A frequent international speaker, Doc presents on culture, leadership, and software delivery.
Experimentation Mindset
Among the traits that distinguish a good team from a great team is their ability to innovate. Despite the rhetoric in favor of innovation, most organizations are stuck in an implementation mindset, stifling creativity, excellence, and the resultant innovation. The experimentation mindset frees us from self-imposed constraints, allowing us to continually learn and improve. In this session, we’ll talk about how we learn as individuals and how we learn as organizations. We’ll take a look at some examples of the experimentation mindset happening in the agile community today and we’ll talk about how you can foster such a mindset in your own organization.
Session Length
50/60 minutes
Audience
Developer/Business
Skill Level
Intermediate
Keywords
Innovation
Experimentation
Lean
Agile
AGILE METRICS - VELOCITY IS NOT THE GOAL
Velocity is one of the most common metrics used-and one of the most commonly misused-on agile projects. Velocity is simply a measurement of speed in a given direction-the rate at which a team is delivering toward a product release. As with a vehicle en route to a particular destination, increasing the speed may appear to ensure a timely arrival. However, that assumption is dangerous because it ignores the risks with higher speeds. And while it’s easy to increase a vehicle’s speed, where exactly is the accelerator on a software team? Michael “Doc" Norton walks us through the Hawthorne Effect and Goodhart’s Law to explain why setting goals for velocity can actually hurt a project's chances. Take a look at what can negatively impact velocity, ways to stabilize fluctuating velocity, and methods to improve velocity without the risks. Leave with a toolkit of additional metrics that, coupled with velocity, give a better view of the project's overall health.
Session Length
50/60 minutes
Audience
Developer/Business
Skill Level
Intermediate
Keywords
Metrics
Project Management
Lean
Agile
Let's Start an Epidemic
How does the common cold spread through a group of friends or co-workers. What about other contagions? Can a contagion be used for good? Doc explores how things like disease, politics, and even moods travel through (meat-space) social networks. What impact do we have on others? What impact do they have on us? And what does this mean for members of the software development community?
Session Length
50/60 minutes
Audience
All
Skill Level
Beginner
Keywords
Teamwork
Collaboration
Human Interaction
THE TECHNICAL DEBT TRAP
Technical Debt has become a catch-all phrase for any code that needs to be re-worked. Much like Refactoring has become a catch-all phrase for any activity that involves changing code. These fundamental misunderstandings and comfortable yet mis-applied metaphors have resulted in a plethora of poor decisions. What is technical debt? What is not technical debt? Why should we care? What is the cost of misunderstanding? What do we do about it? Doc discusses the origins of the metaphor, what it means today, and how we properly identify and manage technical debt.
Session Length
50/60 minutes
Audience
Developer/Business
Skill Level
Beginner
Keywords
Technical Debt
Emergent Design
Clean Code
Refactoring