some important questions and data to consider during this team introspection, before creating the insights from this meeting. They also discuss which roles should be included in a retro, who should…

  • Episode 110: What You Did Is Really Important

    In this third iteration of a series of scrum fundamentals, we discuss sprint reviews. Brent, Danielle, and Sunny define the importance of a sprint review meeting and well as share their opinions on showcasing the work done in the sprint. They also discuss the roles during the sprint review, especially that of the product owner…

  • Episode 109: I Can See That Perspective Now

    As a continuation of iteration 87 from last season (Adhering to the principles and values), we have our first parking lot, discussing viewpoints on timeboxed or pointed spikes. Brent, Justin, and Sunny discuss questions such as, “What spikes are used for? Should spikes be time-boxed or story-pointed? Does the time come out of capacity? Is…

  • Episode 108: Conversation Solves So Many Problems Down The Road.

    In this second iteration of a series of scrum fundamentals, we discuss sprint planning.  Brent, Sunny, and Justin share their opinions on good practices, potential pitfalls, and that ‘one thing’ that everyone should do in sprint planning.   Although they have slightly nuanced views on the amount of information that teams may need to get started,…

  • Episode 107: Share Important Information At The Right Time

    The daily scrum, the daily meeting, the daily stand up…it goes by many names, but the purpose is the same. It’s a short team-centered meeting to share important information at the right time to the right team members in service of the sprint goal. In this first iteration of a series of Scrum fundamentals, Brent…

  • Episode 106: I’m already a friend of the podcast

    When you start working with a new team and you need to evaluate them, it may be difficult to determine on the surface if they’re high- or low-performing. Both types of teams may shortcut steps, but for different reasons. Joining Brent are Friends of the Pod, Justin and Charis, as they share their experience working with…

  • Episode 105: Learning How To Balance Themselves On The Bike

    Season Four starts with a super-sized conversation between Brent, Michael, and Teresa about whether Agile is a methodology or a mindset.

  • Episode 104: Meant To Drive Punishment Or Reward

    In the Season Three finale, join Danielle, Patrick, and Scott in their conversation about metrics.

  • Episode 103: The way you interpret them is bad

    In the first of a two part remix, Danielle, Patrick, and Scott revisit the use of metrics on an agile team.

  • Episode 102: Not Enough To Be Helpful

    In the second part of this series, Brent, Justin, and Michael discuss more about how Agile isn’t what you call it.

  • Episode 101: Moving the needle in the right direction

    In the follow-up to the last iteration and previous iterations on team culture, Brent and Kathleen talk about how Diversity and Inclusion impact Agile teams.

  • Episode 100: OK Being in the Back Seat

    In a special episode (#100), Brent talks to Kathleen Marzahl, ISBN Senior Vice President of Enablement Operations with SAP about her journey.