SPaMCAST 520 - Velocity and Escape Velocity, An Interview with Doc Norton

Software Process and Measurement Cast

SPaMCAST 520 features our interview with Doc Norton. We talked about his new book Escape Velocity, measurement, and why velocity isn’t generally a good measure for teams. By the time teams get to a point where story point velocity is consistent and predictable, they will have better tools that have fewer negative side effects. Doc’s Bio Doc Norton is passionate about working with teams to improve delivery and building great organizations. Once a dedicated code slinger, Doc has turned his energy toward helping teams, departments, and companies work better together in the pursuit of better software. Working with a wide range of companies such as Groupon, Nationwide Insurance, Belly, and JaTango, Doc has applied tenants of agile, lean, systems thinking, and servant leadership to develop highly effective cultures and drastically improve their ability to deliver valuable software and products. A Pluralsight Author, Clean Coders contributor, frequent blogger, international keynote speaker and coach, in his spare time, Doc has been working on his latest book, Escape Velocity: Better Metrics for Agile Teams. You can find his book on LeanPub at Twitter: Web: Can you help keep the podcast growing? Here are some ideas: Tell a friend about the cast. Tweet or post about the cast. Every mention helps. Review the podcast wherever you get the cast. Pitch a column to me. You are cool enough to be listening; you deserve to be heard. Sponsor an episode (text or call me to talk about the idea). Listen. Whether you do one or all six, being here is a big deal to me. Thank you! Re-Read Saturday News This week we continue on our journey through by John Carreyrou (published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2018 – Buy a copy and read along!) Today we tackle a single chapter. Chapter 6, titled Sunny, introduces Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to the story. Sunny, Holmes’ live-in boyfriend (the stress on the live-in part is to shine a light on just how close Holmes was to Sunny), adds another layer of toxicity to the Theranos story. The toxicity feels extraordinary but is not that uncommon when teams break down. Current Entry: Week 5 -- - https://bit.ly/2AZ5tRq Past Entries! Week 1 – – Week 2 -- - Week 3 -- - Week 4 -- - Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 521 will feature our essay on user stories and legacy code. A common question is how user stories can be developed for legacy code or for problems that crop up in production. The implication is that creating user stories is too hard when dealing with legacy code changes or too slow when dealing with production problems. User stories are a core tenet for most agile approaches. We will also have a visit from the Software Sensei, Kim Pries!