Interesting Post... 7/4/2010 through 7/11/2010

Today is the last day of our beach weekend. The kids were pretty much over the beach after the first day. Their Mom grew up on the beach and can sit there for hours on end enjoying the sun and surf. I don't think the kids got that gene. I told my 8 year old that if he tried to have fun today, I'd let him bury me in the sand. I was hoping he might forget... he didn't. I spent about 30 minutes trying to get sand out of places where sand should never be!

As you can see from the length of this post, I continue to be extremely pleased with the performance of the Dlvr.it service. It's better than Twitterfeed ever was... even when it was working it's best. I go through a lot of blog posts every week, it kind of makes me sad how many were never getting out to you guys. It always seemed like I was reading and sharing more than would come up in these summaries... and now we know why... so anyway... it's fixed... I'll stop dwelling on it... really... I will.

Enjoy this week's installment of Interesting Post...

Interesting Post... Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-11 http://dlvr.it/2WnrT

Interesting Post... So easy to talk about lunch http://dlvr.it/2WY3V

Interesting Post... Insubordinate... 50th anniverary free ebook http://dlvr.it/2VSyB

Interesting Post... What Does $35 Billion Look Like http://dlvr.it/2V59q

Interesting Post... Assessing Agile pilot projects http://dlvr.it/2V59t

Interesting Post... Changing Agile Roles - The Programmers http://dlvr.it/2Sq2m

Interesting Post... Elements of Project Controls http://dlvr.it/2SVTc

Interesting Post... Tell People a Story http://dlvr.it/2SVTd

Interesting Post... New “Agility Now!” Newsletter http://dlvr.it/2SNmc

Interesting Post... PMBOK 5 - Rejected http://dlvr.it/2SNjr

Interesting Post... The Art of Agile Development: Incremental Requirements http://dlvr.it/2SNfh

Interesting Post... Beware Bloated Processes http://dlvr.it/2SNcH

Interesting Post... Quote of the Day - Complexity http://dlvr.it/2RVqR

Interesting Post... Yes I am mocking you http://dlvr.it/2RVpz

Interesting Post... Agile and Re-Engineering http://dlvr.it/2RVpY

Interesting Post... Should We Build It Again? http://dlvr.it/2RVnl

Interesting Post... Dr. Seuss Inspired by Personal Kanban http://dlvr.it/2R9fW

Interesting Post... Defining Program Management and How Agile Helps http://dlvr.it/2R7w8

Interesting Post... SCRUM vs. Kanban it’s like Football vs. Soccer http://dlvr.it/2QvdH

Interesting Post... The path to software Craftsmanship http://dlvr.it/2QvdJ

Interesting Post... Agile & Culture: The Results http://dlvr.it/2Qt2b

From Leading Agile: Okay… Just What are we Transforming? http://dlvr.it/2QsdN

Interesting Post... Physical Percent of Planned Progress http://dlvr.it/2Q3SM

Interesting Post... Lean or Six Sigma? http://dlvr.it/2Pd5J

Interesting Post... Our Divisive Scrum Terminology Needs to be Deprecated http://dlvr.it/2NxNY

Interesting Post... Musings About Agile Program Management http://dlvr.it/2My3p

Interesting Post... The Fourth Career Mistake... http://dlvr.it/2MxsX

Interesting Post... Agile and Technical Complexity http://dlvr.it/2Mxch

Interesting Post... Defense Industry and Scrum http://dlvr.it/2Ms3t

Interesting Post... Bad Requirements? Actually, That’s Your Fault http://dlvr.it/2MnF3

Interesting Post... 1 FTE http://dlvr.it/2M582

Interesting Post... Software Calculus - The Missing Abstraction. http://dlvr.it/2LxFd

Interesting Post... Object-Oriented Design and Mock Objects: for non-programmers http://dlvr.it/2Lx3v

Interesting Post... Types of Scenario Tools http://dlvr.it/2Lx3t

Interesting Post... This Is Why The Kindle Is Winning http://dlvr.it/2LFG5

Interesting Post... Measuring Progress - What Can We Use? http://dlvr.it/2LF61

Interesting Post... Design-Build-Run http://dlvr.it/2LF0N

Interesting Post... The Limited Red Society – Joshua Kerievsky http://dlvr.it/2Ks5L

Interesting Post... 3 Aspects of Team Boundaries http://dlvr.it/2Ks2G

Interesting Post... How to do agile when we only have 50 crap developers? http://dlvr.it/2KGWP

Interesting Post... VIDEO: "I've already got the prize. The prize is http://dlvr.it/2Jk7j

Interesting Post... Four Type of a Program Management Office (PMO) http://dlvr.it/2JQyF

Interesting Post... Silos Aren’t Evil: They’re Just Icky. http://dlvr.it/2JJ3C

Interesting Post... The A - Z of Agile - W is for: http://dlvr.it/2J2RT

Interesting Post... Happy Independence Day! http://dlvr.it/2HzzC

From Leading Agile: Southern Fried Agile Conference... It's Gravy for your Brain! http://dlvr.it/2Hx3Q

Interesting Post... A Day of Independence http://dlvr.it/2HppL

Oh by the way... did I tell you about this great new service I found called Dlvr.it? You should try it out ;-)

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Okay... Just What are we Transforming?

I'm constantly reminded that context is king... that words have meaning... and that the meaning of our words is almost entirely dependent on our context.

Last night I had coffee with an agile coach here in the Atlanta area. We got to talking about the idea of 'agile transformation'. It became pretty clear, pretty quickly we were using the phrase in two very different ways.

His perspective was that 'agile transformation' involved taking a project team, teaching them agile values and agile practices, and helping them deliver better products to market faster, and with higher quality.

Worthy goals... no doubt.

My perspective on agile transformation looks a little different. To me, agile transformation involves influencing the structures and culture around the team. Only by influencing the systems around the team, can we achieve true end-to-end business agility.

Meaningful, long-lasting agile transformation starts by establishing a clear vision for the organization, and how we want it to operate when we get there. It involves creating a change management strategy that will get us from here to there as safely as possible.

Without transforming the organization around the team, the transformation within the team won't be sustainable. The forces that act on the team are often too great for the changes to stick. It's too easy to go back to the old way of doing things.

It helps to understand just what we are trying to accomplish with our agile transformation. If we just want to get a project team really humming... team transformation might be enough to meet our goals.

If we want ongoing, sustainable business benefit from our investment in agile, we are going to need to think beyond the team. We are going to need to think about the rest of the business and how we collectively deliver value.

No right or wrong here... you just gotta be realistic about what you are trying to accomplish.

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Southern Fried Agile Conference... It's Gravy for your Brain!

I wanted to let everyone know about a new regional conference coming up on July 23rd. The conference is called Southern Fried Agile. Pillar is sponsoring and helping organize the event in partnership with the Agile Carolinas group. The conference is featuring many of the premier Agile Coaches in the Southeast. We'll have three tracks... one for those learning agile... one for more advanced practitioners... and an open space so you guys can get in on the action.

Speakers and Talks:

Mike Cottmeyer - Getting Started with Agile
Bill Gainennie - All That You Need to Know is that It's Possible
Joe Little - What's Lean Got to do with it?
Dennis Stevens - Using Agile and Lean to Lean Business Transformation

Paul & Ian Culling - Collaborative Chartering and Story Mapping
Bill Krebs - 10 Years of Scrum Meetings
Jared Richardson - Agile Testing Strategies
Mike Cottmeyer - How to Own a Really Big Complex Product

Head over to the Southern Fried Agile site for more information about the conference, the sessions, and our speakers. We've also got a link for you guys to register... and at only $49 for a full day of agile goodness, you'd be crazy not to make this happen! If you are within three or four hours of Charlotte, NC... this is a must attend event.

Remember... It's Gravy for Your Brain

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Interesting Post... 6/25/2010 through 7/4/2010

Hey everyone. It is a great week for my Interesting Post... updates. I finally gave up on Twitterfeed and went to dlvr.it. This new service is faster and more accurate that Twitterfeed ever thought about being. I finally have confidence that all the stuff I share in my Google Reader feed is making it out to the Twittersphere. I'm guessing that you'll notice the list here is longer than usual... now you know why.

Anyway... for all you guys in the US, happy 4th of July! My family has started a series of traditions around this holiday that I think are really fun. The kids and I got up early yesterday and drove to South Carolina to buy some fireworks. The really good fireworks are illegal to sell in Georgia, so the good people of South Carlolina provide stores just on the other side of the border so we don't have to drive too far.

The past few years, our tradition had been to cook many, many pounds of baby back ribs. We changed it up this year and made a shredded BBQ concoction of beef, pork, chicken, sausage, and bacon... plus my secret blend of sauce and seasonings. Very tasty.. we made it yesterday, but I'm really looking forward to leftovers later this afternoon. We did the whole fireworks thing last night and have plans to spend the evening with some good friends and launch the fireworks we got yesterday in South Carolina!

Have a great day and enjoy this weeks installment of Interesting Post...

Interesting Post... A Day of Independence http://dlvr.it/2HppL

Interesting Post... Organizational Complexity http://dlvr.it/2HHGN

Interesting Post... Who’s Got Your Back? http://dlvr.it/2H0VX

Interesting Post... Microblogging in Project Management 2.0 http://dlvr.it/2GMmT

Interesting Post... My Three Biggest Career Mistakes http://dlvr.it/2Fm4X

Interesting Post... Agile Metrics http://dlvr.it/2Fhp6

Interesting Post... The Southern Fried Agile Conference is Coming! http://dlvr.it/2FLqT

Interesting Post... How to be a Bad Manager http://dlvr.it/2FCMh

Interesting Post... How to improve a team's velocity http://dlvr.it/2Dzp1

Interesting Post... The difference between running and managing a project http://dlvr.it/2DkFF

Interesting Post... Which Compliment Do You Want? http://dlvr.it/2DfK3

Interesting Post... Agile Friday: "The Planning Game" Now Online http://dlvr.it/2DfBL

Interesting Post... Big Bang vs Evolution – A software look http://dlvr.it/2DBSs

Interesting Post... Agile 2010 – The words we use http://dlvr.it/2DBBw

Interesting Post... The Phrase That Should be Banned from Product Managers’ Vocabulary http://dlvr.it/2CwdK

Interesting Post... How can you know you're headed to the Ditch? http://dlvr.it/2Crsb

Interesting Post... Guest Post: Not Putting Out Fires http://dlvr.it/2ChgR

Interesting Post... TDD and Agile – What Does the Research Say? http://dlvr.it/2ChMc

Happy Day!!!

Leading Agile... Agile Atlanta in July... Dennis Stevens and Kanban! http://goo.gl/fb/RkDce

Interesting Post... New Chapter – Use Cases http://bit.ly/92URe0

Interesting Post... 19 Feeds for ProdMgmt, Product Marketing and Marketing Operations types: http://bit.ly/aOM5XY

Interesting Post... It’s The Values That Matter. Or Maybe It’s The Culture. http://bit.ly/cz0UQp

Interesting Post... Shorten and Reduce Variability in Lead Times using Kanban http://bit.ly/9ZB5me

Interesting Post... Refactoring with Fire http://bit.ly/agWuGK

Interesting Post... The Notion of a "Master" http://bit.ly/bXL6BU

Interesting Post... Web services in Java http://bit.ly/cnbjU0

Interesting Post... Ten Rules of Common Sense Program Management http://bit.ly/asxYow

Interesting Post... Define: ScrumMaster http://bit.ly/aqSKQZ

Interesting Post... The Art of War - Chapter 2 - Entry 1 - Knowing the Cost*"To http://bit.ly/aSTOuO

From Leading Agile: Ro-Sham-Bo... Shoot! http://bit.ly/9Zp8fH

Interesting Post... Always have a plan B when negotiating http://bit.ly/bHuuYG

Interesting Post... "Heavy Use of Math Puts People Off" http://bit.ly/aeYo5I

Interesting Post... Book Review: Your Career Game http://bit.ly/9gYZve

Interesting Post... Video: Kanban for Video Game Development http://bit.ly/9Zo92C

Interesting Post... New Trends In The Project Ecosystem http://bit.ly/9Z0ws0

Interesting Post... The Declaration of Interdependence http://bit.ly/aTHjGH

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Agile Atlanta in July... Dennis Stevens and Kanban!

Next Tuesday, July 6th, Dennis Stevens will be teaching us how to get started with Kanban.

Speaker: Dennis Stevens
Date: July 6th, 6:45 PM
Location: Matrix Resources, 115 Perimeter Center Place, Suite 250 (South Terraces Building - facing Dillard's at Perimeter Mall)

Learn what Kanban is and how to implement it on your teams. Kanban Software Development focuses on the flow of work to lower delays to delivery and increase quality. It provides significant visibility into how a team works, enabling evolutionary improvement and an improved relationship with management. Kanban can be used in a wider range of environments than many Agile methods because of its ability to be tailored. It also compliments existing Agile methods as it scales beyond the development team and across more complex efforts. There will be plenty of time for Q&A to learn how Kanban may specifically fit into your environment.

Upcoming meetings:
August 3rd: Mike Cottmeyer, How to Manage a Really Big Complex Product

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