Daniel Hooman Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Daniel Hooman: tools are not what drives Agile adoption!

In many organizations, especially late majority companies, the Agile adoption is often overwhelmed with a tool change. Instead of adoption Agile, we adopt JIRA or SAFe, or Scrum, or Kanban. All of those are forms of tools (entities we use to achieve something else).

When we work with organizations, we need to keep an eye out for this anti-pattern, as it detracts from the real adoption of Agile as a way of working, a mindset and a set of orienting values and principles.

In this episode we talk about how to overcome the tool-fetish anti-pattern that many organizations enter when they start their Agile adoption.

About Daniel Hooman

Agile coach from Scrum Data since 2010. Daniel comes from a strong Business intelligence background. He is passionate about large scale product development, organisational structure and culture, being idealistic pragmatist, framework agnostic.

You can link with Daniel Hooman on LinkedIn and connect with Daniel Hooman on Twitter.

Daniel Hooman: Learning as the metric for Scrum Master success

Agile is an approach to software development that is based on quick learning cycles: we do something, we check the results and then we learn from those results. This cycle (previously known as the PDSA/PDCA cycle) is about creating a learning loop that helps us develop the right product, with the right method, and continuously learning how to make that happen.

In this episode Daniel shares how he applies that same thinking to defining success for the work of a Scrum Master. In this episode we refer to Growth Hacking, and the concept of the One Metric that Matters, the metric that helps us find the learning opportunities.

Featured Retrospective format for the week: Daily Retrospective

Daniel suggest that we hold a quick retrospective every day instead of once per Sprint. Five minutes at the end of the day can help quickly solve some impediments, without having to wait for the end of the Sprint. He also suggests that we be very quantitative in our analysis. Listen in to learn a few examples that Daniel has applied in this work.

About Daniel Hooman

You can link with Daniel Hooman on LinkedIn and connect with Daniel Hooman on Twitter.

Daniel Hooman: how to move the focus away from change, to make change happen faster

We talk about change, and change becomes the goal. When we talk about other goals, then those other goals become the topic. In this episode we explore how we can make change happen faster by moving the focus away from change, and more into the business goals that justify the change.

In this episode we refer to Lean Change Management by Jason Little, the change model by the name ADKAR, and we talk about Growth Hacking, an agile marketing approach that focuses on growth instead of change management.

About Daniel Hooman

Agile coach from Scrum Data since 2010. Daniel comes from a strong Business intelligence background. He is passionate about large scale product development , organisational structure and culture, being idealistic pragmatist, framework agnostic.

You can link with Daniel Hooman on LinkedIn and connect with Daniel Hooman on Twitter.

Daniel Hooman: how to strike a balance between specialists and collaboration

When companies or teams start to grow, the initial roles we play need to change. Some prefer to focus on one specialty, and growth enables (through hiring of more people) some people to hide from some of the work and focus on only one skill. But is that what we need in an Agile team?

In this episode we discuss the delicate balance between being a specialist and being able to collaborate with the whole team. Specialization leads to hand-offs, which makes work slower, and communication harder. How can we strike the balance between specialization (which we need) and collaboration?

In this episode we also refer to the book The Living Company by Arie de Geus, and the 5 stages of grief, a model that helps understand change at a personal level.

Featured book of the week: The Hard Thing About Hard Things

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is a book by Ben Horowitz, who is a cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz a famous Venture Capitalist company. Horowitz is also on of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, and in this book he offers essential advice on building and running a startup as well as many other things they don’t teach you in business school.

About Daniel Hooman

Agile coach from Scrum Data since 2010. Daniel comes from a strong Business intelligence background. He is passionate about large scale product development , organisational structure and culture, being idealistic pragmatist, framework agnostic.

You can link with Daniel Hooman on LinkedIn and connect with Daniel Hooman on Twitter.

Daniel Hooman: From Project Management to Agile Product Development, Crossing the Chasm

Daniel started his Agile transition a long time ago, when those adopting were mostly early adopter companies, eager to change. Today, in 2018, we are faced with more and more late majority companies. Companies that may not even be ready to start their transition, but they ply on. In this episode we review some of the challenges you can expect when working with late majority company, and help them Cross the Chasm.

In this episode we refer to The Microsoft Solution Framework a development process that tries to incorporate Agile good practices in the application development lifecycle developed by Microsoft. The MSF is also available in book format here.

“Crossing the Chasm”, “early adopters” and “late majority” are terms that Moore used in this classic book about technology adoption: Crossing the Chasm, Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers

About Daniel Hooman

You can link with Daniel Hooman on LinkedIn and connect with Daniel Hooman on Twitter.