We start by discussing why understanding technical aspects, and having a technical focus is a key asset for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. It all starts with the idea that teams should get software in front of their users as quickly as possible.
We discuss Trunk Based Development, and why understanding what that is will help Scrum Masters working with teams that have difficulty releasing on a regular cadence.
For some, it might seem hard enough to release once per month (12 times a year). However, this particular company is releasing every week of the year (52) and some extra releases when necessary, taking them up to 68 unique releases in a year.
They can do this (mostly) transparently to the end customers, but also release major features that their organization uses in promoting the product.
Listen in to learn how Charles Oppermann has helped his organization reach that level of frequent deliveries, even with multiple hard dependencies and a team that can go up to 60+ people involved in the development and release process.
About Charles Oppermann
Charles Oppermann is a 30-year veteran of the software industry. He prides himself on shipping high-quality software that helps humanity; from the JAWS screen reader and making the internet accessible to people with disabilities while at Microsoft, and for the past decade; protecting people from online threats at Malwarebytes.
You can link with Charles Oppermann on LinkedIn and connect with Charles Oppermann on Twitter.
For Christmas week 2020, we have a special treat for you. Yves Hanoulle and I interview great Agilists and Scrum Masters that you will probably not hear from in your local Agile conference.
These are people that are really pushing the state of the practice, and we want to bring their forward-looking, and hopeful ideas to you in our Christmas Special Week for 2020.
Meza started as a programmer, but not with Agile. During one of his projects, he had to work with a custom language in an embedded system, and that led him to discover Extreme Programming and Unit Testing, but that was not yet the start of his Agile journey. That came later and for totally different reasons.
As Meza took on more responsibilities, he understood that supporting teams in their work is a different problem than solving a technical challenge. He started reading more, and learning more about Agile to make sense of it, and finally had that “trigger” moment that helped him understand why Agile is so important.
As a team leader, he recognized that he needed to focus on enabling the team’s success, instead of telling the team what to work on. That led to Meza starting to learn even more, and applying Agile in his work.
As Meza worked with more teams, he understood that his approach needed to change. Early on, he focused on the process, and helping teams adopt the process. But later, and after many challenges, he understood that the focus on helping teams (and using the process as a tool), requires a significantly different perspective: the process and the tools need to be shaped to fit the people, not the other way around.
After all, Agile (and the Agile processes) are supposed to be there to enable better communication, collaboration, and a trustful environment.
Combining his knowledge, and experience has been a thread in his career, and Meza shares a book that helps with exactly that: take advantage of multiple processes he learn3ed during his career: Scrum and Kanban, making the best of both by Henri Kniberg is the first book he mentions. But there’s a second book.
As a programmer, Meza understood early on that the technical conditions set up for the team are critical for their success, so he mentions a book that helped him as a programmer: Release It! By Michael Nygard, a book that explores how to create systems that run longer, with fewer failures, and recover better when bad things happen.
In this final words on this episode, Meza shares what he considers the essence of Agile: to build trust, and how the trust-building processes are at the core of everything Agile.
Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches – Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experiences: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!
About Marton ‘Meza’ Meszaros
CTO and architect with over 19 years of experience in web development focusing on code maintainable software delivery.
Currently working with incubators and startups, guiding them through the early stages. Hiring, building team structures from the ground up, assembling project management procedures, and best practices, providing technological options and insight with a hint of pragmatism is all part of my daily activities.
You can link with Marton ‘Meza’ Meszaros on LinkedIn and connect with Marton ‘Meza’ Meszaros on Twitter.
What do you do when you go into a team that is burn-out by the changes, constant changes of scope, maybe even processes? Gil shares with us his approach to find out who is willing to take the next step, to support the evolution of the team as a whole.
For over 20 years, Gil has developed, tested, managed and designed software products. He’s gone through failures and successes, in different types of projects and companies.
He has trained and coached developers how to write tests for their untestable code. He has worked with testers on complex applications and with very tight deadlines. He’s helped release products that fit customer needs, by testing the waters, and getting their feedback integrated. He has implemented agile, kanban and lean principles and adapted them to fit teams better.
You can link up with Gil Zilberfeld on LinkedIn, or find Gil Zilberfeld on Twitter.
Gil is writing a book on Unit Testing. Check it out.
For Christmas week 2020, we have a special treat for you. Yves Hanoulle and I interview great Agilists and Scrum Masters that you will probably not hear from in your local Agile conference.